08-06-2020, 12:04 PM
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Retired with Way Too Many Kits
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,222
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
generally the plastic cones took the shape of the ideal shape of the balsa cones; i.e. the ones made with a new set of grinders. The PNC60L was the exception, I guess because they wanted a shorter shape for the Goonies, and if they were gonna make a big run of molded nose cones, might as well use them for the Big Bertha as well.
FOREHEAD SLAP! Giving this thread a slight turn: While I was looking up things in old catalogs. I found something that I had never noticed before! For two years '75 and '76 (though they put a 'cancelled' mark through the one in the '76 catalog) Estes listed a PLASTIC version of the K-27 Honest John nose cone. To my knowledge there was never a plastic version of this though they sold the kit through 1979. The nose cone had a 71xxx part number, which was similar to the part number for the PNC-50K (which, I think we decided was the Alpha III nose cone, correct?) and all the plastic nose cones then available.
Who was at Estes then other than Al Packer that could tell us what the heck was going on at Estes during that time?!
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The PNC—50K was the nose cone for the Alpha III. It wasn’t too bad. The worst crime against faithful Estes customers was the “DRM” cone (PNC-60H) used in he Super Alpha kit!
Here is my turned replacement next to the kit’s nose cone.
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Lee Reep
NAR 55948
Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp
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