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Old 07-24-2017, 03:49 PM
PeterAlway PeterAlway is offline
Intermediate Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 89
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwtoelle
It is a great book for someone interested in building good scale models. There are tips on how handle things like how to deal with prototypes with multiple tube diameters, how to handle lettering on the rockets, and a lot of other ways to make building these rockets easier. However, several sections would need updating to deal with some of the new technologies (3-D printing, for example) that have become readily available in the last 23 years.


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
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