Today my girlfriend completed her first build of a complete airframe: an Estes Yankee kit painted to look like a Ticonderoga Number 2 HB pencil, dubbed the Yankee Doodle.
After her gorgeous and remarkably neat work on the booster for my Super Goblin, she deferred to my greater knowledge of available rockets and asked that I select a kit for her to build a full airframe. Special preference was to be given to ones that suggested a patriotic American red/white/blue paint scheme. Given her demonstrated proficiency with my hobby knives and her desire to work on something more challenging, I determined that the Yankee fit the bill. The rocket’s size and the nose’s shape suggested a pencil in her mind though, so she opted for emulating the look of a Ticonderoga pencil, paying homage to her background as an English major and an artist.
When I came up with the Yankee Doodle pun she liked it enough (and facepalmed at it hard enough) that we were both in agreement that it should be attached to the rocket.
The only hands-on thing I did for her was sand the fins to produce a flat gluing surface. I had never cut fins from a paper template before so I had to experiment and find a good technique, instead of walking her through it. Otherwise assembly and finishing were done entirely by her according to the Estes instructions.
The rocket flew at ROC’s February launch on an A8-5 with an unfinished paint scheme. Since then she has spent a great deal of time getting the colors and paint scheme exactly as she wanted them. Tonight, she finished the gloss coat and declared the rocket complete.
The next flight is expected at LDRS, either on another A8-5 or a B6-6, as conditions permit. I also have a few C6-7s earmarked for it.
After her gorgeous and remarkably neat work on the booster for my Super Goblin, she deferred to my greater knowledge of available rockets and asked that I select a kit for her to build a full airframe. Special preference was to be given to ones that suggested a patriotic American red/white/blue paint scheme. Given her demonstrated proficiency with my hobby knives and her desire to work on something more challenging, I determined that the Yankee fit the bill. The rocket’s size and the nose’s shape suggested a pencil in her mind though, so she opted for emulating the look of a Ticonderoga pencil, paying homage to her background as an English major and an artist.
When I came up with the Yankee Doodle pun she liked it enough (and facepalmed at it hard enough) that we were both in agreement that it should be attached to the rocket.
The only hands-on thing I did for her was sand the fins to produce a flat gluing surface. I had never cut fins from a paper template before so I had to experiment and find a good technique, instead of walking her through it. Otherwise assembly and finishing were done entirely by her according to the Estes instructions.
The rocket flew at ROC’s February launch on an A8-5 with an unfinished paint scheme. Since then she has spent a great deal of time getting the colors and paint scheme exactly as she wanted them. Tonight, she finished the gloss coat and declared the rocket complete.
The next flight is expected at LDRS, either on another A8-5 or a B6-6, as conditions permit. I also have a few C6-7s earmarked for it.
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