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Missile Toe was number three in my line of cloned Goonybirds that was built by kit bashing another Baby Bertha kit. As such the plans and decals were downloaded from Ye Old Rocket Plans (http://plans.rocketshoppe.com/estes/est0854/est0854.htm) and used for construction guide.
From Baby Bertha kit:
From my stock pile:
This was a by the book build except for the MM which was an 18mm instead of 13mm due to it being kit bashed from a Baby Bertha kit. The only Con: is that I know that the originals had a 5 1/2" BT but I went with 6" because of the longer Baby Bertha NC collar. I've read reviews from other builders that have cut the collar down but I prefer to just add a 1/2" in the length of the main body tube to make room for the recovery system.
Finishing was a simple matter of spraying entire rocket with two light coats of Rust-Oleum 2x White Primmer with sanding between coats and then removing NC and giving the rest of the rocket two coats of Krylon Gloss White. NC got two coats of Krylon Short Cuts Hot Pink spray paint and fins were done in Krylon Gloss Black. Decals were printed on stock printer paper then coated with Krylon Clear spray paint and cut out and glued on with a glue stick.
I've had this rocket for several years now and it still doesn't have the black stripes for the bandage markings applied.
Maiden flight was on 09-08-07 at Michigan International Speedway at a J.M.R.C. Club launch on a B6-4 and was picture perfect. Rocket left the pad straight up and very quickly reached a nice altitude with parachute being deployed just past apogee. No Cons:.
Recovery was handled by the stock 12" parachute with rocket taking a hard landing (missed grass and landed on blacktop). I made the spill hole a little to large apparently as rocket came down a little to fast. Broke right fin but repairable. Will have to try next flight with a smaller spill hole or none at all as this is a fairly light weight rocket at only 1.6 oz.
Another cloned addition to my fleet of rockets that was both a simple and fun build.
Cloud Hopper was my second Goonybird clone that I built by kit bashing an Estes Baby Bertha and as a result has an 18mm motor mount instead of the 13mm that the original Cloud Hopper had. Components Components used for this build were one Estes Baby Berha Kit (1261) and the plans ...
The Sky Shriek was clone number four of the original Goonybirds that I built. And as such is another kit bashed Baby Bertha . The plans were downloaded from http://plans.rocketshoppe.com/estes/est0855/est0855.htm . I then followed these to build the Sky Shriek with the ...
In all fairness I can't do a brief description on this kit as there is a small story behind it. As is normal for me this is not an actual review of the Estes NASA X-15 (0889) [1988-1989]. It is a kit bashed, clone by transition. I came about the idea of doing the X-15 as the G-15 after ...
Zoom Broom was the 1st of my Goonybird clones modified for 18mm motors as a result of being kit bashed from a Baby Bertha. Components Starting with a Baby Bertha kit (EST 1261) that I purchaced at my local Hobby Lobby, all components except the balsa wood and decals were used to ...
Der Goony Max is an inspired bit of lunacy from Excelsior Rocketry, and I guess depending on where you stand on the Goony issue, this series is either genius or a waste of a good Baby Bertha. Speaking as the one-time-owner of an original Goonybird Cloudhopper, I happen to fall on the genius ...
Here I go again. For those of you that have followed my Goonyness this was Baby Bertha kit bash #14. Again this is not a kit review of the original Estes Hawkeye (Kit #0873) [1986-1996] It is another of my many kit bashes. All ...
Here I go again. For those of you that have followed my Goonyness this was Baby Bertha kit bash #10. Again this is not a kit review of the original Estes Aries SST (Kit #1927) [1983-1984]. It is another of my many kit bashes. ...
Lucky or unlucky? For those of you that have followed my Goonyness this was Baby Bertha kit bash #13. As such I wanted to play it a little safer with this one so I choose a simpler design. Again this is not a kit review of the original Estes ...
The Goonymarc was number eight in my line of modified Baby Bertha kit bashes. I started with the plans from Jim Z's for the Estes kit #654 with the thought of building the glider version of the Bomarc but ended up with the parachute version (kit #657). All templates and decals for this build ...
One again this is not a kit review of the original NASA Pegasus (Estes Kit #1376) [1982-1986] but another of my many Baby Bertha kit bashes (#12 for those following my Goonyness). All fin patterns and decals came from http://plans.rocketshoppe.com/estes/est1376 ...
The Snarky Jr. (a.k.a. Goony Shark) was kit bash #6 in what was to become a long list of Baby Bertha's that I converted into various Goony Birds and such. The inspiration for this one of course came from my DynaStar's - Snarky and the fact that I wanted to be able to fly it in the smaller ...
The Streamliner was the fifth in a series of Baby Bertha kit bashes that I did while building my Goonybird fleet. The first four kits were used to make four of the original Goonybirds from Estes but now it was time for somthing a little different. I remember seeing this model in a&n ...
For those of you still following my Goonyness this was Baby Bertha kit bash #11. Again this is not a kit review of the original but another of my many kit bashes. All fin patterns and decals came from http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/est0806.htm . The major ...
For those of you following my Goonyness this is Baby Bertha kit bash #9. So OK this is not a kit review so much as it's actually another of my kit bashes. All fin patterns and decals came from http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/estes/est1909.pdf . The main ...
This is my Mo' Skeeter, a 320% upscale of the classic Estes Mosquito . It's a rear-ejection model, which avoids the visible nose cone line that most Mosquito upscales suffer from. Components This rocket consists of a Baby Bertha cone , 6" of BT-60, 6" of BT-20, two 20-60 ...
It all started one day after I opened a Baby Bertha kit and found that the motor mount had the wrong size adaptor rings. The rings were for a BT-50 and not a BT-20. I thought about replacing the rings with a correct set, but then the creative juices started to flow, what could I do with this ...
This is a kit bash of a Baby Bertha that transforms a mild mannered rocket into mean, green, flying machine--the BioHazard. Modifications: One challenge was the tight fit of three 18mm motor mount tubes inside the BT-60 body tube. The 3 tubes were glued together and the inside "hole" was ...
This is a Goonie of one my favorite classic boost gliders, the Sky Dart. The Sky Goon starts as a Baby Bertha and adds wings, stabilizer and engine pod. Modifications: The rear of the nose cone is removed, leaving about 1/2" of shoulder which is glued to the body. The engine mount is built ...
I chose to build the Streamliner for this contest as it truly spoke to me as something I could do--that doesn't happen often. This rocket started out as an Estes Baby Bertha kit. In order to create the "Streamliner", I cut a wedge shaped section out of the body tube starting just below where ...
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