Construction

PROs: High quality parts for the most part. I really enjoyed tracing the fins out on to the balsa sheets and cutting them out by hand. I also "skinned" each fin with adhesive label material. I couldn't fit the entire larger forward fin on to one label sheet, but I had no problem hiding the seam between the labels with finish coats of primer. Skinning the fins made finishing way easier and strengthened the fins immensely. The rest of the balsa parts are easily cut from the sheets and with a little time and patience add a beautiful look to the rocket when attached. I also passed on using the shock cord mount and attached the shock cord to the inside wall of the body tube. I used Titebond II carpenters glue throughout the whole assembly. I really like the dual snap swivels that are used for rigging the parachute to the shock cord and nose cone.

CONs: I didn't want to attempt the paper nose cone transition so as I said earlier substituted a beautiful Semroc BNC-80HVE in its place. The Semroc cone fit, looked perfect and was only about .1 ounces less in weight than the PNC and card stock that came in the kit. After finishing the BNC with balsa wood filler and adding a screw eye to attach the shroud line to it weighed the same as the original PNC/card stock. No additional nose weight was added. The only other minor issue I ran into was the engine clips are a little sloppy. I don't know if this is because I used masking tape (the instructions called for a card stock "patch") to keep them in place instead of the standard Estes Mylar rings or the clips themselves are flimsy. Regardless they seemed to hold a 24 MM motor in place okay.

As for the instructions, they are well detailed and excellent if you have some prior building experience under the belt. Plenty of detailed instruction but some "fill in the blank" details are left out - like no fin marking guide (I used a guide out of an Estes Der V-3) and no instructions on where to mount the launch lug which is left up to the builder.