Is it an STM, or is it a Bandit?
 

Here is my latest build. It’s sort of a Bandit, but the parts came out of an STM-012 bag. A friend with perhaps the largest collection of these kits gave me one — with what I think was an ultimatum ... “I want to see what you can do with it”. 😂
I took him seriously. This did not mean that I was just to give it a unique paint job. I chopped the lower tube, used the cutoff for the payload section, and trimmed the stock fins a bit.
This is my first Stickershock build. Mark Hayes does awesome vinyl!

Looks great! The STM is just begging to be converted into a two stage bird. Maybe kitbashed with 29mm motor mounts and gap staging?

Looks like a tiny hole between both sets of fins. Pop lug mounts? Altimeter? Ant scale doors?

BTW, not being picky. I was zooming to get a look at the stickershock decals.

Tempting, for sure! Maybe on the next one.

Good catch, even zoomed in! They are holes for the mini rail buttons. I pretty much use them on everything if possible. I took picture before applying clearcoat. I normally use a matte finish, but like the glossy look and may just go with Future floor polish.

The application of vinyl takes some getting used to. One of the Bandit name decals is slightly crooked, I let go of the application tape and the decal touched the rocket. With all letters being separate pieces, I didn’t want to risk trying to lift it off. Fortunately, it’s pretty minor.

It looks great! I was only zooming to see how small vinyl details could be. I forgot you use rail buttons.

I’m not at home today, but I’ll take a picture of the small lettering when I get home tonight. For the little “hatch-like” decals for the Bandit, the text is individual letters. I’m surprised vinyl cutters can cut so accurately. Mark Hayes says some lettering is too small to cut, and must be printed on a solid piece of vinyl, like printing a label. Amazing that is not required on these.

Lee,

I really like that "Bandit"!

Need to check out Stickershock...

Bob

That looks truly spectacular. I may copy that paint scheme someday.



You won't be sorry.

Estes has already copied it off Lee. ;)

The original Bandit is (was) nice but didn't inspire me. Lee's version looks way better, both from rocket design standpoint and also the use of the really punchy yellow instead of the gold.

It's a good reminder though that I should spend more time trolling through old Estes catalogs to look for ideas. Haven't done that for a few.... months or so. :)

That's just the catalog's poor color quality. The instructions say to paint it yellow.

My son's scratch built Bandit in yellow.

Thanks Neil!

I mentioned previously that I’d post closeups of the Stickershock decal. One is a little Bandit decal that has individual pieces of vinyl for each letter. Also shown are a few letters of the “U.S. AIR FORCE” letters. Very crisp. Thin too. These are on a BT-60, so slightly upscale from the original waterslide decals.

Wow, nice! I still want to build a standard Bandit, maybe an upscale. But it would probably be BT-80 or 80H, so I can turn a nose cone using the cheap 3” balsa blocks from Hobby Lobby.

I see why folks like the vinyl. There's no trimming of decal material and you will never have yellowing or fading. However, there is a bit of an edge to them and repositioning is more involved.

For super detail and lots of colors on a decal, nothing beats waterslides. But I’m pretty encouraged to start using more vinyl on midsized builds, particularly on designs with fairly simple graphics and text. And if a decal has white, the vinyl is great. No body color showing thru the white.

I used vinyl back in my HPR days. It was pretty expensive in the 90's and 2000's because all we had around here were folks with no experience starting sign shops with really slow computers. I could take them a file that was already cleaned up and ready to go, and it would take them all day to cut it. :rolleyes: I don't think Stickershock came around until I was already out of HPR/EX.

I like this alternate-bandit a lot. I have an STM-012 kit and might go this route.

I recently finished an upscale Hawks Hobbies Bandit. The decals were unfortunately way fragile; I ruined most of the hatch-detail ones. Maybe sticker shock can help with that?

Definitely give Stickershock a try. You could get a complete Bandit set and try the ones where you had trouble. And you have the rest if you just decide to re-decal the entire rocket.

I think my BT-60 sized set sells for $16. I bought them and another decal set on one of their 1/2 off sales, so I got a great deal. Mark’s sales are for non-custom work, so no changes. But, you do pick the size, so I think it applies to most any size. He does ask for your rocket’s tube circumference when you order.

Lee, to the extent that someone can be (and around here I guess that's quite a bit), I was awestruck by your photo. Brilliant concept, beautifully executed. I have an STM in the bag, and I love the Bandit... :rolleyes:

Wow, thanks very much ... I’m humbled. There is only one thing I can say ...

Banditize that STM!

:)

Well thanks a lot for making me go out and buy an STM-012!! Lol.
It was only $22.35 CDN though and I was able to forego shipping and pick it up locally(relatively).
I picked up an Executioner to kitbash for an Optima clone.

https://www.allrockets.ca/index.php...keyword=Stm-012

I hear you. I've blocked Jeffy Jeep, Scigs, Vanel, Lee, Initiator and many others as their builds were so nice I found myself building everything they did. ;)

At long last — I’m getting blocked for something positive! :)