Restoration Thread - Bull Pup 12D

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DHos

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While the Laser-X dries completely before it’s final paint, I figured now is a good time to finish another of my fathers rockets I was restoring.
This Bull Pup 12D was built in the 90s when I was kid building the Alpha and Twister. The model had multiple hard landing and I remember at one point my father was going to toss it, but I convinced him I can fix it with my Elmers, white testor paint, and 8-yr-olds skills. And it broke again.
Well, here goes another restoration/repair that will hopefully be better then my last attempt 25 years ago.
 

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Before I started this restoration, I built my own and this picture made me realize the big problem I made.
 

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Here she is after 1/4’ of elmers removal sanding, and JBWeld to hold these tube rejecting fins in place.
 

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My 12D decided to go on an adventure so I built a 24mm version. This had a hard landing and cracked 3 fins. I used epoxy and dremeled the seams, added more epoxy and paint. It flies again at 01:54. Plan to use a D12-5 tomorrow.

 
Kudos for your work to retain your father's legacy...

I find myself looking to build the same models that my father built when I was young and he was introducing me to the hobby. Pity that of the three I recall most vividly, two are OOP and would need to be cloned (K-27 Honest John and K-38 Avenger). The third was a Centuri Nike Smoke which I could 'recreate' via the Estes 7247 kit (though I am on the fence about 'going bigger' via a PS II Nike Smoke if I can find one, or the Cosmodrome kit...)

Question about the two Bull Pup models you show in post #2. Are they different versions/kits, did Estes revise the model over time? It looks like the rear fins on the new one are closer to the boattail than the model under restoration.

Again, admirable work on your part.
 
While scrolling through the forum tonight, I found your thread. While I like the rocket related info, I was most moved by the fact you are restoring your fathers rockets. Your father raised a good son.

Thank you so much! He was such a great man/builder/architect/father and I try to to live up to only a fraction of his legacy.
 
Kudos for your work to retain your father's legacy...

I find myself looking to build the same models that my father built when I was young and he was introducing me to the hobby. Pity that of the three I recall most vividly, two are OOP and would need to be cloned (K-27 Honest John and K-38 Avenger). The third was a Centuri Nike Smoke which I could 'recreate' via the Estes 7247 kit (though I am on the fence about 'going bigger' via a PS II Nike Smoke if I can find one, or the Cosmodrome kit...)

Question about the two Bull Pup models you show in post #2. Are they different versions/kits, did Estes revise the model over time? It looks like the rear fins on the new one are closer to the boattail than the model under restoration.

Again, admirable work on your part.

Go for it! I’m restoring a handful of his, and cloning others. He also had a personal favorite that he scratch built that I will not touch, but build clones of. It’s a crazy build too once I was pointed out it’s history of parts.

As for the two kits, one is one I built recently and accidentally mounted the fins way too low. The kits are not different per se, but the decals are slightly different. Most obvious is the stripe is orange versus the original red. To counter this, I ordered an old parted out kit.
Here is the old decal set with my new completed Bull Pup.
 

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On a side note, I’m confused if the forward fin’s root edge is the hypotenuse or the tangent? I’ve seen it both ways but the original has the tangent side. Any reason for the different styles?

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On a side note, I’m confused if the forward fin’s root edge is the hypotenuse or the tangent? I’ve seen it both ways but the original has the tangent side. Any reason for the different styles?

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Having the 90 degree angle on the bottom versus mounting the fin on the hypotenuse may have been an error. I’ve always seen the Estes packaging with the 90 down, but there are a lot of real life Bull Pup varieties out there.
I work with a guy now who use to work on the real ones and he remarked he didn’t recognize the Estes one looking particularly like a real life one he recalled, but in our search, the front fin size, placement and shape all vary drastically.
 
Finished with the JB Weld sanding and one coat of primer, it I will need a bit of filler to more properly clean these fillets.
 

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JB Weld sanded, putty filled, and ready for some last touch ups and the last coat of primer before the final white and decals.
 

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I love the restoration, those fillets are amazing quality.
I just got done with the decals for my own bull pup and as I was trying to figure out the decal placement and reference old images, I got to wondering, is this kit even scale? It seems like the forward fin placement isn't accurate to anything I could find, and there are so many variants of this missile it seems like the estes kit might be better classified as a 'fantasy scale' or 'pseudo scale'. Does your friend happen to know how many variants there are?
 
I love the restoration, those fillets are amazing quality.
I just got done with the decals for my own bull pup and as I was trying to figure out the decal placement and reference old images, I got to wondering, is this kit even scale? It seems like the forward fin placement isn't accurate to anything I could find, and there are so many variants of this missile it seems like the estes kit might be better classified as a 'fantasy scale' or 'pseudo scale'. Does your friend happen to know how many variants there are?
I recently talked to my friend and he did say there were other paint schemes depending on what military branch it was used for, but in terms of how many, it really is whatever we can find on the internet, otherwise we won’t find out.

Now, to finish the final clear and take the last 360 shots.
 
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