New 3" diameter Red Max
 

For those who have viewed the Virtual NARAM Manufacturers' Forum, during the Estes presentation Bill Stine showed a new three-inch diameter Red Max kit to be released in the future.

This got me thinking.

That nose cone could be used to make upscale models of classic Estes kits.

Citation Patriot, Renegade, Der Big Red Max...

Even a two stage Omega! Stage it with Estes E16/F15 motors.

This could be fun. :D

That’s a thought! Ya know, it is actually kind of surprising that an upscale Citation Patriot has not been offered in the past. It would take quite a few square inches of decal material to do it right and possible the cost of that aspect has been a limiting factor for a commercial product offering.

But, as you are alluding, doesn’t stop the individual from doing it on their own!

Earl

I have a BT-80 scratch built version so I'm pretty confident I know why there has never been one.

1. I used a ton of balsa making a BT-80 sized nose cone for it.
2. It's a large rocket. Just a few inches shorter than the Colossus.
3. The fins scale up very large. I built them out of balsa TTW and scaled their thickness as well, so that it would be light and fly easily on a single D12 or whatever cluster I wanted (removable mount).
4. The decals are huge.

Add #1 and #4 together and you have a pretty expensive rocket before you even look at the rest of the components. A blow molded cone would be cheap if enough units are sold, but I doubt Estes thought it would be a money maker in years past.

With that in mind, I've just been talking about a BT-80 kit similar to a Colossus. If you go 3" that spells heavy tubing, thicker NC, ply fins. You would need a hard kicking E or better yet a good F motor. Until recently, Estes wasn't in that sort of business. Kits are just a means of selling motors and most people would have been shoving in Aerotech G motors.

Scratch 4" Red Max, Goblin, and Cherokee-D upscales were my staple high powered models back in my Ex days. We've seen what Estes had to do to keep the weight down on their Mega kit. Without those lightening methods, it would have needed an H motor. I flew my Goblin with altimeter recovery on a 38mm G Ex motor (with as much performance as we could get out of a single grain) and it was pretty low and slow.

I would love to get that 3" nose cone to since there isn't a lot of choices for the thin walled 3" tubing.

Since I do most of my flying on school fields these days, I believe the thin walled 3" tube rockets is a good size for me. Build on the light side, to use Estes 29mm E and F engines and some lower price Aerotech 24mm. Flights around 400 to 500' range.

I have down scaled the 4" Archer 14, Patriot and Phoenix. Also cloned the Lance Beta with the thin walled 3" tubing.

None built yet. Parcel build of Archer 14. I all parts on hand for the others. But that nose cone would work better for the Archer for sure.

Lance Beta is a Estes Big Daddy nose cone, no problem there.

Stickershock23 is definitely the way to go for an upscaled Citation Patriot, Omega, and other rockets using the DRM 3” nose cone.

Here are a couple off their website.

I like the 3" Omega ideer using F15-0 or E16-0 to F15-8

the Omega is one of my favorites, I was a kid when the original came out and never could afford it.
a 3in upscale would be sweet

I just opened a Patriot kit to build. Man, that kit has some barn door-sized fins! Double the size and they’d be huge!

If I was going to try to upscale a Citation Patriot to 3" (or bigger), I would reduce the size of the fins a bit. When Estes produced the Super Vega, the main fins are huge, and the Vega was only upscaled by about 1.6 times.

New Red Max kit now showing as available from Estes.