The Interceptor Gis futuristic manned space vehicle that looks very impressive in the catalog, on the box, and built. I found out recently that Jim Stuckman was going to fly his one weekend after me, so we decided to do this joint review. 

The kit is deemed by Estes in the instructions as a "carefully designed and tested" kit to be "realistic, challenging, and extremely high flying". They also indicate that they hope that we "spend many enjoyable hours constructing and flying" the kit.

The kit is made up of a variety of materials including plastic nose cones and accessories, 1/8" plywood centering rings and small wings and rudders, 1/8" basswood large wings and rudders and a vacu-formed tail cone. The 2.5" main body tube is kraft paper measuring 34" long and is 1/16" thick. The two booster tubes are BT-60A. The kit uses 1/4" launch lugs. The kit uses 1/4" launch lugs. It comes with the GOR-1 Gorilla Shock Cord Mount Kit which includes a 1/16" cable and a 1/2" wide, 72" long elastic shock cord and mounting hardware. Also for recovery, there is a red 36" rip-stop parachute. Lastly there are two sheets of decals which really give the kit its looks.

When finished the Interceptor G™ should stand 43.8" and weigh approximately 16 ounces without a motor.
 
 

Essence:
The Interceptor Gwas a rocket that I just had to have and I purchased it 10 months ago. Over the past 10 months my thoughts and feelings about this kit have been like a roller coaster as you will see throughout the review. It definitely offered me a "challenging" kit and it definitely took "hours" to build. Just the decals took over a hour!

My initial disappointment was that this kit didn't seem to have the North Coast's Gorilla-Lok motor mount. Estes confirmed that this is the only North Coast kit that doesn't!

Stuckman:
I've had this kit for 3 months and decided it was time to try something a little different from the typical 3FNC kits that are the norm for 29mm kits. This kit is definitely an attention getter at the field both on the ground and especially in the air!

My first impression was: nice wood & cool decals! The laser cutting was first quality. Upon reading through the instructions, I saw that they mentioned using the NCR plastic motor retainer to secure the motor in the flight prep. A quick call to Estes confirmed that this kit does not have one and that later versions of the instructions have already been updated.

CONSTRUCTION:

The kit comes with a twelve page instruction set, with the first seven pages having something to do with construction. There are relatively few illustrations if comparing to an Estes kit. The instructions were in a logical order and if read carefully, and without skipping steps, one can successfully build the Interceptor G™. The instructions do, however, largely contribute to this kit being challenging and may not support the statement in the NCR catalog about this kit being "perfect for all modelers to build".It is obvious that this is not an Estes kit and requires an experienced, patient rocketeer to build successfully and not get frustrated during the process.

The wings and rudders on this kit come in two pieces that are glued together before attaching to the body tube. They are fairly easy to work with and the instructions make a good point to sand, fill and round them before gluing to the body tube.

The Gorilla™™ Shock Cord Mount requires a pair of crimpers (or needle nose). This consists of a cable that is looped-through the upper centering ring and the held together with a sleeve connector. The opposite end also has a loop that is held in place with another connector. The picture in the instructions did not represent the actual assembly, however, the textual instructions did.

The tail cone is made of vacu-formed plastic and requires cutting it out of the form. Take your time on this.

The fins (wings and rudders) are not through-the-wall mounting. The instructions indicate using a T-Pin to make holes on the fin line marks. These would then act like rivets to help secure the fins to the body tube.

For finishing detail, the Interceptor G™ comes with many, many colorful, self-adhesive decals and some plastic parts. The plastic parts are glued on in various places of the rocket to represent components like the turbine exhaust ducts, rate gyro fairings, stabilizer thrust motors, APU pressure elbows and antenna connectors.

Essence:
We have all heard and read information regarding NCR's use of a slightly smaller mount tube, however, I try very hard to build kits stock when reviewing them and therefore, I built this one stock. It's funny though, because I think the centering rings were cut for a standard 29mm tube. When installing them they were too loose on the motor mount tube. This actually got me very frustrated for two reasons. First, I didn't get them to be perfectly parallel so it was a tight fit into the main body tube, and secondly, this was the most expensive kit I had purchased (lists at $79.99), to date, and I expected them to fit.

Stuckman:
Here's where Nick & I differ a little. I'm a firm believer in building the kit to my satisfaction - especially when we are not talking about an entry level model. I made the following modifications/deviations from the plans:

1. Motor Mount Tube - replaced with PML 29mm. This was an easy modification that required a little time with some 120 grit sandpaper to open up the inner hole on the centering rings.

2. Added plywood ring to rear of MMT for 4-40 blind nuts. This allows the use of positive motor retention. I'm not a big fan of friction fitting RMS cases! I sized the rearward ring to mount inside the tail cone approx. 1/4" from the rear edge of the motor mount tube.

Essence:
I was somewhat disappointed, again, with the Gorilla Shock Cord Mount. The cable is designed to go through two holes in the upper centering ring. These holes were aligned in such a way that the loop would have run parallel with the grain of the centering ring. I saw this as a potential problem of putting undue stress on this centering ring. I took some of the excess wood and glued it to the bottom of the centering ring, in-between the two holes and so that the grain was perpendicular to the centering ring grain. This may not have been necessary, but I'd hate to have the cable break through the centering ring and then have to try to repair that.

Stuckman:
I built my kit's shock cord mount per the instructions. The Gorilla Mount is bullet proof! If built properly, I can see no way to have a zipper as some people have reported with other NCR kits. I use this basic setup on most of my larger rockets. Be sure the wire loop DOES NOT protrude past the end of the body tube!

