Is it really a model rocket if you don't launch it?

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Already did in primer before paint!
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AFTER:
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(To be flown again at next club launch.)

However I'm also planning on a larger build soon... and YES, I plan to fly it since it's a rocket. :) 👍
Ken that looks awesome. Is that a partial wrap?
 
Full Scale Boat Tail ARCAS NEW! (Made to order. Allow four weeks production time for this kit). Pre order using 4 zeros for credit card number & expiration date. Use 3 zeroes for ccv.
arcas1.jpg
Kit includes:
  • Filament wound 4.5” G-12 fiberglass Scale ARCAS nosecone with aluminum tip
  • Filament wound 4.5” x 40” G-12 one piece fiberglass slotted airframe with boat tail
  • 4.5” x 2” G-12 switch band
  • 4.5” x 12” G-12 coupler
  • 4.5” x 24” G-12 payload
  • (1) 1/8” G-10 nosecone bulk plate
  • (2) G-10 Avbay lids
  • (2) 1/8” x 54mm G-10 centering rings
  • 54mm x 16” G-12 motor mount tube
  • (4) 1/8” G-10 fins with leading edge beveled
  • Optional 75 or 98mm motor mount









Is it a model rocket if it's full scale?
 
I have both actually. 5 trucks too many.

I started with a Tamiya grass hopper when I was 11 and never really stopped collecting. Add in the time I spent working as the electric RC guy at the local hobby shop and it all kind of snowballed into what it is today. I don't dare tell try to count the number of cars.
 
I started with a Tamiya grass hopper when I was 11 and never really stopped collecting. Add in the time I spent working as the electric RC guy at the local hobby shop and it all kind of snowballed into what it is today. I don't dare tell try to count the number of cars.
I can only imagine the count? LOL. Most of mine are Traxxas, but have a couple Losi SCT Nitros
 
I started with a Tamiya grass hopper when I was 11 and never really stopped collecting. Add in the time I spent working as the electric RC guy at the local hobby shop and it all kind of snowballed into what it is today. I don't dare tell try to count the number of cars.
I might be able to beat you lol
I got into it with a Sand Scorcher and then later started buying kits to store and resell in retirement.
I can only imagine the count? LOL. Most of mine are Traxxas, but have a couple Losi SCT Nitros
I got a Traxxas Sledgehammer which was one of their first big trucks... also the Nitro Hawk. Plus some custom builds including a 95% metal fully tracked twin brushless truck built many years ago.

Ah fun stuff... and yes... I ran everything I've built including an original Tamiya Avante and Porsche 959 (did jumps including somersaults lol).
 
I might be able to beat you lol
I got into it with a Sand Scorcher and then later started buying kits to store and resell in retirement.

I got a Traxxas Sledgehammer which was one of their first big trucks... also the Nitro Hawk. Plus some custom builds including a 95% metal fully tracked twin brushless truck built many years ago.

Ah fun stuff... and yes... I ran everything I've built including an original Tamiya Avante and Porsche 959 (did jumps including somersaults lol).
I'm looking for a carbon fiber chassis for the Slayer PRO I have. Some guy on Offer Up had one. I think $235 was too much and not sure how much stronger the carbon fiber option is. I like that it would be lighter than aluminum
 
I might be able to beat you lol
I got into it with a Sand Scorcher and then later started buying kits to store and resell in retirement.
There are certainly guys with larger collections. A guy that I became really good friends with over the years is a big collector. I met him when I was working weekends at a local hobby shop 15ish years ago. He came in every Saturday and walked the isles and we’d sit and go over all of the new offerings from the different manufacturers and typically order a few things. Every time we got something new in I’d set one of each aside for him and he’d buy them.

He began his collecting in the early 80’s and managed to put his hands on a ton of magazine cars, race winning cars, prototypes etc. along with all of the kits he bought himself. Last time I saw the collection was just after he completed building A 10k sq ft space to store and display everything.

As for myself. There have been a few I bought strictly to resell. When associated rereleased the RC10’s a few years back I bought a bunch of those and stored them away until prices got stupid and let all but a few go. I also picked up a few oddball Tamiya’s here and there but where I really got in trouble was Tamiya classics.

At some point about 20 yrs ago I became obsessed with Tamiya’s first 100 and spent about 15 years tracking them all down new in box.

Today I only buy cars that I’m interested in running without worrying about hurting them so it’s most axial, traxxas, Aarma etc.

I still have the first 100 packed away and I’ve considered selling them but I’d like to sell them as a set which is a pipe dream. Everything else I plan to build and run as soon as I retire.
 
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Flying model rocket
vs
Non-flying model rocket

Problem solved. :music1:
 
Flying model rocket
vs
Non-flying model rocket

Problem solved. :music1:
I actually waffle a bit, but I feel that as per definition and understanding, a model rocket is expected to be launched:

Screenshot_20230416_215009_Google.jpg

One pet peeve of mine is that one of my old friends (who moved up next to me) would tell people he had a boat when the boat he was talking about was junk left by the former home owner and never used by him and eventually donated. I felt that was just a lie and I keep internally rolling my eyes. :rolleyes:😆
 
How about this actual example?

