Aeronautical aircraft inspired / semi-scale kit recommendations

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Murphdog

Murphdog

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Hey all,

I’m getting back into the hobby (starting my 4th build) and am particularly excited by aeronautical aircraft inspired kits.
There is just something about them! I just wish there were more readily available.

Think:
Orbital Transporter, SR-71, Shuttle, Snarky, Tomcat etc.

What are your favourites? Love to see some photos.
Any recommendations of lesser known kits or suppliers to explore?

Thanks!
My favourite Blackbird photo for inspiration.
 

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Well, there's a few companies that do scale.

  • Rocketarium does a lot of scale modeling on a lot of missile subjects that don't get a lot of coverage. Great place to get the Jayhawk. Too many kits to list.
  • Apogee has a Black Brant VC. I wanted the X-15, which they're showing out of stock.
  • Aerospace Specialty Products has a bunch of scale on sounding rockets and space vehicles.
  • Morerockets has an F-14 Tomcat repro of the Estes version, if I recall correctly
  • Fliskits has a few scale kits (mini Hojo, Journeyman, L-13, mini Saturn V, RIM Tartar, Thunderbird)
  • Semroc has a couple sounding rockets (not sure if they're all in stock, but they have an Aerobee 150 last I checked, as well as an Aerobee 300)
  • Boyce has a ton of scale stuff (like the newly released Pershing II kit), and they also sell Aggressor Aerospace kits (for Iranian/Israeli/Indian rockets and the like)
  • Dr. Zooch has some kits still (Falcon 9 Heavy and Saturn V)
  • North Coast Rocketry has the Javelin, F-117 Nighthawk, and eventually an SLS (he posts it on his facebook sometimes)
  • Radical Rocketry has a ton of REALLY cool kits (like an F-104)
  • Max Q has the Vulcan Centaur, Falcon 9, and just released the SLS (with an optional nose cone replacement kit so you can get various blocks of the SLS), but those are all 3D
  • Cosmodrome Rocketry's stuff is all scale, but I'm not sure if he's actively selling right now or just fulfilling orders for Apogee? I really want that Black Brant
  • PML (from LOC Precision) has a few scale kits (I really want that Black Brant VB but it's out of stock everywhere); I think LOC has a semi-scale Black Brant X
  • Dragon Rocketry has a sandhawk, nike smoke, etc.
  • Madcow has a few scale kits
  • Wildman has a few as well but there's no decals or anything iirc. That's more HPR/Fiberglass stuff, though.
  • EDIT: oh, right, you can still get the Black Brant III and Nike Smoke from a few online vendors that sell Estes kits. They also have the Black Brant XII as a Pro Series II kit, as well as the Saturn V Skylab and Saturn I 1/100 scale. They also have some 1/200 RTF kits and are apparently doing a shuttle soon.
  • There's a German company (EDIT: found it) that has a lot of interesting scale kits, but I don't think you can buy their kits at all in the US or Canada. I recall hearing they were very much semi-scale. I think Apogee sold a couple of those kits (Vostok was one, I think?) and had to retranslate the instructions into English.

Nobody has the SR-71 or Shuttle Stack, as far as I can tell. I was lucky; someone mailed me an SR-71 he didn't want anymore recently, so I'm gonna get to build one! :D

There was a company called DFR technologies that existed while I was out of the hobby that had a bunch of scale subjects; I wish I could track down those kits and some of the Dr. Zooch kits I'm missing. Still on the hunt for a Launch Pad Hellfire, but The Launch Pad's website isn't even around anymore.
 
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@DocSeuss thanks for taking the time with such a comprehensive list. I appreciate it.

It would be great to have a SR-71 popup in the mail! 😅
I'm quite surprised no one is making a SR-71 or a shuttle. I know we have been there and done that but it seems like there would still be a lot of interest.

I'm much less excited about the RTF kits.
 
