Estes - Rubicon Gallery

Fun fin popper! Flies well on Aerotech 24mm.

I have a Rubicon too and I think its a good flyer. The fins are another issue. They've all popped at least once. So far I've used Tesor's plastic cement, liquid cement, CA, epoxy, MEK and probably a few others. They still pop. I think its part of the design. You can tell a counterfeit because the fins don't pop.

My TRF thread is here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=456

And the albums are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/collections/72157607433351824/

I too opted for a fairly traditional paint scheme. It was an early effort and painting those tubes after installation taught me a lot.

I started painting today prior to assembly. Would love to know how you fastened the fins w/out them popping off.

El Cheapo said:

I started painting today prior to assembly. Would love to know how you fastened the fins w/out them popping off.

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Mario says he's done it. I think he's the only one.

Here is my Rubicon. I did a review of it on EMRR back in 05

bcanino said:

Here is my Rubicon. I did a review of it on EMRR back in 05

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And why haven't we seen this beauty at a launch, hmmmm?????

Rocketcrab said:

And why haven't we seen this beauty at a launch, hmmmm?????

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It's sitting in the to be fixed pile. Last time I flew it, It pop off almost all the fins and some of the nozzles. I'll fix it up and bring it out the next time I take the trek to PA.

bcanino said:

It's sitting in the to be fixed pile. Last time I flew it, It pop off almost all the fins and some of the nozzles. I'll fix it up and bring it out the next time I take the trek to PA.

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That's how you know you have the genuine Estes product and not some cheap knockoff!:cyclops:

Here's mine...need to get some launch shots. Nice and slow on E9s.

Finally flew my Rubicon, and yes, I popped 2 fins. My paint was close to stock, but I was out of grey when I was painting the tubes prior to assembly, so I went with black. I also put in 3 D-shaped baffle plates at the forward end of the motor tube so that I wouldn't have to use wadding by the bucketload each flight.

G.D.

Has anyone tried using dual or even triple chutes?

Might solve the problem. I use multiple chutes all the time now. The rocket hangs vertically under multiple chutes and hits the ground fins first. This has really helped me with rockets that were prone to breaking fins.

Bones

They make great flyers, good looking rocket!