YKWBS: Rocketry style!

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

smstachwick

LPR/MPR sport flier with an eye to HPR and scale
TRF Supporter
Joined
Jul 29, 2021
Messages
3,868
Reaction score
3,827
Location
Poway, CA
Anybody who frequented YouTube back in its glory days is probably familiar with Cinemassacre, or at least their most famous series, the Angry Video Game Nerd.

One of their other series, one that I felt was criminally underrated, was "You Know What's Bull****?" James would either go on camera or just do a voiceover and proceed to go on hilarious unhinged rants about life's little frustrations, the ones that never fail to needlessly elevate our blood pressure.

Some of them were ridiculous and silly but that was just part of the charm. Everybody goes through different stuff.

Anyway, here's my little tribute to YKWBS....rocketry style! It's not intended to be libellious or excessively negative or anything, just perhaps relatable and maybe a little humorous.

EDIT: Definitely more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.


You know what's Buuuuuuuuuuuulllllllls***?

Watserslide decals! Why, in the name of all that is holy, have model rocket kit manufacturers made us put up with this garbage for so long? You gotta soak 'em? Why? Why can't they just be regular stickers? Why do I have to mess around with fishing these accursed things out of a bowl of lukewarm water? When you get them out, they're not even paper, they're just this dainty little film that'll stretch out or tear if you so much as look at wrong! I may as well try to take off the top air-dried "skin" layer of chocolate pudding and try to put that on a rocket, it'd probably be more durable!

And no, don't even think about scanning them and printing your own as a backup set. You'd think that they'd print them on plain white paper so that builders can do this easily and have some kind of insurance, but almost every set of waterslide decals I've seen has been printed on blue! Baby blue! Congratulations, everybody at the range is going to know you ruined your decals because instead of having a clear background, the background is blue. Maybe that would be great if I were painting the rocket baby blue because I knew I'd be so ashamed of my decal job that I'd want it to blend into the sky so I'd lose it on purpose! Hell yeah!

Don't even try to print your scans out black-and-white, you'll get the same result, just with a light gray background instead.

I get that this might be an anti-cloning measure, to prevent people from being able to copy a kit that the manufacturer has spent a lot of money to develop, but couldn't they at least give you an extra set? They give you an extra igniter with a 3-pack of 18mm motors so you can still fly if you have a bad one. Why can't I have an extra decal in my rocket kit set in case one decides to give me the finger and commit seppuku as soon as I remove it from the water?

Full body wraps are the worst. They never meet cleanly, so you have to hide the meeting edges on the side of the rocket that spectators won't see from the pad. Don't you dare take pride in your work! Only feel comfortable showing off a very specific part of something you spent hours or days working on!

I also understand that there are some modelers who prefer waterslides because they're skilled enough to get them on perfectly on the first try and can get them to lay more smoothly than the other types. To them I say, "Oh, great for you. Absolutely splendid," as I do the slow, sarcastic, contemptuous hand clap. But why can't there be an option for the rest of us to go with vinyl or paper stickers instead? I know there are a few kits out there that have two different motor mount options, why can't there be a few for the finishing supplies too?

Somebody invented them, they're the worst things this hobby has ever seen, they're called waterslide decals, and they're bullsh**!
 
Last edited:
I admit that rereading it has made me realize the desired tone and intent probably doesn’t really come through for those who aren’t familiar with the series.

But I’d bet the 3 other users here who have seen an episode or two might appreciate what I’m going for here.
 
Actually it looks and reads like almost every piece of internet vitriol I have seen. However I do understand (I think) where you were going with the original post.😀
 
Back
Top