Loc Aura: fins

[kuririn]

I was putting together a Loc Aura kit last night to replace one that I thought I had lost (but which was subsequently recovered minus one fin). I traced a fin from the new kit onto `1/8" birch ply to later cut and replace the lost one, then started assembly of the new kit.
While looking at the new kit and my old one side by side something looked "off".



The two trailing edge lengths of the newer fin are different than the older one.
Not a major disaster, but WTF?
Wouldn't you expect that Aura fins from 10 years ago would be the same dimensions as Aura fins today?
Manufacturing faux pas?
Deliberate change in fin dimensions?
Rant for today over.

 

[heada]

LOC was owned by someone different 10 years ago. Lots of reasons they could be different when viewed through that light.

 

[kuririn]

I would have thought that the fins would have been cut according to an original master, or the dimensions from that master. So if I was a purist (which I am not) then there are two possibilities: One fin's dimensions are correct and the other is slightly off, or both dimensions are off. But they cannot both be correct.
Anyway, just an irritation that I wasn't expecting from a big name model rocket manufacturer.

 

[Fattbank64]

IMO manufacturing/fabrication procedures have changed. More than likely, the kit was re-designed.

 

[Nytrunner]

Manufacturing noise, parallax, drawing creep, you name it.

Its why I don't mingle with the "Oh but the REAL version's span is .095 greater!" crowd since any given measurement from their favorite rocket vintage could be off for any number of reasons from an unsharpened dye, to cutter kerf, to laser calibration that week

 

[DigBaddy]

Could be that model's fins were similar enough to some other model, existing or newly designed, and they made their manufacturing more efficient by changing it slightly. I know I'd look for those opportunities. I'm sure they are too.