Essence:
Another challenge with assembly was the vacu-formed tail cone. It comes with two pieces, the coupler and tail cone. After the motor mount is installed in the kit, the coupler is to be glued into place and then the tail cone. The fit was not great and when the instructions say to "fill the joint and sand flush", they mean this as a requirement.

Stuckman:
Fitting the tail cone is an exercise in precision. Take you time and test fit the parts often. It's not hard to do but needs to be done slowly to get a proper fit. I still needed to fill the tail cone/body tube joint but the result was fine.

Essence:
With respect to using the T-Pin to make holes for rivets, I deviated from this. I actually make slits using a hobby knife. I make the slits perpendicular to the fin line and about 1/4" long. I then wiggle my hobby knife back-and-forth to open the slit up slightly. When I glue the fins onto the body tube, I use plenty of glue to allow it to go into the slits. The fillets will fill the slits that are outside of the fin coverage. This has been a successful technique on 3 other kits that don't have through-the-wall fin attachment.

Stuckman:
I would have preferred TTW fins. I followed the instructions and used a T pin to poke holes in the BT all along the area where the fin mounts. I glued all the fins to the BT with 12 minute epoxy and then used 30 minute epoxy to form fillets. This method was put to the test - the chute fouled on the 1st flight and the Interceptor came in VERY fast! One rudder was cracked just above the fillet but stayed attached to the rocket.

Essence:
Finishing the kit was challenging due to all of the component. I filled the spirals on the main body tube with light spackle. Also used this for areas around the tail cone. The remaining imperfections were filled with multiple coats of Plasti-Kote primer. Once I finished smoothing and priming, I painted the entire rocket with $0.98 Walmart White enamel. (additional comments about Walmart paint) The rocket then set for another two weeks before I did the decals. As stated earlier, I spent an hour on the decals. Finally, after painting the extra plastic parts silver, I glued them into place.

The instructions give clear direction as to the paint scheme for the Interceptor G™, however, I did not follow it. I think using just the gloss white and silver components with the colorful decals still produced a very attractive kit.

Stuckman:
I used spackle to fill around the tail cone. I then gave the rocket 2 coats of Pactra Prep surfacer/primer, sanding between coats. I then sprayed 2 coats of Krylon white. I also added an 8" plastic RC airplane canopy from Sig. I cut it down until I felt it looked "right" and then sprayed the inside with Patra Outlaw Black RC car paint. I'm very pleased with the effect!

Essence:
Overall, for CONSTRUCTION I would rate this kit 3 points. It is challenging as stated, but that is not the issue. With the fit of the centering rings and the tail cone, it would be hard for me to rate the kit greater than average. Also adding to this rating was my unproved concern over the centering ring grain and the shock cord cable.

Stuckman:
I would rate this kit 3 1/2 points for overall construction. I would like to see North Coast show a means of positive motor retention. I think the tail cone construction could also be improved. It works but takes a fair amount of effort.

FLIGHT/RECOVERY:

The Interceptor G sits majestically on the launch pad. Its recommended motors are the Darkstar™ F62-4 and the G70-5 (currently not available). It uses two 1/4" launch lugs.

Flight preparation includes, according to the instructions, "placing . . . recovery wadding into the top of the main body tube. Fill the tube loosely with wading to a distance about 1.5 times the diameter of the tube. Gently press the wadding down until there is adequate room for the parachute. DO NOT JAM!" The instructions are also clear in parachute preparation and then mention checking the nose cone for a snug fit.

Recovery is via a 38" rip-stop nylon parachute.

If built stock, the Interceptor G requires that the motor be friction fit, even though the instructions mention putting a motor retainer in place . . . no doubt the Gorilla-Lok motor mount which is not on this kit!

Essence:
My Interceptor G flew three times in the same day all on F62-4's. The first flight was off the pad at a slight angle. It was parallel to the ground and arcing back before ejection. It then had a very nice, slow descent on its red 38" 'chute. By comparison, the Interceptor G weighs about the same as my PML Callisto which uses a 24" parachute with a spill hole, so it came down much slower. It is a good thing since there are many more fins, rudders and plastic parts to protect from a speedy landing. First recovery showed no damage.

Second flight was straight up off the pad and another successful recovery, except, a dent in the nose cone opening where the cone obviously kicked back and hit it. Longer shock cord?

Last flight was again, picture perfect (see picture).

Stuckman:
The first flight was on a cool and windy (10 mph+) day. I used an Aerotech F20-4 Econojet. The rocket flew great! Lift-off was smooth and the rocket flew much more stable than I would have thought in the wind. The silhouette is very distinctive in flight. The 4 second delay was right on but the chute did not fully deploy and resulted in a very fast landing. The right rudder took the shock and cracked but has already been repaired and is awaiting paint.

Essence:
For FLIGHT/RECOVERY, I would rate this kit 3 1/2 points.It looks great and will draw attention, but without a positive motor retention, only 1 motor (to date) to fly the stock kit on, and the requirement for wadding keeps the kit in the average level.

Stuckman:
I would rate this kit 4 points for flight (I reserve recovery rating for later!). It's a fantastic flyer. I do not attribute the chute fouling to the kit's design - it deployed from the BT fine but tangled with the shock cord.

Essence:
Overall, this kit is very challenging, however, it looks great! It is a good flyer but needs some changes to make it versatile for other motors. I give the kit an OVERALL rating of 3 1/2 points.

Stuckman:
Overall, I would rate this kit a solid 4 points. If you are looking for a change of pace give the NCR Interceptor G a look!