K'Tesh's OpenRocket Files...

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They were designed for 24mm motors. As to the mass of the nozzle, I'm sure that that would be measured in grams.

One method for getting the needed info would be to weigh the expended motor, intact. To find the mass of the nozzle, knock out the nozzle and weigh the hollow casing, a simple bit of math, and we know the mass of both.

By deleting the DBRMII's sustainer, the booster (with motor) has a stability of .0005 calibers. The CPII's booster has .286 calibers of stability.
 
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Here's another Hobby Lobby exclusive... The Estes Luna Bug (816)



This looks like it'll be a fun little rocket for the kids who only have small fields to fly in, and as a first builder's kit. Steampunk and upscale versions are already popping up on FB.

Thanks to John Boren for information on fin thicknesses, Craig Ross for the body tube and launch lug measurements and to Chun Mak for the instructions and fin scans.
 

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Of all the cusom paint jobs for the Luna Bug I've seen, I am surprised that nobody has yet (that I've seen at least) done a classic Volkswagen look. I mean, come on. It's a bug!
 
Well done K'Tesh! Neat solution to rendering the fins. To mimic Yoda: "OpenRocket Guru you are".
I grabbed one of these when I bought the Cherokee-E. Another I just couldn't resist buys.
 
Well done K'Tesh! Neat solution to rendering the fins. To mimic Yoda: "OpenRocket Guru you are".
I grabbed one of these when I bought the Cherokee-E. Another I just couldn't resist buys.
Glad you like it!!!

I took one look at those fins, and thought there's no way that OR would do it in a single part... but two might just slip past the program.
 
Not counting the rockets already waiting in line to be assembled, I have electronics projects plus house repairs plus an actual classic VW to fix up and keeping the two offspring alive and entertained. I estimate I can get started on a VW theme Luna Bug upscale (because of course upscale) sometime before my kids graduate college lol!

I'll keep you posted.
 
Just in time for the upcoming Halloween Holiday, I'm releasing the Estes Hyper Bat (7217)!



This sim has only one "Trick" in it. I had to insert a single PBT to keep the two tail shrouds apart. Since there's no decals on the fins, it's perfectly good for flight sims. I did alter the length of the launch lugs. The drawings in the instructions, and one supplied by John Boren, seem to imply that they should be about .625" long, but there's a single image that shows that the LLs should be half of the length of the supplied piece (2.375" long). At 1.1875" long each, that seems a tad excessive to me. Decals are based on a scan of the actual decals. As such, they look a lot larger than those in the graphics on the instructions and the facecard. There's also an Estes logo located between the "r" of "Hyper" and the "B" of "bat", which is not seen on the graphics.

I'm also working on a sim of a BT-60 upscale of this kit (using a PNC-60AH and a spare tail cone shroud from a QCC Explorer's nosecone (purchased separately)), a BT-55 upscale (using a PNC-55AO) would also look good. An ambitious rocketeer might upscale this to a 4" OD rocket using the MDRM's nosecone.

Happy Halloween!!!
(For other Halloween designs, you might try the Estes Zoom Broom (0853), The Bat (1362), or the scratchbuilt Halloween "spider web" candy bowl flying saucer.)

Thanks to linville86 for the scans of the instructions, parts, fins, and decals that I needed to get the necessary measurements on this. And JumpJet helped with the shape of the nosecone and the line drawing. Thanks Guys!
 

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Hey K'Tesh do you have a file on the Apogee Zephyr? I'm flying mine this weekend and I'd like to do some sims. Thanks!
 
Regrettably not at my level of accuracy, I don't. I'd love to build/sim one, but I don't have what I need to make a "K'Tesh level" sim. I have downloaded the .rkt file from Apogee (and saved it as a .ork file), but I've found that many times manufacturer's sims are not correct (including this one (no slots in the fins)). Without the nosecone and a lot of support (or a sample kit), I can't make my sim to my level accurate.

I'll post the converted Apogee .rkt file for you though.

upload_2019-10-11_1-53-35.png
 

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Big help!!1 Thank you. What I needed to know more than anything else was the CP on this. Thank you for your time on this!
 
Big help!!1 Thank you. What I needed to know more than anything else was the CP on this. Thank you for your time on this!
No problem... I really didn't do anything to it other than open it as a .rkt file and save it as a .ork file. However, I'm now looking into creating my own sim of the kit.
 
