Estes Yankee Restoration

[Back_at_it]

With my recent builds of Exocet and restoration of the Maverick wrapped up I decided to dig into the box of old rockets and see what was next. I'm finding that I enjoy restoration as much if not more than new builds. I guess there is something about taking old discarded items and making them functional again. I've been doing this with real cars, RC Cars and Rockets for a number of years. About 6 months ago I picked up a box of old rockets locally for cheap. The person didn't know anything about them and just wanted them out of her house. $20 later and I have a box full of about 25 rockets all in various conditions of disrepair. The Maverick in my previous restoration came from the same lot of rockets. I learned a lot about how the original owner assembled them from that Resto.

This next resto is an Estes Yankee. Since this is a simple rocket I should be able to knock it out in a couple of days.

Pic 1 - This is how the Yankee came out of the box. The body tube is in good shape. The balsa nose cone has some dents in it and all three fins are loose in the bottom of the box.

Pic 2 - Digging a bit deeper I removed the nose cone to find the shock was not attached to anything. No shock cord mount in the body tube. At this point everything looks salvageable.

Will be working on this one between calls today. Will keep you posted.

 

[Back_at_it]

Got a little more done between calls. The good news is that this rocket seems to have been built the same as the previous Maverick resto. I'm not sure what glue was used but everything popped right off. The launch lug came off with no pressure, the glue that was attached to the fins peeled off and the little bit that was left on the body tube popped off as well or sanded easily.

Interestingly the decals literally disintegrated. There was almost nothing left of them after just a couple of minutes of normal handling to get the lug and misc. glue off the tube. From there I took a bit of 240 grit to the parts and the paint came off pretty well. What is left there is really stuck on there so I'm not concerned about it. I used some 400 grit on the fins to get down to bare wood and get the paint drips and lumps off. I then hit the remaining parts with 400 grit to remove some sanding lines. It doesn't look it, but it's smooth as can be with no lumps or bumps.

The only part of this rocket that didn't come out was the motor thrust ring but I'll deal with that during reassembly.

Pic 1 - After sanding, here is all that is left of the Yankee. It just disappeared... Just kidding. But that is a lot of paint and misc. glue I sanded off.

Pic 2 - Here is the disassembled kit, sanded and ready to go back together. The shock cord and streamer is headed for the trash. Everything else will be reused.

 

[Back_at_it]

Made good progress last night on the Yankee. I know that today is the last nice day we're having in Chicago for a while. Tomorrow is forecasted to be in the 40's so I needed to get this one done.

Pic 1 - Started with the balsa nose cone. I drilled a 1/4" hole about 3/4" deep into the base and inserted a hard wood dowel rod using TB2. I've had screw eyes pull out of balsa even when glued in place with CA so this gives me a solid mounting point. And lets face it, a little weight in a Yankee is a good thing.

Pic 2 and 3 - Next I marked the body tube for the fins and launch lug. The body tube given a little bit more sanding where the fins would attach for good adhesion. All fins and lug were attached using TB2. These fins are so thin and light that they went on easily and stayed put without any drama. Got all three attached in about an hour.

Things you can't see. I was not able to remove the original motor block/thrust ring but judging by how the rest of the rocket pretty much fell apart I didn't want to take a chance on it failing so, using a long hobby brush I was able to get glue inside the body tube just above the existing ring. While I'm sure this would have been plenty to hold it in place I decided to add an additional ring. The additional ring was slid down from the top of the tube and butted against the existing ring.

Next I added 200# Kevlar leader. This was attached using the old Estes tri-fold mount and glued in pace as far down the tube as I could place it.

Next steps are sealer on the fins. Still need to decide how I'm going to deal with the large dents in the nose cone. Thinking I'm going to use some 5 min. epoxy and coat the entire cone then sand. Again, a little weight up there won't hurt a thing. From there it's primer and paint. I'm seriously considering just clear coating this as is and putting decals on it. The patina look would work well I think.

