Some Remembered Shrox Kits

Over on the Yorf site is an old thread which I just encountered last September, called "Some forgotten Shrox kits". Since I was in the mood for another thematic build, I decided to build them. All of them. Every on on the list, and others that I could find.

So I did.

Some were easy to build, since Apogee included the plans in their newsletters, and has (or at least had) the dimensions and decals.

Others could be inferred from Rocksim files that were released, although I needed to draw and print the decals myself.

Others could be inferred from plan drawings released by Shrox, with top, side, and end views. With some reasoning about the parts sizes, the drawings could be scaled and kits made, once decals were drawn.

The hardest were extrapolated from photos or projection drawings. For those, some mathematics and some assumptions were made, so that I could reverse engineer the dimensions.

Of course, some reverse engineered kits may be off by a fraction of in inch in some places. Others that only had crude images available (like the black-and white pixellated image of the Quantum Boom I have) may be quite a bit off. But, I feel that the results are representative of the Shrox designs.

I did not build the recently announced kits, which Shrox announced at the end of 2012. Sure, those kits could be reverse engineered from the pictures, but I'd rather buy them from him, and then clone them from the kits I purchased. That's what I did with the currently available kits from Dynstar, Flis, and Quest. I bought them and cloned them - except for the Quest kits, which I bought and built beause they have too much white in their decals.

I'll not release any of the plans I created or the Rocksim files, since most of those kits were commercial, and might still become such. Besides, I like Shrox's designs and don't want to undercut his work.

The list of the Shrox kits I built and will be publishing pictures of, not including the gliders, is:
Aerospace One, Quest
Aerospace One Fighter Escort, Quest
Alien8, Flis
Alien8, Shrox
Aries
Bolaero Z
Capricorn (variant of Icarus)
Daedelus (variant of Icarus)
Dart
DC Sam
Demon Squid
Der Rammstein
DynasoarX
Europa Probe
Federation
Firefox, Shrox
Firefox, Dynastar
Harrier
Helios
Hyperion
Icarus
Javelin
Lancer (variant of Stiletto)
LexxJet, Dynastar
Mars Plymouth
Oberth
Orion, Apogee
Orion, Shrox
Orion Transport, Dynastar
Quantum Boom
Ripley
Sarah Conner
Scram Cat
Sea Zipper
Sea-Snake
SHX-15
SHX-15B
SHX-15D Delta
SHX Star shuttle
SHX-21 Rocket Plane
SHX-24B w/ booster
SHX-3
SHX-3, midpower
Snarky, Dynastar
Snipet
Solarkron
Space Alpha One
Star 01
Stiletto, shrox
Stiletto, Quest
Stonebreaker AX
Stonebreaker, Dynastar
SHX-10 Navaho
Tritip
TVM-01
Twoner
Undercutter
Vipox
XF-45

Edit: I haven't launched any of these yet. Too cold and wet for me to go out with my rockets.

 

This is an older design for the Alien 8, from Shrox. I believe it predates the version from Flis.

 

I build the Flis kit for this, and cloned it. (Cuz I do most of the time. That way, I have the rocket, and still have the kit.)



The stock image from Flis

 

The Bolaero Z was released as an Apogee design. It included the rocksim files and decals, so I just needed to cut, paint, and print decals.

 

Aerospace 1 is a design released by Quest. It goes with the AS-1 escort plane.

For these, I cloned the body and nose, and the decals on the AS-1, but not the Escort, because the decals had too much white that is hard for me to do. But, I learned how much I dislike the Quest decals. They are very thin and wrinkle or crack too easily.



For the Aerospace One, the plans gave decals for big blue sections, except for the nose. I wanted them to match in color, so I used the decals to lay out a mask on wide blue masking tape, and applied that. Then I painted all of the blue.

Oh, I got the tubes from Quest, because they have a sale once a year, and I get bunches of their tubes, specificaly so I can clone the rockets I buy from them.

 

The Icarus I built was so close in design to Shrox' Daedelus and Capricorn designs that I just build the Icarus.

I thought I was a bit goofy when I saw it without the paint. But, once I got it gussied up with the decals, I really like that design.
View attachment 114220 View attachment 114219

The Capricorn was a plan for Shrox release, and the Daedelus was a plan for Estes release p/n EST-1332, IIRC.

 

This rocket has the name included in the decals, but in white. White is haaaaaard with decals. My solution for this was to cut out all of the letters from white decal stock, and apply each one separately. I was pretty happy with the results, but it was tedious. For a later rocket, I tried cutting the letters from self-adhesive vinyl material, and I was much more satisfied with the ease of that method.

I probably should have tipped the rocket to the left for the photo, so the name wouldn't look like it is upside down.

