Hans "Chris" Michielssen's Page

AKA: hcmbanjo
Location: Orlando, FL
Club Memberships: NAR
Favorite Rockets: Estes Goblin
Personal Home Page: www.oddlrockets.com
Club Home Page: www.R-O-C-K.org
RocketReviews.com Pages:
Rocket Gallery
Flight Log
Flight Statistics

2025-11-26

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 17, The Homing Beacon

Blog
The homing beacon is cut off the vacu-form sheet the same way the larger pieces were. Ball point pen outline, then scoring the edge. Break away the sides by cutting and cracking off angled wedges. The sides are a little rough after the first cuts. Sand the bottom flat until the edge starts to roll off. The finished beacon wasn't perfectly round. The instructions say to sand down the overlap seam ... [More]

2025-11-25

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 16, The Hull Pylon

Blog
The internal pylon assembly was set inside one side of the secondary hull. A pencil line was traced around the bulkhead. Contact cement was applied on one side at the pencil bulkhead line and at the pylon doubler contact areas. Repeat for the other side. Before allowing the pieces to touch - carefully align. The pylon assembly was pressed in place. Be sure to check that the slots line up ... [More]

2025-11-24

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 15, The Hull Pylon

Blog
The doublers are glued on each side of the hull pylon. Do your best to center the doublers - Here's how they lined up. I lined up the doublers using the retainer ring recess at the top. That left the front and rear of the doublers short against the center piece. Rounding the front and rear did clean up the short side pieces. For a better fit against the motor mount tube, a curve was ... [More]

2025-11-23

Launch! R.O.A.R., Christmas, FL, November 22, 2025

Blog
Still hot, still humid in November! Winds were low, though - Dakota the Blue Merle Sheltie was quiet, laying in the shade under my car. First launch of the Semroc/Centuri EXCALIBUR with a B6-4. Arrow straight (obviously due to the six fibre fins) to an estimated 400'. No damage when picked up. First flight of the Centuri SKYLAB clone. A C5-3 got the heavy model up to nearly 400'. The model ... [More]

2025-11-22

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 14, Secondary Hull Brace Slot Cutting

Blog
I put off cutting the brace slots in the secondary hull. I wanted to practice on cutting the tube slots first. Draw a pencil line a bit smaller than the brace width. Square on the front, round on the back. Use the tip of the knife to make the square corners. Note the blade is turned up to make the lower corner cut first. The long sides are cut. Leave the rounded back end for last. I ... [More]

2025-11-21

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 13, Pylon Brace Gluing

Blog
A quick update after my dog Dakota's first camping trip - She did great! Lots of new smells on the hiking trails. Met a few people and slept through the night on her dog bed from home. Didn't bark once - until she got home. The instruction drawing shows the interior brace contacting the tube at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. My brace position ended up lower inside ... [More]

2025-11-18

I'm Camping!

Blog
No posts? I'm camping with my dog Dakota! I'll be gone from Tuesday November 18 through the 20th. Things should resume on November 21. [More]

2025-11-17

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 12, Gluing The Support Ring

Blog
The contact cement capsules have dried out and aren't useable. I bought some new contact cement at Home Depot. If you've never used contact cement before - You apply the glue to both parts and let it dry . When the dried glue touches the other glued part, it grabs and holds strong. There is a good reason why it is called "contact" cement. The support ring is centered in the bottom hull ... [More]

2025-11-16

An Earlier Vostok Build Part 2 -

Blog
This is the "Build To Fly, Build To Display" MPC Vostok. To see the bog build: CLICK HERE The finished model weight with no engine is 4.27 oz.! 4 oz. is the maximum weight for a C6 engine. I should have waited for the C5-3 with an 8 oz. max. weight. The box advertised a C9-3 engine, I don't think MPC ever produced it. The picture to the left shows what happened! (Picture by ... [More]

2025-11-15

An Earlier Soyuz Build Part 1 -

Blog
With the debut of the new Estes Soyuz kit - I remembered an earlier Dr. Zooch Soyuz build. There was no plastic parts, just balsa, body tubes and rolled cardstock. The cardstock "witches hats" at the top of the strap on boosters took a few tries to get right. You even had to build the interstage trusses with dowels! The model is BT-50 based and uses 18mm motors. ... [More]

2025-01-04

Estes Mini Bertha Clone

Flight
- Estes A3-4t - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Estes Blue Origin, New Shepard

Flight
Stable with a B6-4, not so much with a C6-5. Flew a bit south over the trees. Recovered by other club members with the pole. No damage! - B6-4 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Semroc Snake Jumper

Flight
Launch wasn't vertical and veered off to the south. Landed in trees, given up for lost. - B6-4 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

2024-12-07

Centuri Vector V

Flight
My Centuri VECTOR V clone was first in the air with an Estes A8-3. On the left is an Estes Viking, the kit used to make my clone. Altitude was estimated to be around 225 feet. Reefed 12" chute recovery. - A8-3 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Odd'l Rockets Stealth

Flight
Stable and true. Broke off one of the smaller winglet fins, not recovered. - B6-4 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Odd'l X-15 Goony

Flight
A favorite is my Goony X-15 . Part are from a Quest X-15 parts pack but built around a shorter BT-60. Great stable flight using an older Chinese made Quest B6-4 motor. Estimated altitude was 325'. - German Made Quest B6-4 - ROCK Monthly [More]

ASP Micro Wac Corporal

Flight
This is the ASP MMX CORPORAL , a well performing MMX bird. It was easy to follow the Mylar streamer as it descended. - 1/8A-1 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

Semroc Centurion

Flight
Very stable, slow lift off. Ejection blistered the paint right above the baffle inside. - B6-4 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

2024-06-29

Odd'l Rockets Little Green Man

Flight
A little wobble on the way up. Not much altitude but recovered safely. - B4-4 - Muncie AMA Field [More]

2024-04-06

Quest MMX Saturn V

Flight
The larger fins really didn't help much, it was unstable after it cleared the short launch rod. - 1/8A-1 - Orlando R.O.C.K. [More]

2015-04-19

Rockets By Style / Kit-Bash/Modified

Photograph

Hans "Chris" Michielssen's Orange (Q Cobalt Kitbash)

2014-11-09

Rockets By Style / Kit-Bash/Modified

Photograph

MX-774 Kitbash on an Estes A8-3. Bunnell Blast, November 8, 2014

2012-09-22

Saturn Press Saturn V - Step 17

Build Entry
The outside curved lines of the Engine Fairing Shrouds were cut from the cardstock with scissors. The interior Fin Slots were cut with a knife and straight-edge. [More]

Saturn Press Saturn V - Step 16

Build Entry
The A Frames and Fins were pressed together. The C Frames are pressed into the A Frames and Fins. Be careful handling the Fin paint while assembling. Silver or metallic paints are easy to dull with fingerprints. After all were assembled dry (no glue) I applied white glue to all the joints with ... [More]