All Rocketry Blogs

 Rocketry Product: Estes - Guardian {Kit} (2179) [2003-2014]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 1, Parts (2014-08-30)

I've never built an Estes Guardian. Somewhere in the Ebay buys I ended up with two. Both kits had white tubes. You can see the bent tube on the right. I have some extra BT-55 and will cut a new ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 2, Plastic Parts Prep (2014-08-31)

Before gluing in the nose cone shoulder, sand the base of the nose cone flat. Square the nose cone base now for a better fit against the body tube end. Also sand the end of the body tube square. ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 3, Plastic Parts Prep (2014-09-01)

After sanding down the molding seams on the adapter, some white Squadron Putty was set in the remaining seam. It dries quickly. 400 grit was used to sand to surface. The wall thickness at ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 4, Tube Marking Guides (2014-09-02)

I'm building two Guardians at the same time. One kit had a rough white body tube with wide seams. The other kit had the standard brown tubes. On the left is the rougher white tube after it was ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 5, Rear Fin Gluing (2014-09-03)

The smaller rear fins were glued on first. After the first fin was glued on a thin masking tape strip was set down to line up the leading edges of the other two. The large front fins were glued ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 6, Fillet Smoothing (2014-09-04)

I've been asked how to get fillets smooth and even. On the right are the Titebond M&TG fillets after spraying with the white undercoat. There is some roughness and ridges. This is a white ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 7, Upper Black Trim Monokote (2014-09-05)

I didn't want to mask and spray this one. For the average builder getting the model to look like the face card would be very hard. I decided to use Trim Monokote. Looking at the face card, it looks ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 8, Blue Trim Monokote (2014-09-06)

The back end of the black trim was trimmed off a new razor blade. Be very careful when getting near the rounded fillet corners. It's easy to round off the corners if the Monokote isn't all the ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 9, Lower Body Silver and Black Paint (2014-09-07)

I tried to paint the fins with Rustoleum Metallic but with the heat and humidity it dried dull. I went with Rusto aluminum. The body tube is to be painted black. Here's how I masked off the fins. ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 10, Re-Spray and Lower Trim Template (2014-09-08)

I ended up masking respraying the fin that had the black on it. Most of the fin would be covered with trim Monokote but when I tried to remove the black over spray it dulled the aluminum paint. ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 11, Lower Trim Placement (2014-09-09)

The black trim pieces overlapped the root edge fillet slightly. All the trim pieces were hard to set down. There are too many edges and tips to line up. The pieces were set down, lifted, aligned ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Build, Part 12, Payload Section? (2014-09-10)

I built two Guardians, one was normal with the closed adapter and small payload section. The upper section of the second Guardian is shown at the left. The base was removed from the adapter. This ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Guardian Finished (2014-09-11)

    Estes does show this decor as the suggested "Paint Scheme" but doesn't tell you much information on how to pull it off. The average builder probably wouldn't take the time ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: EBAY Tip! (2013-08-12)

  If you ever buy a rocket kit on Ebay,  Look for the message box where you can type in any last minute mailing instructions for the seller. From now on I'll be writing: "Please send ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Slightly Short Engines? (2014-09-12)

  Recently I bought some Quest A6-4 and B6-4 engines. These were a mix of older German and more recent Chinese made Quest engines. (The German made engines have "silver" nozzles, the ... [Read More]