I had a roughly 35 year hiatus before becoming a BAR last year. In the intervening years, all my old rockets were disposed of somehow or other, after languishing in my childhood bedroom at my parents' house for a good number of years. I am sad that they are all gone.
But I've also been sad about how hard it is for me to remember exactly what I had in my fleet. I've been slowly piecing the memory back together, and I think I'm getting close. It makes me happy to think about what I had built back then, and I'm still toying with the idea of recreating the entire fleet, either from Semroc kits or scratch builds. If I had more building time I'd probably do it.
Anyway, tonight, while browsing the Estes 1972 catalog (because what else is there to do on a Saturday night?) my memory was jogged of one that I had totally forgotten about: the Estes K-54 Saros. I liked that one a lot, and it was a bit weird for the time because of its plastic fin can. Also, looking at the gallery thread I linked to, I'm reminded of how the old kits had designer credits on them. I wish Estes' new kits had that.
Anyway, the fresh memory of the Saros made me think again about the rest of my fleet. What I can remember (all Estes):
(there seem to have been a lot of black and white rockets back then. )
That might have been it, but I may be forgetting another skill level 1 that I built when starting out. Not a bad little fleet. It was a piece of my childhood and I miss it. But I like my new stuff too.
But I've also been sad about how hard it is for me to remember exactly what I had in my fleet. I've been slowly piecing the memory back together, and I think I'm getting close. It makes me happy to think about what I had built back then, and I'm still toying with the idea of recreating the entire fleet, either from Semroc kits or scratch builds. If I had more building time I'd probably do it.
Anyway, tonight, while browsing the Estes 1972 catalog (because what else is there to do on a Saturday night?) my memory was jogged of one that I had totally forgotten about: the Estes K-54 Saros. I liked that one a lot, and it was a bit weird for the time because of its plastic fin can. Also, looking at the gallery thread I linked to, I'm reminded of how the old kits had designer credits on them. I wish Estes' new kits had that.
Anyway, the fresh memory of the Saros made me think again about the rest of my fleet. What I can remember (all Estes):
- K-50 Interceptor: my all time favorite, and I did a really nice job on it I have to say.
- K-33 Trident: a tough build, but came out pretty good. I don't know if I ever got it fully decaled; for some reason I recall it finishing out its days all white. I can't imagine why I didn't decal it, because I always enjoyed decaling, and still do. Guess I'll never sort that out.
- K-27 Honest John: the folded paper spin nacelles defeated me, and I never put them on. But I believe I built and finished the rest of it (because I just remembered painting something olive drab, and it must have been that model)
- 1270 Nike X
- K-45 Astron Beta
- EAC Viper
- the aforementioned Saros
- K-1 Astron Scout; this just came back to me as I was typing this post
(there seem to have been a lot of black and white rockets back then. )
That might have been it, but I may be forgetting another skill level 1 that I built when starting out. Not a bad little fleet. It was a piece of my childhood and I miss it. But I like my new stuff too.