Estes Big Bertha Colors?
 

I have a BB and I don't like the black color. I want to paint it the original color.
question is, the overall color white or yelllow or what?
How about the nose and the other color.
Here is the first BB from 1966

http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...66/66est32.html

Actually, this is the first Big Bertha. That's Vern Estes' original BB that I'm wearing as a hat. :D

Seems like i saw one in a pic in catalog #671 that was blue and white........

Someone was nice enough to put this together and put it up for me, sorry for not remembering who you are out there... Not sure if this helps you or not though.

That's a tough one.
By the looks of many of the other rockets in the catalog, they were heavily airbrushed to give the appearance of a smooth finish. That squared area on the fins could have been added to the photograph.

Chances are, that started as a black and white photograph and was airbrushed in gray tones.
Unless somebody who was actually there producing the catalog chimes in, it's tough to tell.

Reds will photograph as black or a very dark gray in a black and white picture.
I would guess the Bertha is white and black or whtie and red.

Good luck with this one!

I went back and looked at the back cover of the 1967 catalog and the Big Bertha is not pictured in the "group shot."

The X-Ray and Farside 2 stage are the only yellow rockets in the group picture.
It seems Estes used those two for the individual catalog page pictures.

I compaired the gray catalog pictures of the two yellow rockets side by side with the Big Bertha illustration.

The Big Bertha looks a little lighter gray than the yellow rockets - every half tone picture inside the catalog is black and white.

As the Bertha is lighter than the yellow rockets, I would assume the base color is white!

This is just a guess. But if it were me, that's the way I'd go with the base color.

Wait!

There is one more!

The 1965 catalog version.

The picture is Excelsior's version of it.

Sorry Vern and Gleda's signiture are NOT included on the decal sheet.

It is, however, in the group shot on the back of the '68 catalog, and it is white, with black nose and marking.

An even clearer version of it is right here on one of the 1968/69 promo postcards.

Too many colors, so little time!
 

Thanks guys,

Looks like I will be making more than one BB!

Daniel

You can burn yourself out, so I encourage you to not get too many started at once :)

If I was building a passel of Big Berthas - and I was tempted to do that a while back - I'd build maybe these three:






That is, if you're building Berthas, you might as well build a Ranger while you're at it. If you find the two yellow w/blk-wht stripes schemes too similar, I recommend either of the following alternatives:




Doug

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