Space-x Kit

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Was it made by one of the standard companies for them? And I guess "pricey" is a relative term.....:)
 
I have one and it sits on my desk at work. I have never flown it, but building it was really easy its already like 50% done upon arrival.
 
Well, it's five bucks more than a Big Bertha. Fairly good evidence that it comes from Modelrockets.us .
 
Basically it's putting together an engine mount and epoxying it into the tube, gluing in a baffle plate with shock cord attached and launching it. Hardest part of the whole thing was feeding a twist tie through the clear flight fins.
It flies well, I've got a D10 single use sitting around that should be fun in it next time out. Only two flights on it so far, I ended up tethering the nose cone shock cord to the body tube shock cord so as not to lose it.
 
The D10 is an 18mm composite motor. Fits the same mount as the standard Estes A-C.

kj
 
I think they make them themselves. They have smart people there. They will fly prototypes at our launches in L.A. and San Diego.

Wait'll you get a load of the Falcon 9 Heavy kit......


Was it made by one of the standard companies for them? And I guess "pricey" is a relative term.....:)
 
I think they make them themselves. They have smart people there. They will fly prototypes at our launches in L.A. and San Diego.

Wait'll you get a load of the Falcon 9 Heavy kit......

Have you heard when the Heavy will come out? I thought I heard about it around a year ago.
 
I think they make them themselves. They have smart people there. They will fly prototypes at our launches in L.A. and San Diego.

Wait'll you get a load of the Falcon 9 Heavy kit......

I, like others, are anxious to see this. Did they bring out their corporate security to ensure no photos were taken?
 
Have one. It flies nicely. When you consider the wrap applied and the molded parts including the snap-in clear fins, it's only a little "pricey".

I've not flown it on a valuerockets.us D10, but that's a great idea.

I only use one parachute (which is of the same materials, including the unique shroud lines of modelrockets.us kits) to help it stay on the field. It also uses a modelrockets.us motor hook. I suspect there's some collaboration or shared suppliers involved.

A Falcon Heavy kit would be really cool.
 
I only use one parachute (which is of the same materials, including the unique shroud lines of modelrockets.us kits) to help it stay on the field.

Isn't it supposed to fly back to the pad and land itself vertically like the grasshopper?
 
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I can't seem to buy this kit on the shop spacex site linked above. There is no add to cart button, as there is with the other accessories. Is it for sale? Elsewhere? Would be fun to build/fly one.
 
Looks like they're sold out at the moment. And they aren't selling through Amazon anymore (which is where I got mine). So you may be out of luck until either they restock, or they bring out an updated kit for, say, the Falcon 9 1.1 .
 
If you are around the Cape Canaveral area, the Canaveral Air Force Missile and Space Museum gift shop had at least two or three at the first of March.
 
Hardest part of the whole thing was feeding a twist tie through the clear flight fins.
I've got one completed on my workbench and I'll second this. It was a quick, easy build, but that twist tie was... difficult :p

I haven't had a chance to fly it yet, so I can't speak to it's flight characteristics. It is "heavy" though (when compared to some of my other builds that take similarly sized engines, Estes Ramjet in particular) so I wonder how much altitude it'll get.
 
I have two thoughts.

1: I couldn't really see dimensions other than height on the box. Would it be upgraded to a 24mm motor mount? Addendum: Would that also be advisable?

2: Is anyone else thinking upscale of some sort? I don't really know how that would go considering the shape of the nose.
 
It flies like a Big Bertha, which makes sense. It's about 1/2" shorter than a Bertha, has thicker tubing, and less draggy fins. The time I took the Falcon 9/Dragon out I also took my Bertha. Flew both on B6-4s followed by C6-5s. Flights were almost identical each time.

I was thinking when I bought it (from Amazon) how awesome a Heavy would be. I'll make that comment in a product review, SpaceX seems to monitor and comment on Amazon feedback.

Trick for the twist tie: shave the ends to points, bend points into hooks, then use needle nose pliers to thread through fin slots.
 
Or do without it. The fins fit snugly enough that so far I've not needed to bother with the twist tie.

That said, kyle's idea sounds like a good one.
 
I want one of the kits and contacted Space X last night. Got an email today saying the kits would be restocked toward the end of next week.

Dave
 
Or do without it. The fins fit snugly enough that so far I've not needed to bother with the twist tie.

That's what I've done, but I did nearly lose a fin on one flight. Came off on landing but was still somehow hanging in. Noticed it as I started walking back with it.

I would take kyle's suggestion a bit further: Shave it down to just the wire itself and use a hemostat or tweezers to thread it through.
 
This looks pretty cool, and $29 is not too bad for a nice detailed model. I might consider it once they restock.
 
This looks pretty cool, and $29 is not too bad for a nice detailed model. I might consider it once they restock.

Note that the detailing is just printed on the wrap. If you want anything in 3D you'll have to carve it yourself. For instance, the solar array fairings on the service module. You'll have to fashion those yourself.
The engine fairings at the bottom are there (as part of the fin can), but of course, this identifies it as a 1.0 version (3 x 3 merlin array) Falcon 9.
 
Dont know about the us, but I added 1 baseball cap to cart & got a shipping quote, only option to canada....... $46 plus the $15 for the hat. yikes!!!
 
Dont know about the us, but I added 1 baseball cap to cart & got a shipping quote, only option to canada....... $46 plus the $15 for the hat. yikes!!!

I'm thinking I'd like the "Occupy Mars" coffee cup.
 
Anyone know anything about this?
https://shop.spacex.com/accessories-31/falcon-9-and-dragon-flying-model-rocket-kit.html
It's pricey but I had just posted the other day I'd like to try and build one.

There are some high and points to the kit.
It was pretty well engineered except for the large body tube wrap.

The wrap is now pre-installed (good move on the vendor side, I couldn't get it straight)
Some of the pre-installed wrap seams aren't aligned very well.
The rough body tube surface and seams show through the thin wrap.

I'd recommend connecting the body and capsule to a single parachute.
The capsule by itself can drift a long way.
 
I went to the SapceX website on the weekend after the Dragon V2 announcement, and this rocket was back in stock with an "Add to Cart" button. Went back today to actually buy it --- no "Add to Cart" button anymore! Dang! I guess I'll keep checking back.

One thing I notced by doing a closeup of the image of the box is that the box indicated the rocket flies on D and E engines. I think others in this thread have mentioned the ones they have bought flew on 18mm motors, so maybe the ones they are selling now have a new 24mm motor mount.
 
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