All Rocketry Blogs

 Rocketry Product: Estes - Teros {Kit} (1105) [1972-1973]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Making The Nose Cone, Part 1 (2014-10-01)

A few years ago, I bought three packages of the plastic champagne flute glasses from the Dollar Tree stores. These go on sale before Valentines day. The outside diameter is a close fit to the Quest ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Making The Nose Cone, Part 2 (2014-10-02)

I needed a plastic base to cover the lower nose cone half. The clear cover from a CD case worked well. It was glued in place with medium CA. I'll have to do an internal fillet later. The CA glue ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Making The Nose Cone, Part 3 (2014-10-03)

I made a coupler out of some scrap body tube. This will end up being the shoulder of the hollow plastic nose cone. Here I'm gluing the joining strip to the inside of the slit scrap tube. ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 4, D.I.Y. Centering Rings (2014-10-04)

I had some 50mm Quest centering rings but they were for 29mm engines. I'll have to cut my own rings from mat board for 24mm engines. I'm using heavy walled BT-50 for the engine mount tube. It's ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 6, D.I.Y. Centering Rings (2014-10-05)

Four rings were cut, two will be laminated for the front and two for the rear ring. All four were slipped over the BT-50 tube and gang sanded for a uniform friction fit. Recesses were ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 7, Fin Cutting and Change (2014-10-06)

I always thought the fin span on the Teros was pretty wide. It'll look even wider on the 2X upscale. The purists may not like this, but I am cutting about 1/2" from the outside of the fins. The ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 8, Fins (2014-10-07)

On one piece I had a chip on the trailing edge. When gluing the two piece lamination, I'll turn this chipped side in to the center to the filler will stay in place better. Here's one of the ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 9, Decal Draw (2014-10-08)

I found the decal scan online and redrew them. Doubling the size of the art made the decals very large. It'll take two, 8 1/2" x 11" sheets to print them all in black. These will be close, I ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 10, Primer Shots (2014-10-09)

The pencil lines on the nose cone is to remind me to sand down what remains of the molding seam. After the primer is shot, many imperfections show up and I was able to see a slight wide raised ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 11, Four Fin Gluing (2014-10-10)

After the fin lines were drawn, the gluing area was sanded down with 220 on a block. This was to rough up the surface for a good glue bond. It's easy to get control over how much is sanded off ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 12, Fillets (2014-10-11)

Here's the Teros fin fillets after the first white coats. I used three applications of the Titebond M&TG. On a model this size the fillet radius seems too small. I didn't want to use epoxy ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 13, Paint and Repaint! (2014-10-13)

The new sanded epoxy fillets got another shot of primer/filler and were sanded again. I didn't take pictures of the first mask. The two following pictures show the second attempt at spraying the ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: Estes Teros Upscale, Part 14, Decals (2014-10-14)

Set the horizontal bands on first, the U.S. AIR FORCE decals will center between these. There was a paint ridge on the upper mask between the white and orange below. The clear border was cut off ... [Read More]

Model Rocket Building: LAUNCH! L.A.S.E.R., Groveland, FL, March 15, 2020, Part 1 (2020-03-16)

This was my first time flying with the L.A.S.E.R. ( Lake Area Students Engineering Rockets) in Groveland, FL. To visit the website: CLICK HERE The club is fairly new, there were ten or so people ... [Read More]