Apollo SM 1:12

[mbauer]

Wow, incredible design/build Michael!

Thank you for posting this thread, thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

BTW-Have had polyps removed twice already, this time doc said he was going to attack them differently-steroids! Actually worked really well! Dreaded having to have the clot/packing removed again, this time was a slight weight gain only.

Glad you are doing better!

Mike

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Good grief. That website shouts 1995 all over. And something tells me she is probably not the one behind it all. Nice big rockets, though. The rockets, I mean.

[luke strawwalker]

Originally Posted by OhioMike

So everyone has a clear idea of scale when it comes to 1/12..This young lady is displaying a 1/12 scale model (not the Ken West model), unknown medium, it came from another rocketry site. I didn't see a name or copywrite credit so it is displayed for educational purposes only. I guess ill be getting off 18.00 dollars real soon. Of course everytime I go to that darn ecardmodels I end up spending more than I planned!

That's Sheri of "Sheri's Hot Rockets". There was a HUGE stink on the hobby rocketry forums a few years ago-- after a messy divorce, she relocated to Hawaii with what remaining stock of her high power flying rocket kit business, but kept taking orders and just pocketing the money. Lots of folks complaining about spending sometimes hundreds of dollars on orders with her and getting NOTHING in return. After a series of increasingly hysterical replies, she finally quit talking AT ALL and just left those people to rot.

She finally sold what was left of her business to Red Arrow Hobbies in Michigan. I visited RAH one time and spoke with Dave, the owner. He was in the process of restarting production, but faced a LOT of difficulties-- her kit components (tubes, etc) were pretty low quality compared to most rocket kits (especially ones costing as much as hers did), and her molds for cast resin parts were positively WORN OUT... I saw a Gemini capsule molded from one of her molds, and HALF the detail on one side of the capsule was almost completely worn off, so many castings had been "pulled" from that mold. In addition, they weren't particularly "scale" in appearance or detail, so Dave showed me a new "master" he was having built, which WAS correct to scale (even for rivet counters) and highly detailed (even down to screw heads on the capsule "shingles" on the surface). Night and day compared to the SHR part he showed me before. He told me the biggest problem she had was that she was getting aluminum rocket-motor retainers turned in a lathe to look just like real rocket motor bells (in scale) for her kits, by a friend of her now-ex-husband who was basically milling them for her kits "as a favor" for "beer money" or whatever. Once she divorced his friend, that arrangement evaporated, and she was left high and dry. Once she ran out of those, she couldn't ship any more kits, since they were an ESSENTIAL part (and a BIG reason for their popularity) of her kits. Dave told me that, at the time (several years ago) he was having trouble finding a machinist capable or willing to make the "nozzle retainers" for a reasonable cost, even in a bulk order... he told me he talked to several people who COULD make them, but that essentially the cost to him would force a DOUBLING of the kit price, which of course was NOT sustainable in the marketplace. I guess that he subsequently found a solution to that issue, because he HAS revived the SHR line "by Red Arrow Hobbies". AFAIK, he's still using the SHR brand and advertising, since he bought the company lock, stock, and barrel from Sheri years ago. I even asked Dave if he thought that was a good idea, keeping the SHR brand, because of the bad blood and bad reputation SHR had gained in the hobby rocket community due to the nonsense that had gone on when Sheri wasn't shipping paid-for kits or refunding the money. He sort of waved that off-- Sheri was a fetching girl, and in a "nerd-dominated" hobby like model/High Power Rocketry, sex appeal goes a long way to increasing sales... Had it been me, since the line was basically having to be redesigned from the ground up anyway, more or less, I'd have jettisoned the "SHR" brand and sold them under the "RAH" brand... get some local aspiring model to take a series of photos with completed prototypes and just "rebranded" the whole thing... but that's me... LOL

Anyway, "Sheri-gate" as it's come to be known, is something of legend on the rocketry forums...

Later! OL JR

[OhioMike]

Sounds like a mess Luke. I, years ago flew estes and reloadable aerotech model rockets, of course nothing about them was scale except for a few estes that tried to look scale. Was just getting into High power with a Tripoli license application flight and an J level motor when life took a detour! That was a 7 foot tall Tomahawk sounding rocket I built from scratch. Still have them all piled up in a corner of the garage. Fun times!
Mike

[Bengt Fredén]

Yes, I seem to remember seeing those color photos a few years back, where the focus was mainly on VERY short skirts and VERY high heels, rather than interesting and detailed big scale rocket models...

It seemed to me then almost in a sense like car racing.

Bengt

[luke strawwalker]

Originally Posted by Bengt Fredén

Yes, I seem to remember seeing those color photos a few years back, where the focus was mainly on VERY short skirts and VERY high heels, rather than interesting and detailed big scale rocket models...

It seemed to me then almost in a sense like car racing.

Bengt

Yes, definitely... can probably turn up most of them with a google search of "Sheri's Hot Rockets"... LOL

@ ohiomike-- yep, good times... I have a couple clubs that fly off our family farms, here and at Shiner, TX, a few times a year. It's strictly low-power (Estes sized) motors and "midpower" (two "G" motors or less-- no "high power" flights requiring certifications). Seen enough at several different HPR (high power) launches I attended that I'm not interested in taking on the risk involved that comes with allowing those launches... too much liability and risk of injury or property damage. Read about a BUNCH of BAD "close-calls" and the prevailing attitude seems to be, "no harm, no foul", IOW, don't foist safety rules on me to "spoil my fun" type attitude. I don't need that.

I'm not really interested in HPR either... too expensive for just a bigger "woosh, bang" compared to "regular" hobby rocketry... Plus, I have to have enough "certifications" and crap for my regular job (farmer/rancher), NO WAY will I *ever* get a "certification" for a HOBBY activity! For those reasons, I'm just not particularly interested in it. I've also been exposed to a number of individuals that seem like they just want to thumb their nose at anything smaller or less expensive than what THEY fly, and then get downright mad if you just don't "fawn over them" and think they're just the coolest person EVER for flying something bigger and more expensive... Sorry but I'm not that easy to impress... I find elegant technical solutions to be FAR more interesting than some gigantic oversize Alpha III-type HPR rocket with a motor that costs $300 bucks for a 45 second flight...

In a lot of ways, it IS like car racing... "go big or go home" is the prevailing attitude I've seen... I don't care for that.

Yeah, the Sheri-gate thing WAS a mess... and a lot of people dropped a couple hundred bucks or more on her kits and were sorely disappointed when they opened the box-- "heavy unfinished carpet tubes" and half-detailed, mostly incorrect "scale" parts... The whole Sheri-gate thing was really instigated when people started asking on the forums about other's experience at getting their orders filled... then a guy came on from South America, who bought one of her Saturn V's to build for a Children's Hospital display or something and she stiffed him... that really turned the normally forgiving rocketry crowd against her, especially when she started getting increasingly hysterical and vicious in her replies, as he started seeking legal involvement from the state attorneys general involved to get his several hundred bucks back... It was REALLY a mess...

Fortunately, she's no longer involved in rocketry AFAIK...

Later! OL JR

[OhioMike]

Yep they were fun...and expensive! Back to regularly scheduled programming, i would love to see Ken pick up from Michael here, maybe a transfer of files with eventually another great offering thru ecards for the 1/12 scale SM!!!! A joint effort between the 2 with shared royalties??? Hint..Hint??
Mike