As of late, I get more pleasure out of building from scratch, too. However, I do buy the cheaper kits just to have a reference. Some exceptions to that - Deisgned a Crossfire and then realized it was close to a WAC Corporal then up-scaled the WAC to 24mm then to the next size. Rabbit holes are everywhere. But fun.
Nose cones can be a PITA. Balsa doesn't always cut it if you want to stuff the nose full of electronics or use it as a chute bay.
Print the nose cone. We had a night flight and I needed to put lights on a small 24mm rocket. Printed the nose cone and stuffed in five LEDs and a battery.
https://estesrockets.com/wp-content/uploads/Instructions/007237_GOBLIN.pdfEstes tends to keep stuff up and just remove the link. The format is always the kit number padded with leading zeros to 6 places, underscore, the name in caps with underscores in lieu of spaces, ".pdf"
For some of us, if I find a kit at a good price it is convenient to get all the little parts like engine blocks, centering rings, engine hook, parachute, etc. For other people they have boxes of those things so they can probably pull out the parts that they need, cut some fins, and get with the assembly.
Not everyone has a 3D printer but if you have it, there are tons of possibilities of building your own nose cones. Lots of 'nose cone factories' on Thingiverse. I just built a 24mm WAC Corporal nose cone which is fairly long and not available commercially as far as I can deduce. Easy enough. I agree about buying the kit to have insight in the design. I know we can use a sim file on most of these but I like having the kit if it is available. At the very least you get the decals - which I copy and make into my own waterslides.
I've got to find somebody local to me that can make some decals, Like water slides
Water slides aren’t too difficult, you can get the paper for it at craft stores. It’s a niche product but I’ll bet you’d be able to find some if you called first or checked online.
Oh I like that lime green.very niceYa base of the nose cone will need to be trimmed, run a pinned small eyebolt up top in the cone
ok, project is on(ordered 4 more goblin kits haha)
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LOC ( www.locprecision.com ) has Goblins in several sizes. There are regular size ones out there too.
I buy the kits sometimes just to get all of the misc. little parts. Sometimes I buy a kit and then make my own fins for it. I don't mind scratchbuilding and I've built some by finding a good photo and then putting dimensions on it and scaling it up or down as needed in autocad. For common kits I'll first hunt for an open rocket file and get the fin and tube dimensions from that, then scale up or down in autocad.
But there's an upscaled 3" diameter version in the catalog, so not exactly discontinued, just.... changed. So now you can get a 3" goblin from LOC or Estes. Take your pick.
LOC makes a 3” Goblin?
Yeah, looked that up later..... 4", 5.5, and the monsterous 7.5" (which is what, 10 feet tall?).... I think Estes has me at the 3" one though. No MSRP yet, but once that hits production, I am getting one. Without doubt or hesitation.
DRM is 3 fins, Goblin 4 fins. There are now Goblin kits in all sizes from original size to 7.5".
Gobby is BT-55 based with a 24mm mmt. DRM is BT-60 based with an 18mm mmt. "Trim the fins" hardly cuts it now, does it?
It's comforting.
You mean the one we've been talking about?
