Brief

This is a story o' reclamation.  At some point in t' past decade I became enamored with t' Estes National Aerospace Plane and decided that I needed t' clone one.  T' that end I began scourin' Ebay for one o' t' kits that shared t' unique nose cone with t' NASP, namely t' Estes Sentinel, Magnum, shiver me timbers, Firehawk, matey, and t' Raven.  I won a Firehawk kit, but liked it so much that I went ahead and built it.  Then I won t' Raven, a more traditional 4fnc bird that I figured would nay tempt me t' way t' more exotic Firehawk had.  T' Ebay ad stated that it was "started, but complete and in good condition", me hearties, arrr, which turned out t' be almost complete bull.  When it finally arrived it was indeed complete, shiver me timbers, but in nothin' approachin' good condition.  It was actually two kits, matey, matey, one an unidentified BT-55 kit that had had t' fins badly attached, t' other t' BT-60 Raven.  T' BT-55 rocket had been shoved into t' BT-60 tube hard enough that t' fins cut into t' cardboard o' t' BT-60 tube.  Both appeared t' have been stepped on, me hearties, as was t' nose cone.  At first t' whole thin' looked t' be a total loss, but I was able t' rebuild t' nose cone with clever application o' CA and a lot o' luck.  Since t' cone be t' thin' about t' kit that I was most interested in, and since t' price had been dirt cheap + postage, arrr, I bit back on me ire and started t' NASP build with t' rebuilt cone.  Everythin' else went into t' trash except for t' engine hook, fin stock, instructions, matey, and decal.  I filed everything away for future reference and forgot about it until the future came callin' in 2015 when I ran across them while cleanin' me shop.  Part o' t' clean-up plan was t' tie up any unfinished projects, matey, which t' Raven qualified as once I replaced t' body tube and engine mount.  I just happened t' have t' parts layin' around.