Gimp is extraordinarily complex and generally unnecessary for this type of work (although I did need to use it on a recent build to generate decals for transition shrouds, that was not fun). Learn Paint.net and never look back.
 
Not to embarrass myself but I still use an old MS program called Image Composer. It was a stand alone app that came bundled with Microsoft's Frontpage 2000 web development suite. Anyhoot, it's what I know how to use. That said, there is another graphics program I have had success with called InkScape (Link). I got wind of it from one of Mr. Milligan's how-to videos.
 
Not to embarrass myself but I still use an old MS program called Image Composer. It was a stand alone app that came bundled with Microsoft's Frontpage 2000 web development suite. Anyhoot, it's what I know how to use. That said, there is another graphics program I have had success with called InkScape (Link). I got wind of it from one of Mr. Milligan's how-to videos.
Tobor, giver Paint.net a try. It's free! :) https://www.getpaint.net/
 
Did you know that the Estes Aerospace Club EAC Viper (0820) had a balsa nosecone variant? Did you know that the BNC-50Y's fins and the PNC-50Y variant's fins are not the same? Did you know that the decals were actually stickers? No? Well you do now... Learn all about it over in post #36.

 
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This sim was completely made possible thanks to Jason Hopper (linville86). His willingness to share his scans of the instructions, and unbuilt kit's parts*, decals*, and fins* made this extremely rare kit's sim possible. I truly wish that everyone who scores rare kits like this would take the time to scan the instructions, parts, fins, and decals* for those of us who would like to reproduce or possibly bring them back. All to frequently, JimZ's site, and plans.rocketshoppe don't have rare kits like this, or if they do, the templates for the fins don't have any indication of scale (or are simply inaccurate drawings), making it frustrating for people trying to reproduce them (digitally like me, or cloning the kit). And while It's always nice to see good photos in a build thread, but without scans, they're useless for simming or cloning purposes.

With that, I give you... The Estes White Tiger (2055)


And the other side of it...



The kit was only in production in 1991. It came with a chromed PNC-50YR nosecone... In the process of simming this, I cracked the method to give kits the appearance of metallic finishes. :D

Something I noticed in the scan of the decals, the eyes of the tiger appear to be clear (In Jason's excellent scan, I could see the bluish color of the backing paper), thus allowing the paint from underneath to show through, Thus, the sim reflects that.

Due to the placement of the decals, "Air Fins" were necessary. They've been attached to a phantom body tube for easy deletion for flight performance simulations.

Share And Enjoy!

Estes White Tiger (2055) Resources:
Instructions: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, and Page 4

Fin Template (w/ruler)
Decals (w/ruler)

*along with a ruler for scale.
 

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Today, I'm adding this new Hobby Lobby exclusive kit. The Estes ESAM-58 (0661):





The sim has been updated to OR 22.02 to eliminate the single Phantom Body Tube that was used for the "Air fin" with the Estes Logo. I recommend folks delete the old .ork and download the updated sim as it is fully ready for flight simming. I did "recreate" the red decals using a scan from Mustang67. My scan's average color came out as a sickly dark grey pink color. The grey stripes on the fins are actually "silver" (Even I can't force OR to sim those right), and I used my new "chrome" trick for the tail cone. Decal spacing is based on the actual decals, and not the face card's image.

Sim also includes a new part... The 18mm Engine Retainer Set (072421)



Remember, it's seriously uncool to clone in production kits. Support our vendors by purchasing an original. However, scratch-built upscales/downscales are seriously cool.

Estes ESAM-58 (0661) Decals
Estes ESAM-58 (0661) Fins and Centering Rings


Special Thanks! to Jerry Briggs (Mustang67) for this! He generously sent me a sample of this and the Nike-X (Coming Soon!) for simming up and building.

Previous version of the sim was downloaded 114 times.
 

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Ok... Here's a kit that's been really taking a lot longer than it should have... One of two kits that share nearly everything except name, instructions, and decals... The Estes Sterling Silver (7275):


Introduced in 2018, this is the older of the two kits, the other being Hobby Lobby's exclusive, EPIC II (7286), which hit shelves late in 2019. Estes simply gave it a different paint scheme, and decals to become that kit. The current version of the EPIC II's instructions are in English only. Perhaps someday, a foreign language version will be done, or maybe not. These kits also use a nosecone that I've not seen before, PN 071031.

