Estes - Wizard (#1292) Gallery

Wizi Cruise 1 is my 6th Wizard.

This one has epoxy fillets. Paint is Rustoeum 2x gloss white and 2x satin gray. I'm planning to shoot a clear coat on her before she flies.

The multiple Wizard builds has served as an apprenticeship in rocket building. I now have filling body tube spirals pretty much down pat. Fin finish has improved dramatically and my painting skills continue to improve. I figure by my 24th or so Wizard, I should have this model rocket building thing down to the 6' viewing distance from the original 25'.

Bones

Bone Daddy said:

Hey Leo

Your repair looks great and you can't tell it was ever broken off.

I've started flying my Wizards with 12" chute with big spill holes. I had a fin snap off even with a 30" (75cm) streamer as recommended in the instructions.

I have a new Wizard I'm going to post later today.

Bones

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Well, the fin didn't snap off at landing but rather at apogee. The nose cone did it. That is why I had a ding in it which had to be repaired to.

However, I will switch to parachute nonetheless. With the streamer the Wizard comes down a tad to fast for my liking.

Nice Cruise.

Not a biggie, but it did fill a hole on my shelf. I much prefer the classic purple and white scheme over the current paint scheme.



The real challenge here was finding dark purple spray paint. I ended up using a Testors color called "Plum Crazy".

Post copied to gallery with permission

A gaggle of Wizards.

The new one I'm finishing up flies on T motors.

Bones

Cool

Thanks Leo.

This one is my Wizi Mini T.
Built to fly on A mini motors.

This Top Flight streamer seems to be just about perfect for the Wizard.

(The fluorescent orange photographs oddly. It is sprayed over white, not the green.)

Bones

Flew the Wizi Mini T on an A10-3T. This is a great motor for this rocket. It zips off the pad, nice altitude, you can watch the streamer deploy and track it easily to the ground so you can fly it again. I definitely recommend this mod.

I made the centering rings from an old 18mm motor. Used sand paper to increase the ID for the BT-5. It would be easy enough to build an adapter to fly both 13 and 18mm motors.

And, what's not to like about 4 T motors for less than the price of 3 full A's?

Bones

Got the stars in place (Thx again Mark@Stickershock), and now she looks complete.

Here's the second Wizard I've built. The first was in the current blue-with-ugly-stickers scheme. I went with the old-school livery for this one, with decals from Excelsior. The paints are Rustoleum with a Future overcoat.

I really like the way this build and paint job turned out. For now, though, I've only flown my crappy blue Wizard.

I was making a replacement fin for my daughter's Wizard tonight and noticed that the fin pattern on the JimZ plans is somewhat larger than the actual fins on the model. Measuring things, I found that the actual die-cut fins have a 1.25" root edge, while the JimZ template has a notation that the root is 1 3/8" (1.375).

I also did some photo analysis on the bevy of Wizards here and the measurements suggest that the 1.25" root edge dimension prevails.

Anybody know if the Wizard fin size has changed over the years?

For Wizard builders that might want the "new" decor I made a scan of the stick-on decals from a fairly recent Wizard kit. They were pulled off the model and stuck to a piece of glossy photo paper for scanning. I don't know if I've done full justice to the horrid pink color but it's pretty close. At least now you can make waterslide decals...the stick-ons were practically falling off the model after 3 years or so.

A high-res tiff file is on my site at https://www.caveduck.com/rocketplans. Neither JimZ nor Rocketshoppe has this decal sheet yet.

When I got back into the hobby in 2001, I was shocked and saddened to find wat they'd done to the Estes Wizard in my absence. With the help of benevolent fellow flier Stan Huyge, who provided me with the decal, I turned the new Wizard into an old Wizard.



When I started working on my NARTREK bronze level the next year, I did a special Wizard for the occasion.

My Wizards

A MMax Wizard cardmodel and its papa, the real wizard.

The nose for the MMax is one that I cast.

Post copied with permission

I was making an order on Amazon and was either going to pay $8 in shipping or add $7 more in merchandise to get free shipping, which was a great excuse to buy an inexpensive rocket kit. I also see this kit looking good in other colors (I like the black one above) and as a simple way to get my feet wet in upscaling.

I came up with this idea last year when my 3-year-old told me he wanted me to build an "orange rocket" for him.

I made a custom wrap-around mask in photoshop, sized to a BT-20. and then painted the rocket in 3 phases; gold, metallic orange, and metallic red lacquers.

At some point, I'm going to do an "Ice Wizard" in silver, blue, and purple.

Hey bones, did you ever do the wizard booster stage? i wanna see how it turned out. thanks,
-Jake

Hey Jake

I did.

I'll post pix when I find them - backed up on new hard drive.

Here is my BT-50 upscale.

Yellow on fins is trim Monokote.
I love this stuff.

BT-60 upscale on the bench as I type.

