Brief:
The Star Watcher is one of 4 new Sunward designs and it is a break from their typical flying fighter jet design with a definite outer space look to it. It's a quick and simple build and a nice diversion from the basic 3-fin/nose cone kits crowding the market.

Construction:
I actually received two copies of this kit for review and the one I built had an extra baggy of parts (centering rings, streamer, motor mount components). I'm usually missing stuff, not getting extra, so I definitely won't complain about this.

The parts are all very good quality and include:

• 1 8" BT-56 body tube
• 1 Plastic nose cone with a cast in cockpit
• 5 1/8" launch lugs
• Laser-cut balsa fins
• 18m motor mount assembly

As Sunward is a Canadian company, the instructions are in both English and French. I won't vouch for the French version, but the English version worked fine for me and the illustrations were very good.

The motor assembly is the basic tube with a pair of centering rings and a 13/18 centering ring block. One unusual aspect of Sunward kits is their motor retention method. Instead of a metal clip, they use an L-shaped bolt which is glued into the aft centering ring. Even after the glue sets, it can be turned a bit and when turned inward secures the motor.

The instructions call out two options for fin mounting: regular 90-degree orientation and an X-wing pattern. The X-wing pattern looks pretty cool and I will build that version with kit #2. (I will post a comment to this review with feedback.) Unfortunately, there was no tube marking guide for the X-pattern. There is a warning to add nose weight if using that option, but there are no guidelines for how much to add or where the target CG should be. There is a section explaining how to perform a string test for stability although I'd suggest making a fairly clear dimensional reference for CG placement.

I would like to point out some excellent customer service at this point: after reading my comments on the lack of X-wing pattern, Sunward developed one and will be adding it to all kits. On top of that, I was the lucky recipient of one of their kits from EMRR's Virtual Longneck contest and found the new X-wing pattern added to my prize package shipment.

Fin attachment on Sunward kits is also a bit unusual. After tacking on the fins, instead of glue fillets, they call out paper reinforcement tabs. These work fine but personally I prefer the visual appearance of fillets over the paper tabs.

The fins/wings also get launch lug tubes bonded on the ends for trim. There were no specific suggestions for alignment as the lugs are longer than the fin, so I set mine back about half an inch, being careful to space them evenly from fin to fin so that they wouldn't be crooked when standing the rocket on end.

Recovery consists of a rubber shock cord anchored with paper tri-fold and an orange plastic 1" x 40" streamer.

Finishing:
Finishing is left up to the builder's imagination on this one. The bag's header card shows a black finish with a splash of red trim. There are no decals, so this would be a bit tricky to emulate with paint. Instead I went with a royal blue base and applied some red pinstripe tape I had laying around. I then hand painted the cockpit gloss black.The finished look wasn't too bad.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
First flight was on a chilly day with relatively light winds (6-8 mph is great for Ohio in March). I opted for a B4-4. Other than a slight weathercock, it flew very well, straight, and a little slow.

Deployment was a bit late but close enough to apogee as to be the right delay.

Recovery:
The shock cord was plenty long and avoided any snap back. The streamer deployed fine and was easy to spot against the overcast sky, but a 1x40 streamer doesn't really slow down the decent of a 2 ounce rocket much. This came down quickly, practically a tumble recovery, and landed fairly hard on soft, wet grass. Fortunately there was no damage although on a drier day I suspect I'd have been replacing at least one or two of the trim lugs. I will definitely be switching to a 12" chute for future flights.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is a very nice kit for the money, and a solid flyer.

PROs: unusual design, nice looking nose cone, very "spacey".

CONs: streamer recovery insufficient, lack of accent decals.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5