A Mash-up of Two Hobbies

This week I celebrate my 21st birthday - the third one in a row.

This past Saturday, family was over for the 'big birthday bash', and my youngest daughter and son-in-law presented me with this:

This kit satisfies two of my hobby passions - model rocketry and LEGO building .

 I will soon be purchasing the new Estes flying kit as well, so the two Saturn versions should make a nice pair of bookends on a display shelf.

While I'm on the subject of LEGO and model rocketry, I have to show off this rocket building cradle stand that I cobbled together this morning out of a handful of LEGO plates, bricks, and slopes.

During last week's flurry of workshop renovation, I accidently bumped into the partially built Protostar model that was residing on a narrow shelf -safely out of the way, so I thought.  The model was resting (balancing) on a woefully small wooden cradle made originally for BT-50 and smaller diameter rockets.

The Protostar took a 5 foot dive onto the cement floor of the shop.  Luckily only the tip of one fin was slightly dented from the impact, and presents an easy repair.

Not wanting to take the time to build a larger wooden cradle, I figured one built out of LEGO elements would work just fine.

Indeed, it does.  The cool part is that the length and height of this cradle can easily be altered to accommodate different sized models.

I suspect that this new cradle will remain a permanent fixture on the rocket-building bench.

Cheers!