Hello All,

I came across someone who is selling the Estes "Make It-Take It" kits, the red/white/blue Athena RTF-like rockets that the Boy Scouts use for record-setting mass launches, on eBay (see: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Three-Estes...#h t_767wt_884 ). I wish Estes would sell these tri-colored kits, perhaps seasonally, before the 4th of July.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

I would suggest you simply purchase a set off of Ebay. The price looks pretty good.



John Boren

I would, except that they don't ship to Alaska... :-(

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

HobbyLinc carries them: http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/est/est1799.htm It looks like they ship to AK.

Of course, that's 25 models....how many were you looking to get, Jason?

BTW, they build up to an exact equivalent to the RTF HiJinks - it's a little shorter than the RTF Athena.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

I was just thinking of getting a 3-pack for myself...but I do know a local teacher who might be interested in the 25-kit bulk pack. The last I checked (last year), HobbyLinc didn't ship to Alaska, but they may have changed that policy; thank you for sending the link--I'll look at it now!

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Those are nice kits, I bought a set from the seller. I wish Estes would go back to the old red and white AlphaIII kit.

I share that wish (even if they used a pre-colored white body tube rather than the old "painting required" brown kraft paper body tube). The "mod" colors of many of today's rocket kits--and even of the current "liveries" of perennial favorite kits--often leave me cold. In aesthetics, as in the culinary arts, often "less is more." That's why I like the "Make It-Take It" kit's decor scheme, as well as the Alpha III's original decor scheme; both have/had simple, bold colors and simple yet distinctive decal patterns and lettering. Also:

The "kiddish" decals that one sees on many current kits (the kind with amorphous, multi-colored designs that *look* like a kid spilled paint or ink there) would have embarrassed me even in my pre-teen years, because rockets with such decals look like toys. I certainly wasn't the best rocket builder (or painter/decaler) at that tender age, but in those days the old Estes, Centuri, and MPC kits' paint patterns and decals had a serious, respectable look that encouraged us to do our best to give our rockets that scale-like appearance like "the big 'uns" at White Sands, Wallops Island, and Cape Canaveral.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Decor aside, the Alpha and Alpha III are *not* my choice for any youth group. They are too short. In the dawn of Model Rocketry that super short body tube might have been fine for a parachute with a paper parachute protector, but in the age of "wadding", we need enough body tube length to install a proper amount of wadding ADN install a recovery system. And since these are beginner kits it should not be so difficult to protect the parachute and shock cord with the proper amount of wadding and fold the parachute and install it easily.

With the longer tube of the Make-It Take-It or the Generic E2X you have the proper amount of room for wadding and an easily folded parachute that will open easily when ejected.

I see too many youth group leaders who buy the Alpha III or Alpha simply because they built it when they were a kid and they remember it. They cannot get the proper amount of wadding in and they struggle to fold the parachute in quarters to cram it inside the way-too-short body tube.

If it is necessary to have name recognition, then make a version of the Make-It Take-It in Alpha colors (with a one piece nose cone) and call it the Alpha V and sell it in bulk packs and get rid of the Alpha III.

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

When I helped schools with their rocket programs (and the teachers did usually choose Alpha and Alpha III kits because of their familiarity with them), the packing space problem was a non-issue. In the cases of kids who didn't pack their rockets' parachutes in the compact "Carlisle Rock-A-Chute" way illustrated in Stine's handbook, simply wrapping a couple of squares of wadding around the 'chutes worked just as well as crumpled wadding "pistons." I also showed them--to give them a little model rocketry "living history"--how to make the cruciform parachute protectors out of squares of wadding (no cutting was necessary; we just tore four lines across two squares and folded them around the 'chutes like deployment bags).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

So is this Make-it Take-it pack the equivalent of the Alpha-3?
NIU has some that I'll be using for a class in the spring.

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I fought the law, and the law LOST!