 

I've got an Icarus, but it needs major surgery after being sat on by a fat kid at a launch years ago.:eyeroll:

 

I wonder if Estes will officially release this...... Probably my favorite Shrox kit, which, in a perfect world I would upscale......

 

I would like to try something with Estes again now that Barry is gone.

 

So you have built all of these or about to?
Got pics? Build Threads?

 

Perhaps Barry should have visited the "spanking parlor "......


Paul T

 

I've built them all, and will be posting the photos over the next few days - lots of photos and posting. I didn't take any shots for build threads, since I had 5 to 10 rockets in the works at a time, and figured I'd lose track of what photo went where.

 

Shrox sure has a lot of really cool looking designs. The Solarkron would be my favorite. Unfortunately, I am late on the scene and missed out on most of his rockets.

 

I am sure if I was lavished with money and attention I could revive things.

 

This is one of the X-3/Stiletto styled planes Shrox released. This one is the BT-55 sized version.

I extrapolated the design from this illustration.

 

I haven't launched many mid-power rockets, but because of this project, I certaily will. This is the mid-power version of the SHX-3, based on a BT-70 tube.

This one had no plan drawing to go from, so I extrapolated it from the midpower drawing, and used the smaller SHX-3 as a guide for questionable dimensions.

 

Most excellent.

 

The Quest Stiletto falls within the family of SHX-3/Stiletto designs, I think, given that the Stiletto was the nickname for the X-3 entry in the X-plane series.

I cloned this one, including the nose and decals. To get a really good metallic surface, I first painted it with a gloss black undercoat, and then an Aluminum metallic topcoat. I hadn't done that two-step coating before, because I've always been afraid of getting wrinkles painting over paint. But, I was really happy with the results.


The original design can be seen at Quest's site.

 

A variant of the Stiletto that I think was in mind for Estes. It differs from the Quest model, mainly in that the nost fits flush, and it has two keels. Of course, it also doesn't have any Q's on the vertical stabiliers, either. :wink:



As an Estes model, it would have been called the Lancer, from some hints I saw while researching this rocket. I didn't build both the Lancer and the Stiletto, because they are similar enough.

 

Tonight I'm posting the Shrox rockets - ok, shrockets - with an airplane theme. The Snarky is one that I had been wanting a long time, and was one that nudged me toward going overboard with the Shrox designs.

As I have hinted - somewhat less than subtly - I cloned this one even though I bought it from Apogee. I mean - scratch building is the coolest building, but if it's for sale, buy it and support the industry.

I made this one from basswood, as I did most of the scratch built rockets. I also made the decals from my laser printer. I love this design - so snarky!

 

Yet another aeronautical astronautical cosmonautical big boy toy. It's a midpower rocket from Dynastar - whic I bought from Apogee - which means I've got to get several E's, F's, and G's that I've not used before.

The LexxJet posed a challenge for me, because I wanted the red nose to be the same color as the red decals. I've never been satisified matching paint to decals. So, as a scratch builder with a laser printer, I printed out enough red to cover the entire nose. So, I effectively painted the rocket with decals. The only paint is the white that is the insulating layer between the cardboard and the decals.

This one is not rear eject, since it uses a boat tail and it would be hard to funnel the chute out the back. Instead, it is merely a front eject.

 

Do you hate this rocket, or do you have this rocket? Only Rammstein knows for sure.

Except, I know that I've got a home built version of this rocket. And, I surely do not hate it.

Its also a rear eject, for that smooooth feel at the nose cone. It's a BT-70 size, so yet again, I'll be using them mid-power engines. I need to find a better launch site with more acreage and fewer trees. Anyone in the Vancouver region of Washington state and have a secret launch facility that could be shared?

It was built from this design.

I had to extrapolate this one, but even with possible variances, I'm really happy with it.

 

Last one for tonight. The Undercutter XT - one cool looking design that I'm sure will be a rewarding challenge for stability.

​

I wasn't really sure how the various pieces fit together from the illustration, but luckily this was tackled by EchoVictor, and he posted as build thread. I give him thanks for the guidance in his post.

​

This rocket had lots and lots of white decals, which are hard to make at home. I had tried making white decals by cutting them out of white decal paper on the Hyperion, but that was too tedious. This time, I cut them out of adhesive vinyl using my laser cutter. By putting a front piece of tape on them to transfer them to the rocket, positioning was much, much easier.

Again, a rear-eject rocket. I read comments about the chute getting tangled in the front forks, and I like the seamless look, so avoided making it a front loader.

 

WAY to Kewl....they're not rockets....


...............they're Shroxets!

 

A true Shroxoholic!

In other news sales of ping pong balls hit a new high in the fourth quarter of 2012, breaking all analyst's expectations. Lacking an explanation most economists attribute the surge to some unknown underground movement which has prompted investigations being launched at several government regulatory agencies both here and abroad.

 

Shrockets