Bones

caveduck said:

I was making a replacement fin for my daughter's Wizard tonight and noticed that the fin pattern on the JimZ plans is somewhat larger than the actual fins on the model. Measuring things, I found that the actual die-cut fins have a 1.25" root edge, while the JimZ template has a notation that the root is 1 3/8" (1.375).

I also did some photo analysis on the bevy of Wizards here and the measurements suggest that the 1.25" root edge dimension prevails.

Anybody know if the Wizard fin size has changed over the years?

Click to expand...

I had the exact same problem with an Estes Rogue. Got a clone kit from Semroc and noticed that the fins were significantly larger. When I asked them about it they said the measurements were taken from JimZ's plans (IIRC).

Posting about it here all I basically got was: "your originals must have shrank" and a: "quit bitchin', its not a big deal" So I would be curious to see how this gets explained.

I will have to pull out my Wizards and get some measurements. I think I have both versions...

A Wizard inspired by the art of Piet Mondrian.

Built with mini T motor mount, Kevlar shock cord and papered fins.

Bones

A Wizard I built as a tribute to Darrell Mobley who past away last year.

Bones

Bone Daddy said:

A Wizard inspired by the art of Piet Mondrian.

Built with mini T motor mount, Kevlar shock cord and papered fins.

Bones

View attachment 88256View attachment 88257

Click to expand...

That's a real nice Wizard. It has something stellar to it.

Thanks Leo.

This was my first Wizard with through wall fins.

Mini T motor mount made it possible.

Done pretty much for the fun of it.

Bones

Welcome to the Estes Wizard (#1292) Gallery on TRF.

This gallery showcases the Estes Wizard (#1292) and those rockets derived from it. Particularly appropriate in this thread are the following:


Estes: Wizard: #1292



as well as any upscales, downscales, clones, kitbashes or other derivative works. Even Goonies qualify!

Estes Wizard (#1292) Basic Information.

Estes Industries

MODEL NAME: Wizard Also known as:

NUMBER: #1292

Introduced: 1978
Final Year:
Designer:

Type: Sport
Motor Mount: 1x18mm
Recovery: Streamer
Stages: 1
Length: 12"
Diameter: 0.736"
Span:
Weight: 0.79 oz

Mfg. Description: No tricks here - just the most magical, high flying rocket in the Kingdom! The Estes Wizard is an easy to build, high performance rocket that's known for casting spells on all who own it. One minute he's on the pad, then the next...poof...he's in the air! Standing 12 inches tall, this trickster can reach magical heights of 1,600 feet or more using powerful Estes engines.

The Wizard is a Skill Level 1 kit that includes a one piece body tube, laser cut wood fins and a bullet-shaped plastic nose cone. The easy to apply, self-stick decals are sure to make this mystic rocket the envy of everyone at your local launch field. The Wizard is a great high altitude rocket for beginners, schools, clubs and rocket demonstrations.

Regardless if you're a beginner or pro, the Wizard promises hours of flying magic! (Estes 2012 Web Ad)



Estes 1978 Catalog Estes 1981 Catalog Estes 1982 Catalog
Estes 1983 Catalog Estes 1985 Catalog Estes 1991 Catalog
Estes 1992 Catalog Estes 1993 Catalog Estes 1995 Catalog
Estes 1998 Catalog Estes 2000 Catalog Estes 2001 Catalog
Estes 2002 Catalog Estes 2003 Catalog Estes 2004 Catalog


Continued Below

Estes Wizard (#1292) Basic Information CONTINUED


Estes 2005 Catalog Estes 2006 Catalog Estes 2007 Catalog
Estes 2008 Catalog Estes 2010 Catalog Estes 2011 Catalog
Estes 2012 Catalog
Estes 2012 Web Ad










First post in this thread featuring this rocket.

See Also: LINKS
EMRR
RocketReviews
Mfg. Page


If you have any additional information on this rocket and/or catalog photos please let us know.

This one is painted with my favorite DupliColor color, orange mist metallic.

The picture does give the color justice. Has to be seen to be appreciated.

Bones

Bones

This is my BT-5 Wizard downscale on pad last week before its first flight on an A3-4T. Great flight, but I went with nose blow recovery and didn't see anything after the puff of smoke from the ejection charge. Lucky for me another flyer brought it in a couple of racks later. Streamer from now on, for the added visibility more than anything else.

Didn't think of this before, but I suppose I should put my upscale "visible" Wizard here too (it is posted in a thread in another section). The model is non-flying (of course) and is made from a length of fluorescent tube cover, a Mean Machine nose cone and clear styrene fins. Thus, it is about a 2.6x upscale. Of course, since it is a display rocket, it has an upscale thrust ring and giant cutaway motor to match! It isn't perfect - I had to use hot glue to attach the fins (no real good options to attach styrene to polycarbonate) and it, of course, went on globby and stringy. Ah well - it works for the purpose!

have had a wizard in the fleet for a very long time, it's a great flyer.