Brief:
Upsized to 18mm motor. Simplest modification I've ever performed; just never installed the 13mm mount. CP and CG were still perfect.

Modifications:
Primered, sanded, primered, sanded, ad infinitum, until body tube was perfect. No paint, just clear-coated the primer. The streamer was given much better visibility by adding 3" of silver mylar at the end. Motor mount was simple: friction fit, with only one of the 13mm centering rings installed in the body tube.

Construction:
The kit contained a central 18mm body tube with two shorter segments of 18mm BT, mounted in an out-rigger fashion at the end of the "wing." Featured a large balsa "wing" and nose cone. The NC was attached with a simple screw eye to the shock cord, which in turn was attached to the BT with Estes normal folded paper method. Recovery was a plastic pinkish-orange streamer, about 18" long.

This was about the easiest Estes kit I have ever assembled. The instructions were easy to follow, though I simply read them once and began building. It was a pretty sturdy rocket too. The packaging was the typical Estes "hanging bag" type, and nothing was broken or creased or missing. The only con: the decals look stupid. I substituted some decals left over from a FA-18 model.

Flight:
The model was prepped in the usual fashion, with wadding, motor, etc. installed just prior to launch. The motor fit snugly into the body, but not so tight that it would have to be crammed in. One word of caution here- if you intend to perform this modification, either limit yourself to flying "B" motors, or paint the rocket a really bright color! the C6-7 I chose for its final flight was way too much, especially for a primer gray rocket launched on a cloudy day! The rocket took off straight as an arrow with no discernible windcocking. Definitely a heads up launch! If it wasn't for the mylar on the streamer, it would have been lost, but we located it with little difficulty due to the intermittent flashing from the streamer. Recovery speed would indicate that a larger streamer was needed, but it suffered no damage at all, even despite whacking a tree limb on the way down. Just minor scratches, that's all. The rocket was lost to a rocket eating tree,! and dangled about 30 feet up, taunting us with its highly reflective streamer. A thunderstorm later that afternoon finished it off.

Summary:
Main pros: REAL BALSA! Large fin surface area and bulletproof construction. Main cons: Stupid looking decals and the wimpy 13mm motor system that was originally designed.