Brief:
Another fine miniaturization job by ASP. This is a roughly 1/50th scale of the 1954-1959 Army anti-aircraft missile. It's also a great value, available for under $6, and flies on motors that can generally be found for about $0.40-$0.50 apiece.

Construction:
ASP's parts list includes some very good quality packed in this $6 kit:

• Styrene fin stock
• Styrene launch lug
• 2 body tubes
• 2 tube couplers (one serves as engine block)
• Kevlar® shock cord
• Nose Weight sinker
• Hardwood nose cone
• Mylar streamer
• Waterslide decal

ASP's instructions are generally well written and easy to follow but tend to be a bit light on illustrations. They are generally geared for the competition flyer and this would make a very good peanut sport scale entry. Overall, I'd rate this a skill level 2.5 to 3, mainly due to the challenge of working in micro scale.

Construction starts with sanding and marking the body tube. There was a neat little styrene angle supplied for use as a marking tool. Imagine trying to use the doorjamb method on a 7mm tube!

Cutting the fins from styrene stock is a bit tricky and the instructions offer a good tip of using double-sided tape to hold the stock in place while you mark and cut. There are 4 fins for this kit. I tacked the fins to the body using thin CA then a medium CA fillet.

Next, one of the couplers is cut to be used for a mini bulkhead, holding the nose weight. The nose cone (made of a very nice hardwood) is glued into the end. At the aft end, the Kevlar® shock cord is anchored by tying it to the sinker wedged in the coupler. The remaining coupler section is inserted into the aft end of the body tube, also serving as a motor block.

The launch lug is then attached but uses a standoff piece. After building mine, I'd really prefer to lose the lug and make a MMX tower launcher. It definitely detracts from the great overall appearance.

This rocket also gets two conduits cut as very tiny and thin strips from the styrene stock. They go on opposing sides of the body tube centered between fin lines.

Finishing:
Finishing a micro scale rocket is truly a pain. This uses a pretty simple paint scheme: white base, black fins, and black conduits. Unfortunately, you're dealing with areas of body between fins that's only about 5mm wide, so masking and trimming is very hard to do effectively. I spent the better part of one evening cutting custom sized strips of masking tape then trimming slightly after application.

The end result worked fairly well with only one minor blemish where the black bled through although I was able to scrape this off before it had fully cured.

There is also a basic "US ARMY" waterslide decal for opposing sides of the body.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
Hawks are regardless of scale, only marginally stable at best. This one was no exception, looping once in mid-flight although generally always heading upwards. The MicroMaxx motor makes for an amusing flight: incredible thrust-to-weight ratio, resulting in flight speeds faster than most eyes will be able to pick up. When you fly these, you're definitely looking more for the puff of smoke more than the actual flight. Anyone who catches one of these in flight on film or digital media is sure to win one of EMRR's photo contests.

Recovery:
The mylar streamer deployed but didn't manage to unfurl. That failure was probably from being packed too long on too cold a day. Still, the rocket tumbled gently down and was recovered for future flights. No damage at all.

Flight Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Summary:
PROs: outstanding scale detail in such a small scale, very affordable kit.

CONs:unstable flight, might need more nose weight.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5