I have this old Estes Star Trek Enterprise "Flying Model Rocket" kit and it looks simply amazing on the box! 🤩

20230416_215637.jpg
This is a kit that I'm seriously considering building really nice and detailed, but I won't use the stabilizing probe and after it's built I would not launch it.

Is it still a model rocket?

I'd consider (and treat it) as a spaceship model and I wouldn't tell others "check out my model rocket."
 
Full Scale Boat Tail ARCAS NEW! (Made to order. Allow four weeks production time for this kit). Pre order using 4 zeros for credit card number & expiration date. Use 3 zeroes for ccv.
arcas1.jpg
Kit includes:
  • Filament wound 4.5” G-12 fiberglass Scale ARCAS nosecone with aluminum tip
  • Filament wound 4.5” x 40” G-12 one piece fiberglass slotted airframe with boat tail
  • 4.5” x 2” G-12 switch band
  • 4.5” x 12” G-12 coupler
  • 4.5” x 24” G-12 payload
  • (1) 1/8” G-10 nosecone bulk plate
  • (2) G-10 Avbay lids
  • (2) 1/8” x 54mm G-10 centering rings
  • 54mm x 16” G-12 motor mount tube
  • (4) 1/8” G-10 fins with leading edge beveled
  • Optional 75 or 98mm motor mount









Is it a model rocket if it's full scale?
It's still a scale model. The scale just happens to be 1:1.
 
I'd like to add a note that an exception to the way I feel about this is anyone who would want to launch them, but can't for whatever reason.

My heart and admiration goes out to those who keep building model rockets to relive old days or to keep dreaming of launching them one day. ❤️

Sure, feel any way you want. But realize that this is a hobby, the focus is to have fun... and that is such a personal thing that it defies definition.

As was previously defined... there is a difference between a "model rocket" and a "flying model rocket". With all due respect, you asked the wrong question.
 
I live by the motto "it isn't a rocket until it flies", and voted for the second option. But I thought the whole thing was tongue-in-cheek, and it never occurred to me that anyone would really take this question so seriously.

As was previously defined... there is a difference between a "model rocket" and a "flying model rocket". With all due respect, you asked the wrong question.
I'll add one more tweak: "model rocket" vs. "flyable model rocket". This distinguishes a pretty-painted shelf queen from, say, my Lego Saturn V. It doesn't really matter if it ever clears a launch rod.

I would apply the exact same idea to a model plane. Is it flyable or not?

This to me is a useful distinction that carries with it no inherent value judgment. It's just for purpose of accurate description.
 
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But I thought the whole thing was tongue-in-cheek, and it never occurred to me that anyone would really take this question so seriously.
It started off as an annoyance for me, but was a bit tongue in cheek. It's evolved since of course there are differences as well as strong opinions.

I actually appreciate all the opinions!
 
Is it a firecracker if you never light the fuse?
A Rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

I've given this some thought. When I used to build plastic models, the Revell Kit would say "Plastic scale model Saturn V" -- I don't think the word rocket ever appeared on the box. Clearly, it was a rocket, but it made no claim to that title if it was a plastic display model. I also note that most of the rockets I have built in the last year all say "Flying Model Rocket" on the packaging, to indicate that this does, indeed, fly.

Yet, we do make distinctions -- for example, a "bullet" isn't really a bullet until AFTER it has been fired. Before that time, it's a "round" or "cartridge" because it consists of a package of components together that, once fired, becomes a projectile because the foward section has been shoved through the barrel by the explosive force of the rest of that package.

Similarly; a rocket becomes a rocket only when the explosive force of the rest of the package turns the rocket into a projectile. Before that time, it's a flying model or potential flying model. Can we call it a rocket if it's never flown? Sure, but only in the same way that we can call a cartridge a bullet if it's not been fired. It is technically incorrect, but colloquial english allows us to use the term regardless for the sake of expediency.
 
I cannot believe the detail and workmanship on some of the NAR Scale rockets. There's no way that I would (or could...) build something that nice and put it in the air... only to have it get sooty and have it get dragged around the dirt afterwards. I think most non-rocketeers could look at one of those and instantly appreciate the effort that went into making it, flying or not.
 
I cannot believe the detail and workmanship on some of the NAR Scale rockets. There's no way that I would (or could...) build something that nice and put it in the air... only to have it get sooty and have it get dragged around the dirt afterwards. I think most non-rocketeers could look at one of those and instantly appreciate the effort that went into making it, flying or not.
💯% #2! :)
 
Yet, we do make distinctions -- for example, a "bullet" isn't really a bullet until AFTER it has been fired. Before that time, it's a "round" or "cartridge" because it consists of a package of components together that, once fired, becomes a projectile because the foward section has been shoved through the barrel by the explosive force of the rest of that package.

Uhhh...no.

The bullet is always a bullet, once it starts being a bullet. There is a reloading shop where I bought my 4FG that has many thousands of bullets on the shelves. Those bullets have never been loaded into any cartridge. Still bullets.
 
Uhhh...no.

The bullet is always a bullet, once it starts being a bullet. There is a reloading shop where I bought my 4FG that has many thousands of bullets on the shelves. Those bullets have never been loaded into any cartridge. Still bullets.
Correct, however those bullets were designed and made expecting that it would/could be fired. Making a round without gunpowder and never intending for it to be fired is a dummy round and not a bullet (I think lol).
 
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