 

[Cape Byron]

I'm seriously considering just clear coating this as is and putting decals on it. The patina look would work well I think.

Do it. I love a good Rat Rocket.

 

[Back_at_it]

Cape - I really considered it for a time and I will probably do it with another rocket from that collection. There are about 20 more that will need repair that I haven't even looked at yet.

 

[Back_at_it]

Just a quick wrap up to a very fast restoration. This one had to be fast due to weather. It's about 45 degrees here in Chicagoland today so it looks like painting is done for the season.

After the last update I hit the fins with two coats of ERocket balsa sealer and sanded with 400 grit. The nose cone was coated in finishing epoxy as it has some pretty deep dents. I then sanded with 240 and 400 grit. A single quick coat of SEM high build primer went on and sanded with 400 grit.

Next was paint. Bottom was painted with Krylon Cherry Red. The top is Krylon Bight Blue. Decals were cut from 651 bright white vinyl and applied. I stayed pretty true to the original design with just a minor change in the font.

I'm happy with the results considering how fast this one had to happen.

 

[nosecone]

Lookin' good

 

[kuririn]

How did you cut your vinyl?
Cricut?

 

[Back_at_it]

How did you cut your vinyl?
Cricut?

Yes. I have a Cricut Maker. Super easy to use and has been a work horse.

 

[kuririn]

Thanks, I gotta get me one of those.
Which model # would you recommend?

 

[Back_at_it]

Thanks, I gotta get me one of those.
Which model # would you recommend?

After looking into the options and talking to people I decided on the Maker version. It has a lot more options than I've used so far but I'm looking forward to learning everything else it can do.

 

[SCooke123]

Turned out really well.

 

[GlenP]

Very nice job! I find the most difficult part of recreating the old kits is accurately duplicating the fonts for the logos, there are good alternatives, but the old style typeset fonts are very unique, unless you manually trace and redraw each character individually they are hard to duplicate exactly with modern digital fonts. You did a great job with that one!

 

[Back_at_it]

Very nice job! I find the most difficult part of recreating the old kits is accurately duplicating the fonts for the logos, there are good alternatives, but the old style typeset fonts are very unique, unless you manually trace and redraw each character individually they are hard to duplicate exactly with modern digital fonts. You did a great job with that one!

Thanks Glen. Appreciate your response.

 

[kidagain]

Will the Cricut cut deep enough for .050 Cardstock? I was thinking of recreating die cut parts for some Estes Kits. For example the USS Andromeda "Part K" cardstock piece. Please advise.

 

[mooffle]

Nice restoration, it happened so fast I must have missed this thread back in nov.

 

[Back_at_it]

Will the Cricut cut deep enough for .050 Cardstock? I was thinking of recreating die cut parts for some Estes Kits. For example the USS Andromeda "Part K" cardstock piece. Please advise.

Cricut claims the maker machine will cut up to 2.0mm materials including card stock.
I’ve not tried this myself.

 

[kidagain]

Cricut claims the maker machine will cut up to 2.0mm materials including card stock.
I’ve not tried this myself.

Thanks for letting me know. I need to consider getting one of these devices.

 

[DHos]

Would you sell more decals?

 

[Back_at_it]

Would you sell more decals?

Sure. They are cut from Vinyl but I'd cut you a set if if you like.

 

[DHos]

Sure. They are cut from Vinyl but I'd cut you a set if if you like.

Yes please!!

 

[Back_at_it]

Send me a message with your contact info. I can cut some this week.

 

[mh9162013]

Great restoration!

How much would you charge for 2 or 3 sets of those vinyl decals?

 

[Patternflyer]

Back_at_it,

I just sent you a PM. Your restoration looks awesome! Hoping to complete mine soon.

 

[novahobbies]

The Yankee was my very first model rocket as a kid. I was about 10 years old and it was my gift shop purchase at the Smithsonian A&S museum in DC. LOOOOONG time ago, for sure. I botched the heck out of it but still loved it.