Aerospace Speciality Products Corporal (Micro)

Aerospace Specialty Products - Micro Corporal {Kit} (KCOR-MM)

Contributed by Chris Taylor Jr.

Diameter: 0.28 inches
Length: 5.25 inches
Manufacturer: Aerospace Specialty Products
Skill Level: 2
Rating
(Contributed - by Chris Taylor Jr.)

Rocket PicBrief:
A Scale Model of a Corporal that flies on MMaxx engines and can fit in the palm of your hand from ASP.

Construction:
The kit includes: two (2) body tubes, a nose cone, two (2) slide-in couplers, a decal sheet, Kevlar® thread, lead shot, and some hard styrene sheets and other miscellaneous styrene tools.

Instructions are definitely set for the beginner. Besides a quick overview to see if there were any "gotcha's" I ignored them. For a beginner they are extremely thorough which I guess is good for this very new area of Model Rocketry. I have my own kit line for these motors so I feel I have already experienced all the gotcha's! Do pay attention to the extra styrene parts sections.

Shock Cord : This one was also a pain because of the long distance to the motor block inside. I used the "skinny plastic rod with glue on it" technique with a motor installed to protect the edges. It worked fine.

This kit was more difficult to build than the other ASP MMaxx kits I have built because of the many EXTREMELY tiny parts! When I say tiny I mean it. Again I found that applying the glue to the tube FIRST and then sticking the fins and conduit components on was a far easier task. I am going to use this technique more often.

Those fins were a pain to make and apply. They are truly Nano in size. Tweezers (the kind with the slider that can grip) are highly suggested for this. Also the strakes are very hard to apply. The glue would either dry too fast or it would glue to my finger better than the model causing it to remove itself from the model when I pull my fingers away. Tweezers do not help here because not only are they too skinny but you need your finger to push them flat against the tube the whole length to avoid ugly gaps. I do have to say the result is worth the effort.

Finishing:
Finishing the Corporal was extremely easy. Paint it all white and apply the 5 decals. Done! The extra styrene details make it stand out nicely, as do the odd fin shapes and placement (sticking out the rear). I fear they may get singed in flight . . . there's only one way to find out!

The directions for the bottom decal placement are not entirely clear. I goofed them and realized this only after more careful examination of the cover art. They alternate up and down from fin to fin, not alternate within the space of each fin.

Construction Rating: 3 out of 5

Flight:
It takes MMaxx engines from Quest. They all test out stable in RockSim using the specs of my completed models.

I launch the Corporal. BANG . . . gone. It was very fast (did not help that it was all white). I think it might have wiggle on the way up a little (smoke trail wiggled so rocket wiggled). When I heard the ejection pop I immediately honed in on it in the sky and was easily able to view the descent. No damage, landing within 100 feet of the pad.

I was very impressed. The double walled tube structure that happens when you make it according to instructions make the Corporal very strong. I anticipate a very long life.

Recovery:
As usual with MMAxx if you don't see it land you are in trouble BUT the Corporal is large enough and heavy enough that you have a better chance of seeing it. It being white didn't help though as mentioned. It uses Kevlar® for the shock cord and since I opted out of using the streamer (pain to prep) no wadding is needed.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I was not as impressed with this model while building it but once done it is a pretty cool model. I guess I got annoyed at those conduit peices. Glue kept drying before I could get them on. But it was worth it. They add a lot of detail to the model.

The finished model is extremely impressive in hand, on desk or on pad. It gets attention.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Flights

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