I bought the Estes Generic E2X rocket at Hobby Lobby the other day, which was on sale for $4 because the body tube was crushed. [Seriously, I think some brat kids go to that aisle and do that to the Estes rockets for the hell of it. Be sure you check before buying!] I usually push a coupler or some rolled up & glued heavy cardstock into the tubes to return them to circular shape. You'll probably want to check the CG after making a mod like this. I'm still a little new to this hobby, so I tend to fly by the seat of my pants sometimes.
Here are some new decals to morph the Generic E2X into the Space Shuttle. Sort of.
You can print this on waterslide decal or on clear sticker paper. If you use clear sticker paper, the nose cone decals will need some adhesive help as they like to peel up as they want to be flat. They'll probably behave better after a shot of clear-cote.
The other rocket I'm working on is the USS Atlantis. I like this rocket design in particular because I'm a fan of the original Star Trek series from 100 years ago, and this rocket design looks great. I bought some balsa and the appropriate body tubes to build it. I'm including a PDF of the Atlantis rear engine cowlings that I created last week. I understand someone has come out with the 'Enterprise refit' style engines for this, but I like old school. I redrew the decals because of pixelation from the original file. Also, I noticed the original balsa cutouts didn't really fit the circular decal, so I redrew these to more closely be a circle when the balsa pieces are glued together. I've included those so you can cut them out and temporarily 'glue' them to the balsa with 3M 77 spray to get good cuts.
I realize the Atlantis hits the ground on the back of these engines, so you can 1) print a ton of the cowlings or 2) make them big enough to slide on for display and slide them off for flight. There's some tags to overlap the wrap-around a little bit to help you.
Respectfully submitted,
Joel
