2 BT-60 body tubes

BT-60 baffle kit

24mm motor mount kit

Basswood fins

Balsa fin trim pieces

18" parachute

BT-60 Rocketarium nose cone

Rubber band shock cord

Rocketarium make great kits with top notch components. The only exception is the rubber band shock cord.

I stated off building the motor mount. Pretty standard fair and no need to attach the shock cord, as it will be anchored to the baffle. I put Titebond II fillets on both sides of the centering rings. Once the fillets dried I glued the motor mount into the body tube. Next up was the baffled. I screwed the eye bolt into the bulkhead with the hole in it. I then added some 5-minute epoxy around the tip of the screw where it protrudes from the bulkhead. I also dabbed epoxy around the shank of the screw on the other side of the bulkhead. Once dry I glued both bulkheads into the coupler tube. I recess the bulkheads about an 1/8th of an inch so I can add fillets. I marked the mid-point of the baffle and glued it into the lower body tube. I then used the fin guide to mark the fin lines on the lower tube. I use Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue for fins. It does grab fast and eliminates the need for the double glue method. The kit comes with 8 small rectangular balsa pieces to use as braces at the root of the fins. I did not use these as I had issues with another rocket that did this. All the fins ripped off under full thrust, so I wanted full fillets. I came up with another idea later when building the Rocketarium Alamo I should have used with the Arcturus. I added the fillets the full length of the fin root and while the glue was wet I added the braces. This worked well, but I had the idea too late for the Arcturus. I don't worry about altitude so I left the fin edges flat. I ditched the rubber band shock cord and used a combination of 300 lb. Kevlar and 1/4" elastic. The Kevlar end was tied to the baffle screw bolt and the upper tube was glued to the baffle. I sanded the mold seams on the nose cone and attached the shock cord. I put a snap swivel on the parachute and the rocket was ready for paint.

The paint scheme was all yellow with a black nose cone. Then came the tricky part. There are five pieces of black vinyl decals. Most are straightforward to apply. The ARCTURUS letter are where the challenge comes in. The letters are cut into a rectangular sheet of vinyl. You can peel off each individual letter and place them on the rocket. This would be difficult to get everything spaced and aligned correctly. So, as recommend, I took the backing off the letters and placed the entire section on the rocket. Then you have to remove the vinyl around the letters. Unfortunately, the vinyl adhesive was strong and it pulled off some of the yellow paint. I could not see a good way to fix this and just left it alone, as much as that pained me. I'm not sure if a clear coat would have prevented the paint pulling up but I wish I had tried that.

Rocketarium says it should weigh 3.77 ounces but mine weighed 5.5 ounces. Not sure were all that extra weight came from. It will still fly well on D and E motors. C11's are out.

If you like scale kits Rocketarium is hard to beat. The Arcturus is a basic 4FNC design, similar to the Arcas. With the exception of the vinyl letters, it is a very straightforward build and a great flier.