novahobbies
Well-Known Member
I've had a bug in me to do some clones of old 90's LP rockets I miss launching from when I was a teen, so rather than chase ebay prices (when you can even find 'em), I'm just going to clone them. First up is actually a little older than your standard 90's kit, and has a little bit of a backstory.....
When I was in 5th grade thru the end of 6th, my dad was.....away. Let's not discuss details, but he was away. Coincidentally, that was also the time I got into modeling, and was just starting to get into rocketry.
Fast forward into the summer before 7th grade, and Dad was back. He was eager to reconnect with us as kids, and he was an old modeler as well from when he was a kid, so building a model rocket was a perfect fit.
It was the late 80's, the Hercules was easily available, and as a 2- stage rocket it was the most advanced this little 12 year old had tried. Pre-teen ME was happy to have his dad back, and happy to be building a model with him.
Funny thing is, almost 35 years later, I have clear memories of us building the Hercules.....but I have absolutely no memories of *flying* it. I have no recollection of it being launched. Recently I got a bug to build another. The model is long OOP, but the Super Nova uses the same body tube, nose cone, and payload bay, so it wasn't a huge stretch to download the instructions and fin pattern for the Hercules and clone it.
It's not perfect, but it'll fly. Definitely needs nose weight with those big fins. And flying this feels like a small part of me rebuilding a memory that I lost. Complicated tho my relationship with dad was, I had great memories of other launches later in life.....so I know some part of him will be hanging around to watch this one fly, too.
When I was in 5th grade thru the end of 6th, my dad was.....away. Let's not discuss details, but he was away. Coincidentally, that was also the time I got into modeling, and was just starting to get into rocketry.
Fast forward into the summer before 7th grade, and Dad was back. He was eager to reconnect with us as kids, and he was an old modeler as well from when he was a kid, so building a model rocket was a perfect fit.
It was the late 80's, the Hercules was easily available, and as a 2- stage rocket it was the most advanced this little 12 year old had tried. Pre-teen ME was happy to have his dad back, and happy to be building a model with him.
Funny thing is, almost 35 years later, I have clear memories of us building the Hercules.....but I have absolutely no memories of *flying* it. I have no recollection of it being launched. Recently I got a bug to build another. The model is long OOP, but the Super Nova uses the same body tube, nose cone, and payload bay, so it wasn't a huge stretch to download the instructions and fin pattern for the Hercules and clone it.
It's not perfect, but it'll fly. Definitely needs nose weight with those big fins. And flying this feels like a small part of me rebuilding a memory that I lost. Complicated tho my relationship with dad was, I had great memories of other launches later in life.....so I know some part of him will be hanging around to watch this one fly, too.