Every year I try to build a rocket in commemoration of the 4th of July. This year's choice was a simple model - the rocket from the Estes #1447 America starter set, which features the plastic fin can used in the Estes Generic rocket (except that it's black). Naturally the build took a few days, as I had to fill the body tube spirals, after which came primer and white paint. Like many modern kits, it lacked waterslide decals, coming with only "peel n' cuss" stickers. It's also not red, white, and blue, but I figured it had the right name and it does proudly sport "USA" in big letters.
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| The America starter set in the 1994 Estes catalog (Click to enlarge). |
The America set was available from 1993-1994, and you can still find quite a few of them (along with the rockets in bulk packaging) on eBay. A lot of sellers confuse this rocket with the Estes Athena, which was available at the same time. So you will notice a lot of America rockets listed as Athenas, which confuses me, as the Athena had a silver nose, white fins, and blue/silver decals - very similar design, but totally different decor.
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| The Athena in the 1994 Estes catalog (Click to enlarge). |
Anyway, here's this year's 4th of July rocket. Welcome to the fleet, America!
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| #1447 America (Click to enlarge). |
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