Last night, I read an interesting thread in the Model Rocketry History category of Ye Olde Rocketry Forum.
The late Mike Dorffler, long-time Estes R&D designer, lamented about how many decor schemes of his kit designs were 'hi-jacked' by company management or marketing, and converted into ridiculous alternate versions.
This got me to thinking (a quite dangerous prospect at best).
Firing up the ol' PC, I pulled up PDFs of Estes catalogs from the past 30 years. Sure enough, a large number of models offered in the catalog pages possess downright gaudy and gimmicky decoration schemes. The vast majority of these rocket models are 3/4FNC birds populating starter sets and the beginners' skill level pages, clearly targeting the younger crowd, who apparently are drawn to that sort of thing.
But then, I began examining the birds with a different perspective: looking past the overly bright decor and concentrating on the overall physical design of the models themselves. I found that many of the designs are quite aesthetically pleasing in their own right. Nice fin shapes, nose sections, transitions, etc.
If painted and decaled in a more traditional manner, while trashing the oftentimes garish and oversized kit name markings, many of these models could be made much more attractive - at least to a grumpy old curmudgeon such as myself...
