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This model is an actual flying rocket. It was produced by the Estes Corporation in about 1980 or so. It is powered by the larger A, as well as B and C motors, and was originally designed to be recovered via parachute. Since I was building this to fly I built it exactly as the instructions indicated, as any deviation might have caused the rocket to be unstable in flight. Within the shell of the body is a cardboard tube with a motor retention bar at the lower end and the parachute attachment at the top. The way this work is that by using an electronic fuse to ignite the propellant, the rocket travels vertically (hopefully), and then the propellant is completely burned off, then there is a smoke producing section (this helps observers on the ground spot the rocket at altitude. After the smoke section burns out, there is a small propellant charge that will (again, hopefully) blow the nose cone and parachute out of the rocket and the rocket will descend safely to the ground. After a couple of flights it became very apparent that the parachute was too large for the body tube as upon ejection it would fail to open and the rocket took some damage. I thought a different kind of recovery system would be better and gave streamer recovery a chance. The streamer deployed okay but due to the weight of the wings and other plastic parts it dropped like a rock and was severely damage. I once again glued it together and repainted and retired it to the shelf where is sits.

Here are all of the images that were submitted to the FSM Star Wars Scale Modeling Contest. Click through and see the great work! Look for the July 2016 issue to see the 12 winning models as chosen by Readers’ Choice and Editors’ Picks.