posted 08-02-2010 07:22 PM               

Back by popular demand! A limited edition of the famous Saturn V that sent man to the moon. The Estes Saturn V is one of the finest 1/100 scale models kits ever produced. Scaled from official NASA drawings, the finished model is 43.25 inches tall and lifts off to about 150 feet on one D12-3 engine.

posted 08-19-2010 07:16 PM               

Indeed the kit does have the vaccuform plastic wraps of the previous issue (and originally seen on the Centuri kit) as opposed to the cardboard ones, but they look good. The capsule and LES are still Estes versions though and that is good because Estes provides an excellent representation of an Apollo block 2 CSM with a BPC on it. The plastic F-1 engine bells are also the same.

For curiosity, I pulled my old 25th anniversary Saturn kit out of storage to compare the two and except for the difference in the wraps, things aren't all that different. One thing I prefer on the cardboard wraps though is the protrusions and ullage motors on the older kit were solid styrene instead of vac plastic molded on the wraps. This made it easier to make modifications.

For instance, both kits make the mistake of having eight motors on the stage 1 to 2 interstage ring when the manned flights had only four there (Apollo 4 and 6 had 8). The correction is easier to make on the older kit as you just leave four off.

The decals in the new kit are based on the old ones in terms of markings provided and their layout, although they are slightly different from one another. As I understand it, the previous issue of the kit did away with the waterslide decals in favor of peel and stick ones. As such, I am glad Estes went back to waterslide ones for this issue.

One thing I applaud Hobbico for (the owners of Estes) is they had a misprint of the A, B, C and D fin markings on the main sheet as they didn't print them with a white background. So the kit includes a tiny supplement decal sheet with the corrected markings.

Hobbico didn't bother to do any similar correction with the Revell USA repop of the Monogram Saturn V, when their decal sheet had all the lettering that should have been in red printed in black instead. Rick Sternbach's Space Model Systems has an extensive 1/96 scale Saturn V sheet available for the big Revell kit, but the scales are so close that most of those markings could be used on the Estes kit if you so desire (decals available in other popular model scales as well).

posted 08-19-2011 08:06 AM               

At least Estes gives you some of the best instructions out there, so if you can follow those you should be fine. The rocket looks great when done and makes a beautiful display piece. Only other thing out there of similar size would be the Revell of Germany 1/96 Saturn V kit and that one requires a different skill set to build in and of itself.

posted 08-20-2011 04:04 PM               

I would say that with the elements you get in the box, an Estes kit at least has the most potential for being built into an accurate model out of the box without running for aftermarket bits. Most of the plastic Saturns out there tend to suffer from the need to correct features on them.

As for the flying issue, granted you didn't say you wanted to fly it anyway. But in my case, if I finish one of the two Saturns I have, even building it for flight, I am going to be VERY reluctant to fly it as I don't want to risk it crashing and have all that beautiful work I did destroyed.