Semroc Centurion

Semroc - Centurion {Kit} (KV-40)

Contributed by Chan Stevens

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Diameter: 1.64 inches
Manufacturer: Semroc
Skill Level: 2
Style: Clone, Sport
Semroc Centrurion

Brief:
The original Centurion was introduced in 1970 by Centuri and was one of the first rockets to introduce an ejection baffle system, eliminating the need for recovery wadding. This is good for long, slow flights, and a nice flier.

Construction:
The parts list:

  • Balsa nose cone
  • 2 ST-16 body tubes
  • 4 Laser-cut balsa fins
  • 18mm motor kit
  • 2 12" plastic chutes
  • Baffle kit
  • Kevlar®/elastic shock cord
  • Waterslide decals

The instructions for this are typical Semroc, well written and reasonably illustrated. You'll find this is a pretty quick and easy build. It can be put together in 2 hours plus finishing time.

The motor mount is a basic 18mm tube, pair of centering rings, and metal hook.

The baffle is a neat little assembly. You slip the Kevlar® through one hole in a perforated disk then tack it in place. The disk is then tacked to a tube coupler. Another perforated disk is attached to the other end of the coupler. The idea is that since the holes are different size/orientation, there's no clean passage for the ejection particles, and they get trapped in the coupler. Glue the coupler to each body tube, tack on the fins, and construction is pretty much complete.

Finishing:
The paint scheme for this is pretty easy. I first prepped the surfaces by filling grains with Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish (diluted), the tube spirals with a wood filler, and then sanded everything down with 220 grit sandpaper.

With the surface prepped, I followed up with two coats of white primer then two coats of gloss white. I masked off the lower portion of the main body and painted the top and nose gloss black.

The waterslide decals include a Centurion label and some red striping. The stripes are too long for the fin trim so they must be cut to length. They are also too short to wrap around the main body tube so you need to use two strips with a little overlap. The decal sheet was a little too small for this, but it would have been nice if a larger single stripe was provided.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The first flight for this debuted at NSL2007, a nice venue considering I picked up the kit at the previous national event, NARCON. Winds had settled in around 6-8 mph, and I went for the recommended C6-5. Flight was perfect, and deployment was also perfect.

Recovery:
The kit comes with a pair of 12" chutes, noting for larger fields and/or harder surfaces, you can go with both. Smaller fields/softer grass would only call for 1.

The huge field and dry, hard grass should have pushed me to 2 chutes, but I was trying for shorter walks to get multiple flights in, so went with just 1. It served fine though the landing was a little rough. Still, I suffered no damage and it will fly again.

I did skip the wadding to try out the baffle capability and melted the chute a bit so even with the baffle, you should slip in a sheet or two of wadding.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
PROs: Flies great, quick/easy build, shares classic Bertha styling, baffle is nice feature.

CONs: none.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • Semroc Centurion By John Lee (March 29, 2008)

    Brief: This rocket is a retro-repro, 18mm, standard 4FNC rocket with baffle ejection and dual parachute recovery system. Construction: The balsa sheet was within the instructions and was broken in many places parallel to the grain. One fin was broken into 2 pieces, the other three were broken into three pieces each. Let me hasten to add, I am NOT blaming Semroc for this. This ...

  • Semroc Centurion By Ron Wirth (July 12, 2007)

    Brief: The Centurion is another nice addition in the Semroc Retro-Repro series of rockets. For being a 4FNC rocket, it has some cool extras, namely the dual chutes, ejection baffle and shape of the laser cut fins that lead me to purchasing this rocket. I really like the curved portion of the fin at the rear of the rocket. Construction: This kit comes with 2 sections of body ...

  • Semroc Centurion By Bill Eichelberger (May 31, 2007)

    Brief: Originally a Centuri kit circa 1971-77, the Centurion was perfectly sized to fit in with the Estes Big Bertha and Semroc Vega. With 18mm power and an ejection baffle that all but eliminated the need for recovery wadding, the Centurion was another choice in the crowded field of skill level one birds that were perfect for flights from smaller fields. The Semroc version also ...

Flights

Comments:

avatar
H.C.M. (June 18, 2007)
A great kit, my review would agree with everything the reviewer wrote. Only one small problem from my end. The red stripe decals provided weren't quite long enough to go completely around the main body tube. It took some "piecing" together of two stripe decals. Not a big deal, but might be trouble for a younger modeler inexperienced with decals.

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