Micro Kits I created for a friend

[gpoehlein]

I just wanted to share this, because I'm really pleased with how these turned out. I'm trying to get an old friend back into rocketry (he flew a long time ago) and he does get a kick out of the Micromaxx stuff. He's flown a couple of the LPBs (little plastic bricks) a couple of times, but hasn't built anything else to fly. Last year I gave him a couple of small kits for conversion (a Quark and a 220 Swift), but he still hasn't found the time to build them. So this year, I decided to do a lot of the work for him, and created a mmx Alpha downscale and Goblin downscale. I pre-painted the nose cones, printed a paper wrap for the body tube and fins and glued those together. I also made all the components for the motor mount and made mylar streamers for them as well. Then, to make it all neat and cool for Christmas, I put them together with mock-up Estes style front cards and headers. They turned out so well, I wanted to share the picks with the crew here before wrapping them in Christmas paper. (And no, I have NO plans to kit these things. I just did the one-offs for my buddy. That's why the Estes logo is there - strictly for his benefit! )

 

[Indiana]

That's really neat. Nice work!

 

[tbzep]

That's about the neatest thing I've seen on any of the rocket forums in a long time.

 

[gpoehlein]

Just an update - My girlfriend and I got to exchange gifts my friend and his wife last night. These two "kits" were the last two presents he opened. He was absolutely flummoxed! He flew rockets even earlier than I did (I originally flew my junior and senior years of high school - and that was back in 1973-4). The style I used on the front cards and headers brought him back to those early days. He felt that I had captured those old kits perfectly. He also thought these things were so cool that he didn't want to open the package to build the rocket. I had to insist that he MUST build the rockets, as that was the reason I made the kits for him!!!

Bottom line - very successful Christmas gift!

 

[Nuke Rocketeer]

:lol::lol::lol:
You're as bad as a drug dealer!!!

Joe W

 

[Micromeister]

Great story and work Greg!
Now get him the the Micro Max rockets group. LOL!

 

[Gregor]

Will you be MY friend?

 

[Peartree]

Micromeister,

It's all your fault.


A couple weeks ago I bought a pack of MMX motors at the LHS.

This morning I ordered two Micro kits from Fliskits (an Honest John and a Micro Deuce) along with enough parts to build several more from the plans on the MicroMax group pages.

It's not like I don't already have enough to do, but then again MMX motors allow more inexpensive flights...

 

[BobH48]

Greg,

Great little micro kits. Your buddy is lucky to have you for a friend. I especially like the header cards and hang tangs.

 

[gpoehlein]

Greg,

Great little micro kits. Your buddy is lucky to have you for a friend. I especially like the header cards and hang tangs.

Thanks - he's been a close friend for 30 years now, and was and still is my business partner in our role-playing and wargame publishing company.

I agree that the front cards and headers made the kits (for him and for me). The fun thing is that, using Adobe Illustrator, doing the orange-to-white gradiant from the early Estes kits was a snap. All I had to do was make the cards look similar. And I was able to download the images of both the Goblin and the Alpha from either Jimz or YORS (don't remember which). I changed them from color to black and white, made the background transparent and imported them as GIFs to lay over the gradiant. Worked like a charm. When I get the chance, I'll convert them to JPG files and post them here (minus the Estes logo - don't want to tork off the sleeping giant! )