Building an Estes 'hi flyer'...Decal dissapointment

After having flown my Hi Flyer xl into oblivion on an F11 I decided to get its little brother.

It is a simple kit so I wont bore with the construction details but basically it is an engine with fins (BT20 3 fins).

But I went to look at the 'decals' and it turns out there are just the two press on vinyl decals for the sides of the tube! The bigger version had water slide decals for the body tube along with some nice diamond details on the fins!

Oh well I guess I could try to mask and paint the diamonds but the decals were really nice on the big kit.

I hardly fly rockets with decals unless its a scaled kit. Yeah just paint them. For a kit that size you can't expect much I guess?

Yea it is "Level 1" and pretty in expensive.

I go through a few Hi-Flyers a year. I usually buy 2-3 at a time. They're a cheap, easy build and I never bother with the decals. Sometimes I don't even paint them, but usually I end up using them for airbrush practice and go a little wild with wacky paint ideas.

I love this little rocket ... fly it on whatever 18mm motor you have lying around (or even 13mm mini-T motors with an adapter) ... go for the C6-7 when you don't care if you see it again (usually when you've put so many flights on it that the fins are more glue than wood from repairs and the end of the body tube is starting to look like a crinkle-cut french fry).

I will always have a Hi-Flyer in my arsenal. You can fly it in almost any weather conditions ... so fast it almost always goes pretty straight up. Just make sure you add the nose weight if you'll fly it on a C motor ... they are pretty marginally stable without it. Small fields are (generally) not a problem with that little tiny streamer. Just make sure you bring some CA with you ... fin repairs are frequent unless you're always landing in grass.

Thanks yea flew it last weekend on a B6-4 and was pretty impressed with it's performance. Looked to be around 600 feet but don't know for sure. Recovered about 50 yards from the launch site. Actually did not see it till it was about 100 feet above the ground prior to touchdown.

Yeah, this little guy lives up to its name. You've got to keep your eye on it!

I think I might switch my rocketry classes over to this guy, seems a fair bit more forgiving than the Alpha when I'm short on assistants.

Just make sure to get some A's uhh not the grades the engines

Tom said:

Just make sure to get some A's uhh not the grades the engines

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Agreed, you can get very satisfying flights on this little devil on A8's. I rarely fly it on anything bigger than a B6 unless I'm at a big field or am ready to "let it go" (as mentioned above...).

Here's one I recently did ... decided to use the sticker on this one.

Painted using Estes paints and the Estes airbrush. After placing the label, I shot it with a coat of clear.

Nice job on the paint!

Very nice! Mine has a lot of flights on it now and the press-on decal has held just fine. I pretty much only fly it on C6-7s anymore, daring myself to lose it, but it just keeps coming back for more.

I also had the XL before its' little brother.
And was also disappointed that the smaller version's decals were so sparse.
I used silver monokote tape to reproduce the fin triangles.

Laters.

That looks quite nice, if you happen to have some metallic monokote around

Lost mine today. We had launched several rockets on B6-4's all landing quite close as there was little to no wind.

Got brave and stuck a C6-5 in the Hi Flyer. It flew great weather cocked a little but not too bad. Saw the tracking smoke and heard the ejection charge, but never saw the rocket. Spent some time searching for it. I think it landed in some very tall grass, like waist high grass. Oh well

beantownJPL said:

Painted using Estes paints and the Estes airbrush. After placing the label, I shot it with a coat of clear.

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Looks great.
Now googling for estes airbrushes in spite of having lots of airbrushes already.
Didn't know they sold any...

djmartins said:

Looks great.
Now googling for estes airbrushes in spite of having lots of airbrushes already.
Didn't know they sold any...

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My bad ... I meant TESTORS!!! Here's a link to the one I have. https://www.michaels.com/default/10368311.html

I guess I had Estes on the brain