View Single Post
  #12  
Old 07-25-2017, 12:52 PM
tbzep's Avatar
tbzep tbzep is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TN
Posts: 11,610
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterAlway
This sums up exactly why I haven't reprinted it. There have been a whole lot of new developments in the past 23 years (gulp! Has it really been that long?), and a lot of the sources and supplies quoted in the book have disappeared. To produce an updated version isn't just about writing, illustration, and layout, but it's about re-learning half the content in the book. I really haven't kept up-to-date with the technology (I have no clue how to do 3-d printing, or how to avoid the very real problems I've seen with it) but just as importantly, I haven't kept up with the model rocket marketplace or the outside-world marketplace.

One example that comes to mind is the current world of spray paints. My favorite dutch boy/K-mart paints, for example, no longer exist. I know that Krylon has been reformulated and people have trouble with it. Another example is the apparent disappearance of dry transfer lettering, replaced by computer graphics. Even vinyl lettering, which used to have clean die-cut edges, now has lumpy, raised laser-cut edges. ALPS decal printers which were apparently very nice and capable of wonderful results, have apparently come and gone.

The awful truth is that I'm no longer even qualified to write a book on scale model rocketry. I really don't have the time, energy, or money to develop the expertise to be qualified again.

On the bright side, I *am* working on some new scale data!

Peter Alway


While your book is somewhat dated, the mindset that it helps create is not. My son took my TAOSMR book's Aerobee 150A gap staged plan and built a gap staged Aerobee Hi just a few years ago. IIRC, I turned the nose cone for him on my wood lathe. However, the information about turning cones with a drill would be good for folks without a lathe.

Kit bashing and general part sourcing info can be covered by us folks at YORF. Several of the source kits you mentioned aren't in production anymore, but odds are there's a Semroc part or a newer Estes kit that uses the equivalent nose cone. If it isn't made anymore, several of us will have the part that we can measure, photograph, diagram, and dissect for the good of the project. Some folks even have extras that they might trade, sell, or even pay forward.

Maybe you could consider doing an electronic version with the customer's knowledge up front that it's a 20+ year old book. Without having to deal with printing costs, the E book would be inexpensive and you would probably still make as much per copy if not more. It's just a thought. I have my hard copy that I scooped up the minute you published it!
__________________
I love sanding.
Reply With Quote