Upscale of an old ESTES classic: DER BIG RED MAX 1.6X |
| At a recent THOR launch Mark Morris showed up with a beautiful Gooneymax IV (updated version by Sandman at Roachwerks IIRC) upscale that methinks was based on BT-60 tubing. It both looked and performed so sweet, that I fell in love again... Here's Mark's GMaxIV on pad (left) and boosting off the rod (below) |
So as you can guess, I ended up with a bad case of mewannaitis... After some serious netsurfing and deep sea diving into my 'stockpile' (that's constantly overflowing from the garage) a plan started to take shape... Since I had T80H tubing, some 1/8" birch ply, and an Aerotech Initiator 2.6" nosecone handy, the answer was clear : A 1.6X Der Big Red Max upscale ! |
Clockwise from top left: My fancy fin gluing jig, that also doubles as a fin filleting jig as you can see on top right. TTW fins with generous fillets, triple 5-ply 3/16" birch rings and a 29mm MMT long enough to pack in a 29/240 casing... Bottom right a shot of the biz end before installing my usual p-trap retainer, note the MMT sticking out... |
The NC started its life as a stock AT 2.6" cone, but to make it look more like the real thing I cast in an epoxy plug before cutting off 1" and rounding off the tip. |
After a paintjob and some homebaked decals, she looks pretty good... Max stands at 42" tall, weighing in at 24oz w/o motor or casing. She also has a piston ejection system, so no wadding is needed... |
While I was redrawing all the decals, I couldn't help myself but to tweak them a little bit as well, including a few new Gooneyisms... So far Max has flown once with a F52 Blue Thunder, but I'm hoping to be able to let her rip on H165 Redline one of these days... |
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