Christmas At Work - Estes Yankee Build

[TangoJuliet]

Another Christmas spent at work and of course, I needed something to occupy my time. A trip to Hobby Lobby on Thursday evening yielded an Estes Yankee. I built one of these in the 80's, so it was another time machine build for me. Although my original was done in a different color scheme, which I think I liked better.


The BT has a very slight crush to it. These models are so inexpensive (especially when discounted at HL) that I'm not overly concerned by it.


Another departure from the original is the now plastic nose cone.


And I've gotten very spoiled with the laser cut balsa fin stock that most kits come with these days, so I was a little surprised to find that I had to cut a pattern from the instructions and then cut my fins from balsa sheet.



I also tend to just eye-ball my fins for alignment on these small kits. They may not be perfectly aligned or at 120* from each other, but they're not so grossly misaligned that they would adversely affect flight. And without measuring them, you'd never notice from five feet away.



I'll finish the build at home on Thursday this week. I'm going to use a Kevlar cord around the motor block that I haven't installed yet, also attached to some 1/8" flat bungee. I also didn't finish the fin surfaces yet. This time I'll use Aero-Gloss Balsa Filler before I paint it.

 

[Ccolvin968]

Love this little rocket!
I first built mine in the early 2000's. (I'm 24, so I've not been around long enough to build one from the 80's.)
Cant wait to see what you do with it!

 

[TangoJuliet]

Stick around Ccolvin. I won't be home until late tomorrow night, then I'm off for a week, so this should be finished before I go back to work.

Incidentally, my oldest is your age. :wink:

 

[Ccolvin968]

Nice! Haha.

I have a 2 stage LPR build that I'm going to start a build thread on tonight hopefully!
Can't wait to see yours finished!

 

[HHaase]

Same here, back in the 80's I built a bunch of Yankee's and Wizard's. For some reason I haven't done one yet as a BAR. I personably should at some point.

 

[dixontj93060]

Fun stuff!

 

[Nytrunner]

Did a double take when I saw a Yankee build thread. Then I read kevlar on the engine block? This is no joke.

That uncut balsa is new. I built one ~3.5 years ago and I thought I remembered lasercut finstock.

 

[TangoJuliet]

The Kevlar is an upgrade from me, not a part of the Estes kit. I didn't have it at work, so I brought the model home with me last night and will get to finishing it over the next 6 days at home. Unfortunately, we've got rainy weather now, so getting it painted may still have to wait.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Started painting on some Balsa Filler to the fins.


Also glued the nose cone to its base plate.


Then I notched the Thrust Ring and tied a length of Kevlar cord to it. The Kevlar I have is rated for 300# which is overkill, but I didn't have any 100#, and I'm trying to get away from the Estes elastic rubber for longevity. To the other end of the Kevlar I tied another length of 1/8" elastic from Apogee. I like it a lot better than just rubber.


It was a little awkward to feed all that into the rear of the BT and then try to get some yellow glue in there before pushing in the Thrust Ring with the yellow pusher tube, but I got it. The whole lot is drying now. Later today I'll sand the fins and add another coat of filler. Then another sanding and it'll be ready for paint. 😉

 

[TangoJuliet]

We finally had a warm, clear day today. We've gotten several inches of rain over the last three days. It's a good thing it doesn't get as cold here as it does up north, otherwise we'd have several FEET of snow!

I was only able to get the blue on today - 3 coats. I started with the blue. When it's cured, I'll mask for the red on the lower half to do the old school color scheme. That may or may not happen tomorrow before I have to leave town again for work.

 

[neil_w]

It was a little awkward to feed all that into the rear of the BT and then try to get some yellow glue in there before pushing in the Thrust Ring with the yellow pusher tube, but I got it. The whole lot is drying now. Later today I'll sand the fins and add another coat of filler. Then another sanding and it'll be ready for paint. 

It looks like you connected all the shock cord stuff before gluing anything. If so, may I suggest attaching the elastic at the very end, after everything else is done. You can easily use a hook to pull the kevlar out the back of the rocket, tie on the elastic, and then push it all through. No need to fight with the long piece of elastic will doing the other work.

I usually bundle up the kevlar with a twistie or something, and just leave it in there until the end of the build (after painting.)

 

[Todderbert]

Same here, back in the 80's I built a bunch of Yankee's and Wizard's. For some reason I haven't done one yet as a BAR. I personably should at some point.

The Wizard was my first rocket back in the '80s, followed by a Nova Payloader and a Mosquito. Always wanted the Astrocam Rocket, now we have these keychain video cams that look like fun.

I am going out tomorrow to buy some rockets from my youth, will pick up one of these Yankees to put together. Would also love a re-release of the Mean Machine, that was one I wanted to buy back then but didn't have the funds.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Thanks for chiming in neil_w. Yeah, I guess that would've been a little easier, though what I did wasn't really that difficult. I'll remember your suggestion for the next one.

 

[TangoJuliet]

I am going out tomorrow to buy some rockets from my youth, will pick up one of these Yankees to put together. Would also love a re-release of the Mean Machine, that was one I wanted to buy back then but didn't have the funds.

Over the last 5-6 months I've been building a lot of them from my youth, and I have yet to launch a single one! Work and weather (statewide burn ban for months, then rain and wind) have kept me from flying any yet. I keep hoping to change that real soon. I concur on the Mean Machine, and also the Blue Bird Zero. I don't think either one would be too hard to make a clone of though, and I think stickershock23 has decals for them too!

 

[TangoJuliet]

I obviously didn't have the decals for the original color scheme, so it is what it is, but it's done. I'm hoping to launch the majority of my fleet tomorrow.