My frustration was caused by a unscheduled restart for an update that erased my work on doing the decals... The second time, I was saving the decals frequently, until the computer froze, and I needed to restart. The file comes up with a "File format not recognized" type error message. This is round 3.

There is no guide for painting in the instructions. I opted to go with making the red stripes (on the longest two body tubes) 1/3 the circumference of the rocket. The smallest body tube forms the fin can of the sustainer, and I opted to "paint" that red (instead of shifting the white portion forward or back of the joint with the forward body tube). The decal is "placed" 1/8" below the red stripe, and centered between the front and back of the body tube. The launch lug is located in a stock location based on the instruction's graphics. However, I'll place it "behind" the white fin in the "back" of the rocket when I build it. There's no red decals included in the kit to have to try to match. So, you could make the accent color anything you want.

I'm seriously unhappy with how short the "Yellow Tube Coupler" is. At 1 inch long, it extends 3/4" into the fin can's body tube, and only 1/4" inside the forward tube. My solution would be to glue in a standard 1/4" long centering ring to form the engine block, and then have the tube coupler extend 1/2" inside the fin can and 1/2" inside the forward body tube. This would be for either the Sterling Silver, or the EPIC II. It seams totally unnecessary to divide the sustainer into two body tube segments as combined, they're less than 18" long. It might be a good idea to simply cut another tube down to 14.75", then use that for the rocket (less filling needed), and simply toss the other tubes into the spares box for future scrap builds.


And now the EPIC II (7286) has joined the lineup:

upload_2019-11-6_8-40-23.png

Again, this is the same rocket as the Sterling Silver, just with different decals, paint scheme, and instructions (no languages used other than English).

Typically I try to reproduce the scheme seen on the facecard, or in the instructions (occasionally both), but in this case, the logos that I found in the scans are 1.44" long, too big to fit on the sustainer's fin as seen on the facecard. The facecard appears to have an actual photo of a built rocket. If you look down by the fins, there's something odd about it. It looks like a paint run right at the joint of the 2.75" and 12" long body tubes. The blue of the decals looks to my eye (based on the scans I received) to be a match for Testors Gloss Bright Blue (1210). However, the blue of the paint is much darker. The instructions simply call for "Gloss Blue". Try as I might, I couldn't find a Testors paint simply called "Gloss Blue". The instructions called for the booster to simply be painted black. The facecard looks to have a blue fading into black on the booster for the larger rocket seen on it, and the booster falling away from the other looks to simply be blue.

Follow the links for more info about these kits.
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/scans-of-the-estes-epic-ii-7286-sterling-silver-7275.155482/
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/estes-pro-series-impulse-2064-info-revisited.155851/

Remember it's seriously uncool to clone in production kits (it hurts our vendors). However, it is seriously cool to upscale and downscale them. My samples are awaiting shipment at eRockets.

Thanks to John Boren (JumpJet), Bernard Crawley (BEC), Robert Spillane and Phil (scadaman29325) for their help on these kits.
 

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Here's a kit that I greatly wish I had the opportunity to pick up back in the day... Still do. The Estes SKY-HI (1365):



I almost hated releasing this sim, as it'd likely drive up demand for the few kits out there, but Damn... it's too sexy just to sit on my computer.

Prior to OR 22.02, this one needed 24 fins... Yup!!! 24. Because every fin has a decal, and the decals are mirrored, I needed to double the fins. However, without the decals on one side, it'd look... well... weird. So, the balsa fins don't have decals, and the air fins have been offset to display the decals properly. After OR 22.02 dropped, I was able to eliminate all the extra "Air Fins". The updated .ork file has no tricks at all, and requires no modification to give good flight data. If you downloaded the previous version, you should delete it and download the new.

Instructions, fins and decals came from JimZ's site.
https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est1365.htm

If you find any errors, or have feedback, please use my new feedback thread. Please follow the link to and direct your questions, or comments to it or send me a PM. However, please feel free to add Likes to these posts if you want. They are appreciated and give me an idea of what people like. Thanks!
 

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