Shootout - Estes Big Bertha vs the Estes Citation Patriot

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Which one do you like the best?


  • Total voters
    46
Allow me to rephrase. Sure, it's highly visible, due to one or more colors designed to be visible. Anything designed to look cool, on the other hand, is lost.
 
What? When a regular F-16 is in the air the paint scheme is barely visible and therefore so is the aircraft. The paint scheme the Thunderbirds wear is highly visible and was designed to be so. Think of it this way--if you can see a small fighter aircraft moving at nearly the speed of sound without difficulty, it is sporting a highly visible paint scheme.

-Bob
The first factory rollout of a new vehicle often sports a snazzy patriotic paint job. Look at the first Tomahawk Cruise Missile with its red white and blue paint, compared to a more stealthy finish on deployed rounds. The former makes for a better scale model. I often ponder wonder how the first rollout Battlestar, could have been painted.

The Big Bertha is lighter, cheaper, and skillfully designed to be a large 24" rocket. The Citation Patriot has a large hard nose cone just begging to punch through a roof. Most Citation kits come boxed, sometimes even with motors, and make better gifts even though you can't see what's inside the box. Both can be finished and painted any way the builder desires.
 
The Citation Patriot has a large hard nose cone just begging to punch through a roof... [/QUOTE said:
What? The CP nose cone is no different from any other Estes plastic nose cone. If care is taken with the correct motor selection and recovery equipment assembly, the rocket does not punch holes in anything. ???
 
What? The CP nose cone is no different from any other Estes plastic nose cone. If care is taken with the correct motor selection and recovery equipment assembly, the rocket does not punch holes in anything. ???
Except the sky (and possibly my wallet).
 
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The first factory rollout of a new vehicle often sports a snazzy patriotic paint job. Look at the first Tomahawk Cruise Missile with its red white and blue paint, compared to a more stealthy finish on deployed rounds. The former makes for a better scale model. I often ponder wonder how the first rollout Battlestar, could have been painted.

The Big Bertha is lighter, cheaper, and skillfully designed to be a large 24" rocket. The Citation Patriot has a large hard nose cone just begging to punch through a roof. Most Citation kits come boxed, sometimes even with motors, and make better gifts even though you can't see what's inside the box. Both can be finished and painted any way the builder desires.

Sorry. the original CP had a rather stout nose cone. The "punch through a roof" is hyberbole, to illustrate a point. I'll also note that Estes blow molded nose cones have been shown to punch through a roof.
 
Sorry. the original CP had a rather stout nose cone. The "punch through a roof" is hyberbole, to illustrate a point. I'll also note that Estes blow molded nose cones have been shown to punch through a roof.


My point was, a rocket flown safely should never get to that "hyperbolic" point where it goes through anything other than air.
 
My point was, a rocket flown safely should never get to that "hyperbolic" point where it goes through anything other than air.
Besides, if you want to punch holes in things you really should use a conical nose; hyperbolic wouldn't be any better than parabolic or elliptical.
 
Where's the option for

N) I don't have an emotional connection to these rockets and am attempting to figure out the appeal

I can't speak for everyone but in the late 70's most of the model rockets were the smaller BT20 and BT50 size rockets. They were fun but went off more like bottle rockets. My older brother got a starter set with a Der Big Red Max and I got a Big Bertha. These larger BT60 rockets were game changers for us. We loved the larger BT60 size and the slow liftoffs. Nowadays, you can get any size rocket you want and in a lot of different styles but I still really enjoy the nostalgia factor of the classics like the Big Bertha.
 
I don't have an emotional connection to these rockets and am attempting to figure out the appeal
OK, I stand by my earlier statement that I'm not much much attracted to either except for an emotional connection. That said, there's a little bit of appeal, something I can feel enough to sympathize with, in the minimalism of BB. She is easy to build and fly, stands on a shelf on her fins, and shows off all the essentials in a simple clean package. She has proven to be a reliable workhorse, and that's a mark of a good solid design, an admirable thing in itself.

I'm not saying this to talk down the CP, which may well have all the same fine qualities, and certainly appears to have some of them at least.
 
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