GUEST's OPINION:
10/05 - "I am thinking about getting one of these cones for a carbon fiber mach buster then I am working on, it is a two stager. How long is the cone? Anybody know for sure if it is glass now or still balsa? What is a good dealer to get it from? (they are not selling stuff for a while, moving...). The rocket will hit the ground pretty hard and get some serious speed, to reinforce it I plan on using some thin resin like you would use for glassing, and soak it into the cone. On my nike cone I used a gel epoxy and it worked well but with a thin resin that soaks in the cone should be good for super high speed and rough handling flights." (J.R.)

GUEST's OPINION:
06/05 - "I've seen one of these kits that someone is building at present, I noticed that the nosecone now seems to be made of fibreglass or plastic filled with expanding foam. This looks a lot stronger than balsa, it also seems to be one of the few 2.5/2.6" conical NC's around." (N.O.)

GUEST's OPINION:
11/01 - "I, too, love the Estes Black Brant II and bought this kit to complement it from Magnum who provided excellent service. I think the NC and tailcone are great. I spent several hours with sandpaper and finally a belt sander trying to shape the fins before giving up after ruining one on the belt sander. I went to Plan B, which was to buy some 3/16" balsa for the fins. I sanded it to the spec and then covered them with 2.3 oz glass. The rocket is lighter this way, and still very tough. I have flown it on an F52T-M and a G75J-M. The first flight could have used a shorter delay. The G75 flight was fantastic. The nose cone dings on recovery, but I am not too fanatic about that. I also added a coupler/altimeter pay using an Aerotech coupler. If you study the pattern, you can cut the tube at the bottom of the first roll pattern and have a decent size payload section. I highly recommend this kit. Construction 4 (fins too difficult) and flight 5." (J.M.E.S.)

GUEST's OPINION:
04/01 - "Excellent craftsmanship easy to get replies from the manufacturer if you have questions. These kits are true to mid/high power kits, kits you get to build! These kits come out great, look great, and fly even better. I love my Black Brandt, just wish I was a better painter. The parachute attached to the nose is a definite bonus. I actually wrapped my nose in glass to protect the balsa. This rocket+H220M=Instant L1+ whiplash!" (C.S.)

GUEST's OPINION:
04/01 - "I agree completely with the review. The kit is easy to build, the parts are high quality and the final result is impressive. This rocket looks aerodynamic and flies straight & high in my experience - superb on an Aerotech G40-7 White Lightning. One hint, I split the BT into 30" & 4" sections and glued the 4" section and a coupler permanently to the NC - this gives a bit of extra weight. It's also about the same size of the payload bay on the real thing! Also, put lots of coats of either thin CA or balsa dope on the NC to ward off the dents." (L.N.)

GUEST's OPINION:
04/01 - "I found this a very good building and flying kit. Sanding the bevels on the fins can be challenge. I glassed the fins, boattail and nose cone on mine to help reduce rash and damage on landing. I recently modified mine to carry an RRC2 altimeter as payload only. The rocket recovers two sections, each with a 24" chute. This helps soften the landing stress. I will say the unique roll pattern is the most challenging part of this kit. If you take your time and study the diagram provided there should be no problems. I used an Aeropack motor retainer rather than the supplied threaded rod and nut. For this you have to allow about a 1/4" of the motor tube to stick out past the boattail so you can install Aeropack's retainer. I, however, did away with the furnished elastic and used 1/4" Kevlar® (15' length). I don't trust elastic that much any more. For a picture of mine you can go to my web page. The review was very accurate. It's great sport scale model. Construction is very straight forward and the turned balsa parts are outstanding. Mike at Cosmodrome does all the shaping and the workmanship shows. Mike and Janine also make all their own parachutes for all the kits they produce. This would be a great second or third sport scale kit for someone." (J.B.)

SPECIFIC ROCKET TIP:
04/08 - "The assembly of this kit is very straight forward and contains very well written instructions. This kit contains a boattail and the instructions have you install this before the fins. This is due to the shape of the fins. If you install the fins first, you will not be able to install the boattail. Since I was planning on flying this on the AT RMS G64 and 71 re-loads, I needed to be able to apply inner epoxy fillets to the fins. With this kit you cannot do that. Here is my solution to this problem; First I marked the position of the centering rings on the outside of the body tube. Second I installed the fins and boattail as per the instructions. Finally I drilled a hole between each fin and between the centering rings that I marked earlier. After this was complete, I filled the voids between each fin with expandible adhesive foam. Once this has cured, trim away the excess foam from the drilled holes and fill in with Elmers fill-n-finish. This has worked well." (J.T. )

SPECIFIC ROCKET TIP:
10/03 - "Using fiberglass on the pointy nose of this bird will help kepp it "sharp" :). I put 2 coats on the whole nose cone and 2 extra coats on the top 2" of the nose." (M.N.S. )