Estes Doorknob

My build of one of the bigger Estes kits: A casual-scale model Doorknob, a research rocket designed, built, and flown by Sandia National Laboratories in the late 50s.

Knock knock!

My construction followed the standard Estes instructions caveat running the recovery line to the motor mount. I also did the markings with spray paint instead of the provided waterslide decals. I was pleased with how the faux fin brackets turned out after being built up a bit with several layers of black and then metallic silver.

This is my favorite rocket aesthetically—that classic not-quite-stubby look, visible brackets & holes, quartered paint scheme, and orange! Just beautiful. So I was pleased this build came out well and to get a near perfect debut flight to 600ft on a somewhat windy day using an AeroTech E20-4 and Jolly Logic chute release.