Brief:
This is a new 2004 release kit by Estes. It is a small and sleek 4 1/2 inch tall rocket that flies on mini motors up to 750 feet and uses tumble recovery.

Construction:
The kit came in a plastic bag and included two 1/16 balsa strips for fins, body tube, nose cone, launch lug and decals.

The instructions for this kit included the fin template as you need to cut them out yourself from the balsa strips provided. Also included in the instructions was the fin marking guide.

This is a skill level 1 kit and was very easy to assemble. I had it built and ready for finishing in about an hour.

I started by cutting out the fin template from the instructions, traced it onto the fin stock and cut out the three fins. You may notice that there is enough scrap left over to make another fin if necessary. I then sanded the fins and prepared them to be mounted onto the body tube.

I then mounted the fins one at a time to the body tube as directed. You may want to go with Estes' recommendation to put a thin film of glue on the root edge, let it dry for a minute or so then apply another film then attach. Trust me, it works.

I then applied the launch lug next to one of the fins. After it dried, I applied generous fillets to the fins and launch lug for strength.

The instructions call for the nose cone to be glued into place at this time but I waited to glue it on after it was painted.

PROS: Easy and quick assembly.

CONS: None

Finishing:
To finish the rocket, I started by spraying on a coat of Ace brand white primer, sanded and applied another coat and sanded and for the color coats, I copied the color scheme on the header card by painting the rocket body with gloss yellow enamel and the nose cone with gloss black enamel.

After the paint dried, I glued the nose cone into place and applied the provided peel and stick decals to finish the model. An optional step was to apply clear spray enamel but I decided to pass.

PROS: Easy color scheme to copy.

CONS: None

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
The recommended motors for this kit is the 1/4A3-3T, 1/2A3-4T, A3-4T, A10-3T, all Estes 13mm mini motors and they are friction fitted.

To prep this little model for flight, you prep the motor and slide it into place, you probably won't need any tape. I didn't anyway.

For my flight, I used a 1/4A3-3T and the rocket zipped off the pad straight and fast, arched over and popped the motor casing. Unfortunately, I never saw the rocket falling but I knew it had burrowed into tall grass because that's where it was heading. I wasn't able to recover it which was a bummer, as I would have liked to have recovered this one as it was a neat looking rocket.

PROS: Flies great

CONS: Easy to lose but that's typical of rockets like this.

Recovery:
This rocket uses tumble recovery but from previous experience with Mosquitos and Quarks, it comes down nose first and sticks into the ground so be sure to launch with caution.

PROS: Recovers easily if you can track it.

CONS: Doesn't tumble as advertised.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary:
I really liked this rocket. It was easy to assemble and looked great and I was sorry to lose it on the first flight, but since these things are fairly inexpensive (about $3.19 each), I've already bought another one. I recommend buying about two or three of these at a time.

Main PROS: Easy and quick construction, nice finished appearance and flight performance.

Main CONS: The recovery issues--primarily the lawn dart recovery.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
A tiny fun-to-build 13mm rocket employing tumble recovery, a descendant of the classic Estes Mosquito.

Construction:
Included in the kit:

• 1 body tube
• 1 plastic nose cone
• 1 launch lug
• 2 small balsa strips to cut your own fins
• 1 peel-and-stick decal set

This is an easy 3FNC kit to put together with next to nothing in the way of gotchas. The instructions as supplied by Estes were very easy to follow although I ended up not using them as the rocket is so logical and straightforward to construct.

I started by cutting out the fin template from the instructions, traced the pattern on to the supplied balsa strips and cut out the required three fins. Even though the balsa fin stock is of good quality, I did not appreciate the fact that two small balsa strips were supplied instead of a single larger balsa strip as the smallness of the strips made it difficult to keep even a small ruler in place when cutting. It would also have been better if the fin template had not been a paper template but preferably from cardstock.

After having slightly roughened up the body tube with 240 grit sandpaper, I then tackled the fin marking lines for which a wraparound fin marking guide is provided. I used the door jam method for drawing my fin lines. I then attached the fins with Craftworks Tacky Craft Glue using the double-glue method. After allowing the glue sufficient time to dry, I then added generous tacky glue fin fillets. Lastly, the launch lug was tacked into place with medium CA with tacky glue fillets then added.

I used 180 grit sandpaper to roughen up the plastic nose cone in preparation for paint although I opted not to attach the nose cone to the body tube at this stage despite the instructions.

Finishing:
I filled in the balsa fin grain with three coats of NHP Micro-Fill balsa sealer which nicely sealed all the balsa smooth and then gave both the rocket and nose cone two coats of Tamiya Fine White primer with light sanding in between using 400 grit sandpaper. I then followed this up with two coats of Tamiya Yellow spray lacquer for the main section with a 600 grit light sandpapering in between and two coats of Tamiya Black for the nose cone.

After allowing both the nose cone and rocket to dry, I attached the nose cone to the body tube with a small blob of 12-minute epoxy instead of the recommended plastic cement and then added the peel-and-stick decals.

Construction Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Flight:
For my first launch, I friction taped a 1/4A3-3T into place, set up the rocket on the launch pad, and hooked it up to my trusty Quest controller. The rocket zipped off the launch pad at breakneck velocity to somewhere around 200-250ft at a slight angle, spat the motor upon ejection, and lawndarted back to the ground.

The second launch, again using a 1/4A3-3T, was more satisfying with a perfectly straight flight although the rocket again spat the motor (despite more friction-taping) and again another lawn dart.

Recovery:
Despite my best attempts at friction fitting, this rocket is in the habit of spitting its motor thus making for a very fast lawn dart. As previously noted by Donald Besaw , the rocket comes down nose first to stick into the ground which I believe could possibly be unsafe if young children are in the vicinity.

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
This is a nice little rocket which I was happy to have the chance to build and really quite fun to fly.

PROS: Ease and quickness of construction, good quality components, nice finished appearance, great flight performance.

CONS: The supplied balsa fin stock difficult to work with, lawndarting tendencies.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5