Murphdog said:
@DocSeuss thanks for taking the time with such a comprehensive list. I appreciate it.

It would be great to have a SR-71 popup in the mail! 😅
I'm quite surprised no one is making a SR-71 or a shuttle. I know we have been there and done that but it seems like there would still be a lot of interest.

I'm much less excited about the RTF kits.
Click to expand...
Estes will not be producing the SR-71 kit again as Lockheed Martin now requires a licensing fee to make models of any of their products. Estes refuses to pay.
 
There are Estes SR-71's available on E-bay. I just bought and built one from there. I had a question about the fins I asked on this forum and the good folks on here came to my assist. The thread turned into a build thread and also with some good contributing info with lots of pics on the SR 71.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/sr-71-balsa-fin-questions.184811/

I bought the #7003 kit. The #7003 version comes in a nice printed Estes box, not a plastic hang bag. Here's one for sale:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364759630726?itmmeta=01HR0352ZPT06NNEZVRCASQRHE&hash=item54ed5e4386:g:NDYAAOSwMTxl37Nb&itmprp=enc:AQAIAAAA8EwVzr6IeinpxKP4RzEzW91yxbQ7RroE451O7WovqnqZ6loWovc3dQmJtPDrKrihnMGMc2R1c47+rtnGr0coz4VLoHJ0s0vO48+pSvabgAEsAnrVM2YgDQYrl+G6UcfPJcQY4i0UJzQOsFZWusS452H/zlH8k4bwGcbOtudRStRIen2gyweoSVtvXP9RDRU7cpRH2XBFL3k2qdVdAKPSlevqfAybz4SPF7rVFRCZHQMymdPeoJ6wSGXLO/EMTdQeZESmz4Iqx1kHgJsk7DVsaP8oIZUZI67JWlI/p3SmLyghxKZVCwYA7QAKr9+9Dh8FYw==|tkp:Bk9SR_avlIPAYw
 
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Daddyisabar said:
He was advertising Ice Storm on Facebook. Along with a new version of the flying umbrella.
Bringing back Sunward kits. It might be BNB rockets. There are so many out there now I may have switched them up.

Confirmed it was BNB not Ollie-OOP.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I have the Ice Storm from BNB. Is that the same nose cone as the SU-47 and stuff? I managed to snag an SU-47 kit but I would like to build all the other Sunward kits eventually.
 
DocSeuss said:
Oh yeah, I have the Ice Storm from BNB. Is that the same nose cone as the SU-47 and stuff? I managed to snag an SU-47 kit but I would like to build all the other Sunward kits eventually.
Click to expand...
He made new nose cones as the original Sunward cones are OOP. Sunward used the same nose cones on all their airplane rockets and more. They are basically the same just with different shrouds and wings...I mean fins. Nose cones are easy scratch built with a standard cone, an Xacto knife to roughly cross hatch score it, and some JB Weld plastic epoxy plastic clay shaped and wet smoothed to perfection. Nice and heavy up front. What do silly airplane rockets love? Lots of thrust and no good, stinking, performance robbing nose weight! Airplane oddrocs RULE! So many possibilities!
IMG_20151018_102110209_HDR.jpg
IMG_20141220_134049259.jpg
IMG_20180327_220608282.jpg
20231119_153434.jpg
IMG_20180327_214505888.jpg
 
X-30 Aerospace plane from Quest. Semi-scale version of the X-30 National Aerospace Plane. A realistic representation of the NASA and Air Force project to design a hypersonic plane that could be flown into and out of orbit and landed at major airports. Had to be real precise with my glue fillets because there is no painting involved to cover up. Lots of paper shrouds and wraps. I love the ventralIMG_5088.jpgIMG_5089.jpgIMG_5090.jpgIMG_5094.jpgIMG_5095.jpg air intakes.IMG_5088.jpgIMG_5089.jpgIMG_5090.jpgIMG_5094.jpgIMG_5095.jpg
 

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