Artifacts - Extrapolated Worlds

Fata Morgana

Doug December 14, 2024

Artifact: Fata Morgana (1/160)

This is a heavily modified “SFX” version of the Estes Protostar, done as the hypership Fata Morgana, with four hyperdrive nodes arranged in a tetrahedron. The uppermost is in a cage between the upper and lower fins while the lower three are in the fin nacelles. Note the fusion laser struts near trailing edge of the main fins. Scale approximately 1/160, to go with most of the Estes offerings, and afford an upscale path to 1/100.

She still needs her markings, another coat of clear acrylic, and then time to fly. Set up for 24mm motors.

Orbiter N1706

Doug December 13, 2024

Artifact: Orbital Transport Orbiter N1706 (1/48)

This is a large, radio-controlled rocket glider, built from a kit by Frank Burke’s DynaSoar Rocketry, based on the original Estes Orbital Transport’s orbiter. The original used a BT-20 body tube, and this is a 2.6″ diameter BT-80, so it’s about a 3.5x upscale. Control is via a Spektrum-compatible LemonRX and a pair of servos that actuate the elevons at the aft end of the delta wings.

It flies great on an Aerotech reloadable E6-RCT! The drill is to load the model onto a 1010 launch rail, pointing straight up. The rocket motor is ignited electrically, and the motor fires for 7.1 seconds. The model is docile in boost and glide, and will pretty much fly straight up hands off, but you can maneuver – gently! – under boost if you like. I’d guess it gets up to around 500 feet, where it’s about the size of your fingernail at arm’s length.

Glide performance is not great – maybe a minute or so – but that’s not the point. The point is you are flying a huge radio-controlled version of the absolute classic fan-favorite Orbital Transport!

Introduced in 1969 by Estes, this was an absolute must-have for little Doug. I don’t know how many I built and flew. This was peak moonshot; space was THE THING, and I was thoroughly hooked.

The Super Orbital Transport is a 1.3x upscale presently (4Q 2024) available from Estes. I’ve got it, and am tempted to try and wedge micro RC gear into the orbiter. We’ll see.

Starship Vega

Doug December 13, 2024

Artifact: Starship Vega (1/160)

Semroc’s clone of the Estes Starship Vega, one of my very favorite model rockets. Done up pretty much out-of-the-box, plus a removable nozzle for verisimilitude. I figure is about 1/160 scale. I was getting into Larry Niven about the time I built my last Starship Vega (before my Born Again Rocketeer era, anyway), and I remember puzzling over its design, trying to rationalize it as having some kind of hyperdrive. This was a common pattern for me; give me Star Trek’s Enterprise, and I try to reverse-engineer it into something that somehow makes sense (the warp drive must induce some kind of gravitational field at right angles to the direction of motion, and so forth).

But this design really does some innate promise; put a hyperdrive node in each of the 3 nacelles, and another in the core, and you’ve got a tetrahedron, which is what you’d need to define a vector in 4-space. And use the fins as radiators for the fusion reactor. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Flown on a B6-4 – snapped the shock cord such that the nose cone came down under the parachute whilst the rest fell. Oddly enough, it settled into a nearly perfect backwards glide. No damage done!

Starfire

Doug December 13, 2024

Artifact: Starfire (1/100)

Lightly modified “SFX” version of the Estes Super Vega – custom balsa nose cone, warp-nacelle landing jacks, plus all sorts of greeblies and markings. She’s done up as the United Colonies of Mars UCM Starfire in 1/100 scale. The Super Vega is a 1.6x upscale of the classic Starship Vega, though the Estes designers took a lot of liberties with the cones.

As yet unflown – set up stock 24mm motor mount.

Atom Heart Mother

Doug December 13, 2024

Artifact: Atom Heart Mother (1/100)

Heavily customized, scratch-built “SFX” version of the Estes Super Big Bertha, done up as the Mars-based, fission-powered freighter Atom Heart Mother. 1.6x upscale of the classic Estes Big Bertha at 2.6″ diameter. Approximately 1/100 scale. Drop tanks are removable. Flies great without drop tanks on a 24mm E9-4.

This model needs some more greeblies and/or markings; it’s missing its portholes and hatches, at the least.

Hyperglider Sparrow

Doug February 8, 2024

Artifact: Hyperglider Sparrow (1/144)

Sparrow is one of the “hero ships” of The Extrapolated Man. A hyperglider operates in a manner analogous to an atmospheric glider, albeit in four dimensions rather than three. The blue elements are “hypervane” that can be rotated into the fourth dimension, much as a wing is rotated away from the horizontal plane to provide an angle of attack that generates lift. The hyperglider employs a large pentachoral wing to aft, and a smaller stabilizer forward, like the Wright brother’s canard design. Not rendered in the model are three small pentachoral stabilizers that would attach to the outboard tips of the wing.

In the gallery below I’ve included a Bandai 1/144 X-Wing fighter as well as a pre-built Apollo Command Module from Bandai’s amazing Tamashii Nations Apollo 13 set. These give a good sense of scale. The hyperglider’s capsule is roughly the same size as Apollo’s.

Shown below are some of the build photos. The first iteration of the reaction mass tanks for the NERVA-style rocket motor were spherical, whereas they are toroidal in the final version.