ESTES #2141 Vintage SILVER COMET build log

novahobbies · Sep 27, 2024

Outstanding. I've been a little away so I'm catching up. I see you apparently didn't get enough with fake rivets on the Flying (Time) Machine and just HAD to express your inner steampunk with more here, eh? Looks great. And that red color is beautiful! Definitely digging this design.

JoeFilgas · Sep 28, 2024

novahobbies said:
Outstanding. I've been a little away so I'm catching up. I see you apparently didn't get enough with fake rivets on the Flying (Time) Machine and just HAD to express your inner steampunk with more here, eh? Looks great. And that red color is beautiful! Definitely digging this design.

Thanks LOL I prefer “simulated” rivets! I’ve been out of town the past week and just got back to working on this project today.

JoeFilgas · Sep 28, 2024

My Estes Silver Comet kit bash “FLASH GORDON” build log: was out of town this past week, but returned yesterday. Today I was back at it and I got all the tips marked for masking and masked off all the gold areas. I had two cans of the (same) gold paint and had to finish the BT with the second can plus it was a bit colder outside when I shot it. They seem to be a slightly different shade, but I’m not quite sure yet. If they are then I’ll likely re-shoot the nose cone tomorrow.

JoeFilgas · Sep 29, 2024

Presenting my vintage Estes Silver Comet (#2141) kit bash project flying model rocket “FLASH GORDON”! The original Silver comet design was fabulous all by itself with the 50’s Sci-Fi look, but it needed just a bit more from my library of ideas! First off no decals would be used for this rocket so I had to come up with some 3D decorations which include the two portholes custom made from pill bottle caps. The door to this rocket also needed to be 3D so it was crafted from 1/16” balsa wood. On the door were hinges made from a bamboo skewer. The opening device wheel was leftover from my Back to the Future project and goes very nicely on the hatch. The telescoping hatch porthole was a left over DEVO hat piece from that project. The rivet bands on the BT were cut from card stock paper with glue “simulated” rivets added. I also added more rivets to the nosecone relief for the cockpit windows. This rocket begged for a screw on Estes engine retainer as well. It also needed the Flash Gordon logo made from two pieces of 1/16” balsa plate. The design was hand drawn first then cut out and applied to the rocket. Finally, the most visually noticeable change was the addition of the 4 scratch built fin pods. The original balsa 1/8” TTW fins were used as a pattern for new scratch made 1/8” plywood fins with the addition of TTW tabs for the fin pods. I feel I have built pretty much what I set out to do and am happy with the end result. I still need to add the laundry.

JoeFilgas · Sep 29, 2024

Here’s a YouTube video I made for the rocket!

JoeFilgas · Oct 2, 2024

My Estes vintage, kit bashed, Silver Comet rocket build log: today I finished up the rocket by adding all the laundry. I made a zipper protector from some pieces of heat shrink tubing using an Apogee Components idea. I added a 9” Apogee fire blanket securing the shock cord around the button hole a few times so it wouldn’t slide out of position. Next I tied a swivel barrel about 18” from the end of the shock cord followed by tying the very end to the nose cone. I drilled and sanded two holes in the bottom of the nose cone to tie the shock cord to because the molded loop was really small and defective to boot. Finally I ran the 23” Apogee nylon parachute parachute lines through the swivel and secured. With all the modifications the rocket without motors came in at 12.64 ounces, a little over twice the stock weight. For that reason I upped the parachute size from the stock 18” to a 24”. FLASH GORDON is ready to fly and this completes the build log for this rocket project. Thanks to everyone who followed along!