Brief:
This is a single stage low power kit. It has a very unique appearance. Some people like the look while others think it's one of the ugliest rockets ever made.

Construction:
Parts List:

• Main body tube
• 8 Fuel tank tubes
• Nose cone
• Engine mount tube
• Launch lug
• Engine hook
• 2 Centering rings
• Die-cut balsa sheet
• Die-cut card (contains 16 round punch-outs for fuel tank ends)
• Decal sheet
• Clay weight
• Parachute
• Tape disks
• Rubber shock cord
• Shroud line
• Shock cord mount

This rocket has a very unique nosecone. It also has six lower fins and two mid fins (solar panels). The build was very enjoyable. It's very different from any 3 or 4 fin rocket build and should be attempted by an experienced builder due to all of the fins and tubes that need to be applied to the main body tube. Everything was laid out very well in the instructions and I found no gotcha's at any point durint the build process.

Finishing:
Finishing was fairly straight forward. I used sanding sealer on the balsa areas and primed the entire rocket with Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Gray Wet or Dry Sandable® primer.

The body painting was fairly easy being silver and white. The nosecone takes some additional care since it calls for white, gold, silver and black to be applied to the various sides of this multi surfaced nose cone. It's hard to really call it a nose cone since it looks like none that I have seen before. In the end I used Testors enamel for the gold and black sections and it came out very nicely.

I did have some problems with one of the solar panel decals. I applied all of the decals without too much difficulty but went back to try and fix the position of one of the solar panel decals and it promptly started to fall apart. I was able to fix things for the most part but if you look close you can see that a few bits and pieces are missing.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
I've flown this rocket four times on Estes C6-3 engines. I didn't want to go with the B6-4 since I have heard that it can be a nail biting flight if this rocket doesn't grab enough altitude.

Each flight was made in perfect to near perfect conditions i.e. no wind. It flew well on three of the four flights. One one flight the chute tangled and it came down quickly. It was close enough to the pad that I snatched it before it hit the ground so no damange ensued. I'm bad at estimating altitude but I would guess that each flight the rocket was in the 200-300 foot range.

Recovery:
The flights were great and the rocket is a big hit with spectators due to it's unique appearance.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
This is a great OOP Estes kit. I really wish that Estes would bring this one back. I know some think it's ugly but I think it's a beautiful old classic and I would really like to build another.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Other:
One tip I would empart to anyone wanting to build this old kit. Rember that the waterslide decals are old and probably not as durable as they once were. Treat them with care and don't manipulate them any more than you have to. They can and do start to come apart after too much handling.