Brief:
If you're looking for an entry level scale kit (Nartrek silver or local NAR meet), this would be a great starting point. It's easy to build, flies great, and doesn't require extraordinary skills or patience to complete.

Construction:
Parts list includes:

• Plastic nose cone
• 1.6" body tube
• Balsa fins/gussets
• 18mm motor tube kit with fiber centering rings
• Heavy duty elastic shock cord
• Thick 18" plastic chute
• Peel and stick decals

The instruction on this kit were very basic. It's not a complex kit and you don't get a lot of detailed instructions, though they are adequate to do the job.

With such a large body tube on this rocket, the motor tube needs to be longer than the basic 2.75" in order to support sufficient pressure for the ejection. This one, I believe, covered 18" of the roughly 28" body tube length. To complete the motor mount assembly, fiberboard centering rings are attached near each end of the tube, then the assembly is slipped into the end of the 1.6" body tube. The kit includes an engine block, although it lacks a metal clip for retention. However, if you leave enough tube behind the aft centering ring, masking tape retention will work fine.

The balsa fins for true scale appearance need to have tapered edges sanded into them. The instructions call for fairly exact dimensions for this, 7/32" reducing to 1/8" on one edge. This can be pretty difficult to get exactly right, but even if you're a bit off it will still look fairly scale-like. The fins also get square balsa gussets. Here, I think the instructions leave a bit to be desired. For scale appearance, the gussets should be sanded down to an angle and not remain squared. There are no indications of this on the sheet.

Construction wraps up by attaching the launch lug, anchoring the shock cord (paper tri-fold), and constructing the parachute. The parachute was a little tougher to make than most comparable kits--the thick plastic chute needs to have the shroud line sewn through and then reinforced with tape.

Finishing:
Finishing consisted of a couple of coats of white primer, followed by 3 coats of glossy white paint. Once everything's completely dry, it's time to mask and paint the fins. 3 fins get a glossy black, and the 4th fin gets red. The painting is topped off (no pun intended) by a brown tip on the nose cone. The instructions suggest dipping the nose cone, although I preferred to mask and spray it, fearing that dipping would result in visible runs or varying thickness.

There are waterslide decals for upper body striping, complete with rivet patterns. The result is a very nice looking scale rocket.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
First flight was on a C6-3, in light winds. The rocket weathercocked slightly, but generally flew straight up. The 3 second delay was perfect. The big 18" chute brought it down safely, but it still managed to come up with a slight paint chip even with landing in grass.

Recovery:
I'd rather see a basic brightly colored Mylar chute than the white 18" plastic one with this kit.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
Excellent low skill level scale kit that looks good and flies very well. The only major detail missing from the scale are the more complex fin can details, so if you're entering a competition, be prepared to lose a few points on the similarity of outline score.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5