Estes - Missile Toe (854) [1973-1975]

Brief:
A clone of the Estes Goonybird Missile Toe, one of my favorites from the mid '70s. The decals and fin patterns are available from Excelsior Rocketry.

Construction:
The kit can be bashed from a Baby Bertha kit. I had all the parts in an Estes Designer's Special box (BT-60 and Big Bertha style NC, BT-50, mini engine mount, balsa stock, and 12" parachute and shock cord).

It's a very simple build. The only tricky part is lining up the BT-50 with its internal vane. If you use the newer blow-molded Big Bertha NC, you need to cut off the bottom extension so there's room in the BT for the parachute. I also glued a disk of styrene over the resulting opening at the base of the NC so the parachute would not blow up into it.

Finishing:
Paint is simple: white overall, black fins and pink nose cone. I used black pinstripe decal I had to simulate the bandage lines on the BT.

Flight:
The first flight was with a 1/2A3-4T. Perfect boost to about 200ft. Delay was a tad long and the chute did not completely deploy until about 10 feet above ground. No damage though. Second flight on the same engine but this time it had an earlier chute opening and a very nice landing. A third flight on a 1/2A3-2T was even better, ejection just past apogee.

Summary:
This is a very good weekend project. A fun build and sure to get a few laughs at the field. The Excelsior Rocketry decal and pattern pack makes it a breeze.

Flight Log

- Post a Comment -

You must be logged into RocketReviews.com to post a comment.

What You Can Do

• Add a Link Related to this Review
• Submit a Kit Review

- Link to this Page -

You can link to this page using the following HTML or BB Code.

Text Link in HTML (for web sites)

<a href="http://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-missile-toe-drew-tomko.html">Estes - Missile Toe (854) [1973-1975] - Review by Drew Tomko</a>

Text Link in BB Code (for forum posts)

[url=http://www.rocketreviews.com/estes-missile-toe-drew-tomko.html]Estes - Missile Toe (854) [1973-1975] - Review by Drew Tomko[/url]

Select the appropriate above text with your mouse then "right-click" and select "Copy." Then, paste the text into your web site's code or a discussion forum post.