(Contributed - by J. Stuart Powley - 02/21/04) 
Brief:
When I was at the local Hobby Lobby, I saw that they were having a 1/2 price
sale on all their Estes rockets. I quickly snatched up a Screamin' Mimi and
waited for inspiration. A couple of days later I was watching a show on German
Stukas. The sirens on the wings reminded me of the whistles on the Mimi and
then I had it! Why not combine the Screamin' Mimi with one of the most classic
fun-rocs Estes ever came out with: Der Red Max! Suddenly, the Screamin' Max was
born!
Modifications:
I decided to take the best parts of both rockets when combining them. I liked
the Mimi's length, size, and engine mount. I liked the Red Max's three fin
configuration, fin size and shape, decals, and paint scheme. Therefore, I left
the body tube, engine mount, and whistle tubes the same. I substituted 3/16
inch basswood for all the balsa because the Red Max fins are a little larger
and a slightly different shape than the Mimi's, so I figured if I was having to
cut new fins anyway I might as well make them more sturdy. By the way, I got my
Red Max plans and decals off of JimZ's Rocket plans. Since the Red Max was a
three finned model, I decided to go that route on the new rocket. That meant
that there would be one less whistle, but I hoped that wouldn't matter much. I
flipped the whistle mounting pylons around on the new model, simply because I
thought they looked better. I then downloaded the decals for the Red Max and
modified them with Paint Shop so that the Skulls were "screamin'" I
made new decals for the name logo and "SCREAMINVERKINS" labels for
the whistles. The original decals were printed with a white background, but the
hobby shop where I got my decal paper was out, so I painted a white band around
the top of the rocket and placed the main wrap decal over it. The rest of the
decals I just left regular.
Construction:
The main components are the same as in the stock Screamin' Mimi. In the Max
though, I used 3/16 inch basswood instead of the balsa provided. Also, the Max
only has three fins and whistles, instead of the Mimi's four. The trickiest
part was creating the custom decals, but that was more fun than difficult.
All in all, construction was very easy. I didn't really use any printed
instructions, I just went with what I saw in my mind as the finished product
(along with pictures from my 1977 Estes catalog of the Red Max).
Finishing:
I used Krylon red and black and Testors Decal Sealer over the decals. The decal
placement was left pretty much up to the modeler on the original Red Max, so I
went with that idea on the Screamin' Max. I was very pleased with the overall
effect. It has a "new nostalgic" look that I really like!
Flight:
Fly this baby with a D12-5. It's all I've used but it was perfect. Prepping the
model is very easy because the body tube is large enough to comfortably hold
the chute (I used the stock Mimi chute). It does require wadding and don't
skimp! The motor is retained with the stock Mimi engine hook. The flight was
straight and true with ejection right after apogee! I didn't need to worry
about the one missing whistle as the other three were heard well after engine
burnout. (I had the fourth in my pocket to use in case you couldn't hear the
other three. "See, it DID whistle...No, that wasn't me!") All in all,
a great flight and recovery!
Summary:
This was a fun project that resulted in a striking model. I haven't flown it
around a large group yet, but a local launch is coming up. I'm interested to
see what the reaction will be. Not that it really matters, I really like it!
Other:
The most fun part of this project was modifying and creating the decals.
Computers rock!
Flight Log
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