Brief:
This is a downscale of the Estes classic design, nicely upgraded since Drake's 2004 review. It holds fairly close to the original design and flies great on those tiny MMX motors.

Construction:
See Drake's review/photo. There are two upgrades since his review--you now get two sizes of launch lug for the various rod diameters floating around out there, and the kit now includes a sweet set of waterslide decals courtesy of Excelsior. The decals, while micro-sized, are incredibly detailed, and the white comes through very brightly.

The nose cone is still, as Drake pointed out, too conical compared to the original, and I forgot to sand mine down. I also noticed that this kit lacks a shroud/transition to mimic the original, which I hope to retro-fit on once I have a flight or two under my belt with this.

The instructions though crudely illustrated with a few hand sketches are fairly well written and easy to follow. I would rate this around a skill level 3 on the 5-point scale, mainly because working with some of the tiny details is challenging.

You begin by cutting the tubing to various lengths as well as cutting out the fins from styrene stock. The tubes had some rough edges to them so I had to true them up a bit first--a simple task for the X-Acto miter box I picked up a few years ago. Cutting out the elliptical fins from the sheet though is a minor pain. The patterns are hand drawn on an index card, and the angles/lines are off slightly. It takes a good deal of patience, multiple scraping passes with a fresh knife blade, and even then probably some light sanding to round off the edges.

Once all the parts are cut, gluing things together is quick and easy. I used brush on liquid plastic cement, which sets very quickly and is practically invisible. First you bond the motor tube and main body tube then attach the Kevlar® shock cord to the nose cone and body tube. As with the original kit, there are a few different recovery options. I decided to go with nose cone ejection so I anchored my Kevlar® to the forward end of the main body tube then ran it through the upper tube, attached it to the cone, and was good to go.

Fins and side pods go on next. The wraparound guide was also off slightly on marking lines so I wound up printing one out on my own.

The last aspect of construction involves the long dowel/rods. They bond into notched cutouts in the main fins then to the forward strakes. I apparently didn't cut out my notches right as one was a bit too skinny and one was too fat, with angles off on each. I had to trim away a bit using a nail file then tack everything together and follow up with a tiny bit of filler putty.

Finishing:
With no seams or spirals to deal with, finishing is almost a breeze. You simply apply a thin primer coat, then hit it with gloss black. In my case, I went with Rustoleum Metallic black, the same stuff Bob Cox used on his upscale (Q-Modeling) Andromeda.

Once the paint had fully cured out, I then applied the decals. That part was a bit of a pain as the decals are incredibly tiny and a little tricky to work with. My first decal proved to be too fragile and tore so I resorted to strictly following the directions and applied two different Micro Sol pre-treatments. Next, I soaked/applied the decals and applied a Micro Sol sealer. The Micro Sol suite of stuff did the trick and subsequent decals went on without a problem.

Minor note: There are no placement notes provided so you'll have to hit JimZ's site or pull up an Estes catalog to determine where the decals are to be placed.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I finally caught a slight break in the travel schedule so I headed out to our club launch to get this little gem in the air. I loaded up an MMX-II and a hand made igniter from 32 gauge nichrome wire.

The winds were not friendly, blowing steady at a little over 10mph. Almost immediately after it left the rod, it arced over and flew a very space-plane like horizontal trajectory. Not exactly unstable, but certainly not what I expected for flight. Ejection wound up being perfectly timed, just before it turned down into a descent.

Recovery:
The tiny streamer worked fine although this is built tough enough to handle straight tumble recovery.

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
I think this is a sweet little downscale and the odd flight is probably more a function of wind and lug placement (one on aft fin and nothing near or forward of CG). I do wish the nose were more authentic though.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5