Latest Reviews

Lastest Rocketry Product Reviews

2025-04-14 - Apogee Skymetra

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Apogee Skymetra The SkyMetra rocket is a great model to choose for your first two-stage flight. It was engineered to be easy to build and prep for launch. It is also great for science fair projects. You'll find that it is the perfect size for launching an altimeter, some toy action figures, or other little gizmos. The kit is easy to build and features a slotted body tube that allows the tabs on the laser cut fins to mount perfectly straight on the rocket. This makes ...

2025-04-10 - Estes Hercules Two-Stage

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Estes Hercules Two-Stage I ran across this rocket as part of my quest to build all the rockets from the 1989 Estes catalog. It's a sleek 2-stage rocket with a payload bay in the sustainer. It was in production from 1982-1995 so it's not particularly rare. It's also not difficult to clone and an image of the decals is available on the Jimz plan site. Motors are taped together for direct staging. I started off building the two motor mounts. Care needs to be taken with the placement of ...

2025-03-27 - Rocketarium Arcturus

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Rocketarium Arcturus This is a scale model of the Arcturus sounding rocket. The finished scale model stands an impressive 38.75" tall and comes with laser-cut fins, ejection baffle, plastic nose cone, balsa fin mounting attachments and vinyl and decals. The Arcturus sounding rocket was intended to serve as a replacement, or upgrade, to the popular Arcas sounding rockets. It's main selling point was that it could be launched from the existing Arcas launch platforms, avoiding new infras ...

2025-02-16 - Estes Calypso (2006)

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Estes Calypso (2006) The Calypso only appeared in the 1989 and 1990 Estes Catalog. Nevertheless, the kits show up for sale semi-regularly and can easily be cloned. While it is basically a 3-fin and a nose cone rocket, the addition of a boat-tail and sleek fins make this a good performer with flights over 1000' on a C motor. It is a level 2 build, primarily to the need to form a paper boat tail. I started with the motor mount. The centering rings were a tight fit and were sanded a bit. ...

2024-12-01 - New Way Xarconian Destroyer

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

New Way Xarconian Destroyer When New Way lost their source for square tubes, owner Rick Randol turned to cloning old Centuri and Estes kits. The Xarconian Destroyer is a complete but modern clone of the old Estes kit #1903.BT-55 I started with the motor mount. I notched the forward centering ring and threaded the Kevlar shock cord through the notch. I added a knot to the shock cord and glued the tag end along with the centering ring. Otherwise the motor mount is standard construction. I ...

2024-11-24 - Loc/Precision R.A.M.

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Loc‌/‌Precision R.A.M. I was browsing the Animal Works web site and noticed they had a Loc R.A.M. kit in stock. R.A.M. is an acronym for Rage Assault Missile. It is 43" tall. As usual, I started with the motor mount. I used T-88 epoxy to attach the three centering rings. The shock cord mount goes throug the forward centering ring and was epoxied to the motor tube, The rear two centering rings were spaced to straddle the fin slots. II attached the shock cord to the Kevlar shock ...

2024-10-27 - Aerospace Specialty Products Aerobee 100 Junior

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Aerospace Specialty Products Aerobee 100 Junior The Aerobee 100, or Aerobee Junior, was first flown early in 1958. This vehicle was designed by Aerojet General to be an inexpensive rocket to fly payloads of 50 - 100 pounds up to 90 miles. Most of the 20 produced used a solid-fuel booster, but two were actually sea-launched as a single-stage rocket (which makes this model eligible for NAR Scale competition). Aerobee rockets have long been a favorite of scale modelers. This kit is 1.89" in ...

2024-10-19 - Rocketerium Maxtermind is a Winner

Kit Review by Jeff Curtis

Rocketerium Maxtermind is a Winner Rocketarium is known for their mid-power scale kits but this is one of their sport models with split fins. Rocketarium has great components and this kit is no exception. Construction was straight forward. I started with the motor mount I notched the forward centering ring and fed the Kevlar shock cord through that. I knotted the end of the Kevlar so it could not pull through the centering ring. Tag end of the Kevlar cord was then embedded in the glue on ...

2024-09-16 - Epic II disappoints

Kit Review by Kirk Groeneveld

Epic II disappoints OK, I gotta admit that I wasn't very impressed from the start...but I bought the kit off the rack at Hobby Lobby anyway. Someone else had posted pics of their flight on Facebook and I thought it looked interesting as an "Advanced" rocket kit. So I sought it out. First, at $14.99 I thought it was a little pricy. Gone are the days of the HL discount. You got to catch them on clearance if you want any sort of a price break. Mine was full price. I was a bi ...

2024-08-20 - Starlight Model Rockets Serion 3

Kit Review by Buzz McDermott

Starlight Model Rockets Serion 3 This was my first Starlight Model Rockets product. I picked up this kit at NARAM 65. This is also my first review so I hope I don't mess it up too bad. :-) liked this kit because it was a 3-motor cluster and I thought it would look good next to my Astron Ranger, Astron Cobra and Sunward Land Viper. I haven't been disappointed. The Seiron 3 is an excellent quality kit with a full color face card and very well written, clear instructions. The build is very ...