Estes - Star Wars Trade Federation Battleship
Contributed by John Lee  Brief: Construction: The kit came with a piece of sewing elastic instead of the glorified rubber band I have come to expect from Estes. They get points for that but not for it being too short. The elastic was supposed to be knotted and fitted through a hole in the plastic reducer section. I've played that game before and decided that I did not want to play it again. Instead, I knotted a piece of Kevlar® and fitted that through the hole. I did not rely on the knot to keep it in place and instead fastened it with a few drops of 5 minute epoxy. A bit of the same batch of epoxy was used to mount the parachute tube to the reducer. The lower part of the probe consists of 2 pieces joined by a coupler. The rearmost piece has a plastic flange to lock into the body of the actual battleship. The coupler was marked at the halfway point and joined to the two tubes with white glue. A bit of epoxy was then used to join the rear tubes to the reducer section. As the probe was drying, I took a closer look at the ship itself. It looked nice and was pre-finished with stickers. They don't look like they will be very durable but they looked nice out of the package.
To mount the probe onto the ship, a molded plastic plug has to be removed. It is provided for display purposes and removes by twisting it to disengage the lugs and then punching it out. I poked it out with a rod pushed through the motor mount. The probe was then inserted into the hole and twisted to engage the plastic lugs on the collar. A previous EMRR review indicated some problems with the alignment but I had no problems. At this point, all that was left to do was to tie the sewing elastic to the Kevlar® and nose cone. Finishing: Construction Rating: 3 out of 5
 Flight and Recovery: I called heads up, announced the flight and Tim pressed the magic button. From that point on we were both amazed as it took off straight as an arrow. A bit after apogee, the chute ejected and deployed perfectly and it began to swing its way down. It landed pretty close by and I was already to fly it again until I noticed that the 2 piece plastic nose cone had separated and the forward end was lost. I will have to replace it and fly this one again. Flight Rating: 4 out of 5 Summary: It would probably be best not to fly this one on a windy day. Some long burn Ds are surely in its future and I will fly it again. Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Flight Log
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To make the rocket stable, a pair of
clear Lexan fins are provided. They are flexible and snap into slots on the body of the ship.
