Brief:
MicroMaxx sized downscale of the Estes kit, The USS Andromeda.

Construction:
The kit contains two sizes of tubes, some fin stock, Kevlar® shock cord, a Mylar streamer and various other components. The kit comes with two pages of instructions and a fin template. Mine was signed and numbered #3. Resisting the urge to save it was difficult, so I had a hard time just opening the package.

The directions were pretty straightforward. Everything but the nosecone is polystyrene so regular model glue was in order. I really liked the alternate method of deployment. The kit allows the streamer ejecting at the nose cone or having it just break apart at the body midsection. I chose the streamer from the nose cone method.

I found two problems with the kit: The nose cone was wrong shape being pointed, but this was easily remedied with sand paper. I'm not sure what happened here, but the launch lugs were too small for my Quest MicroMaxx launcher. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until after they glued to the rocket. I had to drill them out with a 1/16" drill bit in a pin vise. Although not a major problem, it would be nice to see some decals in the kit.

Finishing:
After finishing the assembly of the kit, I used Bondo spot putty to lengthen the transition and filled in all the areas needing filler.

Painting was a chore but having a 15 foot tall version in the room made it easy to get it right. I first sprayed one light coat of primer over the entire rocket. I then painted the whole thing orange. This gets the areas needing orange but it keeps the whole thing uniform in color and makes it easier for the next step. I then applied tape masks to all areas that I wanted to keep orange then painted the whole thing black. I applied the white markings with acrylic craft paint using a #0 brush.

The instructions suggested using markers to color it. While it would have made it much easier, it wouldn't have looked as nice. (I'm a little fanatical about Andromedas.)

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
It was hard to get the streamer in. (I'm getting too old for these small rockets.) It made 3 perfect flights to 50-60 feet. Poker straight.

Recovery:
Perfect deployment on streamer at apogee all three times.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I feel that it needs decals and a properly shaped nose cone. For me, the nose cone was no big deal because I easily sanded it to the appropriate shape.

This is a great kit, but I may be biased (seeing how I have several sizes.) All of the dimensions appear to be right on.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5