End of an era...

Yesterday, my friend Gordon and owner of Sandman Decals/Excelsior Rocketry announced he was being forced to close the decal side of his business. The Alps printers that have been employed over the past many years to produce Excelsior's quality decals have finally broken down, despite sending a couple of units off to Japan for repair. These printers have been greatly prized in the rocket community because of their ability to print white and metallic decals, which ink jets/laser printers can't do. Unfortunately Alps production ended years ago, and they are hard to find at a reasonable price, even on eBay. So when the print heads on Gordy's printers went belly up, it took the decal business with it.

Which makes me very sad... If you look at many of my postings on Ye Olde Rocket Forum and Facebook, you will see a familiar line - "parts by Semroc, decals by Excelsior." eRockets still produces most of the Semroc line of parts, but decals by Excelsior, unmatched in quality and service, has gone away. An era has ended, and frankly, it's now gonna be tougher to clone kits from the past. I can only do so much with a color laser, and my drawing skills positively suck.

<sigh>

The only bright spot is that Gordon still makes custom nose cones and adapters. Like the decals, these are of superb quality. So if you need a wood part, drop Gordon an email - you'll be extremely pleased with the final product.

Thanks for everything Excelsior! You will be missed.