Brief:
This is the latest in Semroc's line of Groonies (Grown-up Goonies). Inspired by the "insanity of 9/11 and its aftermath", the Gee'hod is a parody on fanaticism. It has lots of fin area, lots of decals, and flies on 18mm motors. Mine is production #10.

Construction:
For a small kit, this one has a lot of parts. It has two balsa nose cones: the main elliptical cone and the small one for the 'RPG' mounted on the dorsal fin. When I bought the kit, I thought the RPG nose would be cut from flat fin stock. The cone makes this kit look so much cooler. It has 8 fin components. There are 4 main fins, 2 simulated wheels, and 2 pieces that give the lower fin its 'bomb' look. Recovery includes a Kevlar® leader, an elastic strap, plastic chute and a hook eye. The nose cone assembly includes the latter, a plywood plug, and clay nose weight. The main cone is pre-drilled for the clay. The motor mount is typical rings, tube, block, and hook.

As for parts quality, the cones are good and the laser cut fins are precise. However, the fin stock was the most flexible that I have ever seen. More about that below.

Assembling the nose cone involves packing the clay and capping it with the plywood plug. I packed the clay in three pieces but didn't glue in the clay right away. That was a good decision as I added about 10g of extra weight. I usually use epoxy to help hold screw eyes in plywood plates, but decided to use wood glue as directed.

The motor mount is typical, however, the instructions don't say exactly where to place the motor hook on the mount. Luckily, Semroc's instructions have excellent illustrations. I placed it so the motor block just fits in the top of the mount. This gives maybe 1/8 of an inch clearance at the business end. The Kevlar® leader is attached under the motor hook. I've never done this before but it seems like a good method.

As I mentioned above, the fin stock was terrible. Since the lower fin is short and has a bomb-shaped piece glued to either side, it seemed OK. The wheels are small so they seemed OK. However, the side and top fins just seemed way too flimsy. I added a 2nd layer to each with the grain running the opposite direction. I weighed the before and after and added lead shot to the nose cone clay to compensate. Thus, my model comes in at about 0.7 oz over the stock model.

There were no detailed dimensions for the placement of the 'wheels', but again the detailed drawings got you pretty close.

Finishing:
Filling was done with Elmer's Fill 'n' Finish and primer. The base coat is Model Masters Modern Desert Tan. I painted the RPG with a brush-on Testor's. It's a pretty red but is a bit too dark for the black decals. The decals--there are a bunch of them! Most can be positioned based on the cover art and I punted with the rest. These were great quality. I'm famous for destroying waterslide decals but all of these survived. Semroc included a decal spec sheet with the kit's serial number and I also used it. I used Testor's Dull Coat to cover the decals. Finally, I used a black Sharpie to color the edged of the wheels between the black decals. All in all, this model actually looks great up close!

I think the kit's design is cool in a goony sort of way. However, I have to think about the balsa stock. I rate it 3 points and an extra 1/2 for the coolness factor.

Construction Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Flight:
The space available for the recovery components is fairly small since the motor mount is offset up into the body. This also means the plastic chute will be very close to the ejection gases. I started by packing dog barf wadding into the top of the motor tube. I then used a section of Estes wadding stuffed with dog barf and finally wrapped the chute in another piece of wadding. There isn't any extra room but it all fit fine.

I loaded it up with a C6-3 given the weight I added. It flew great but passed the sun so I missed where it ejected.

Recovery:
The chute didn't open fully but it landed fairly slowly. You can see compression damage on the RPG tube atop of the dorsal fin. It's still stiff but the paint cracked.

I'll give this a 4 for flight. The chute not opening is really my issue, not the kit's. It wasn't melted so the tight space wasn't an issue. I packed it a couple of days in advance and should have repacked it on launch day.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I now think I'm a Groonie fan and look forward to seeing their next offering.

PROs:

• Unique, funny styling (and, it's stubby)
• Two nice balsa cones
• Great decals
• Nicely illustrated instructions

CONs:

• Flimsy fin stock
• Not much room for wadding and chute

Overall Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

(Contributed - by Chan Stevens  - 08/23/08)

Brief:
The latest addition to the Groonies line, this very politically incorrect rocket is packed with humor and bears the chubby little BT-60 based styling of the other grown-up Goonies (Saki, Ruskie). The first Groonies were based upon rejected Estes designs recently made public, but this one is pure Semroc all the way...

Construction:
Parts included are:

• BNC-60 balsa cone (with clay weight, screw eye)
• BT-60 body tube
• Laser cut balsa fins
• 18mm motor mount w/die-cut cardboard centering rings, metal hook
• Balsa RPG nose cone (funky little nose)
• Plastic chute
• Kevlar® + elastic shock cords
• Waterslide decals

Given the subject matter of the decals and kit itself, a certain degree of parental advisory is in order. Let's just say this is not something I'd recommend for a cub scout build/fly.

Construction starts out with the nose cone, which needs to be crammed full of clay before gluing in the disk and screw eye. Nose weight is critical on the Groonies, as without it they are terribly unstable. I also sanded down and treated my cone with a light layer of Fill N Finish.®

The motor mount is typical tube/centering ring assembly, with a CR18/13 block. The Kevlar® shock cord is tethered around the forward end of the metal hook as a shock cord anchor. The completed assembly slides easily into the BT-60, no sanding or trimming was necessary.

Next up comes the fin attachment. I've had problems with the other Groonies, which tend to break a fin if you even look at them funny. This is not a knock on the part quality, but more a condition of the bizarre fin patterns, which make it impossible to hide the grain weakness from all angles. To strengthen mine, I applied a thin layer of white glue and then laminated with computer paper. This also tends to make fast work of the grain filling process, though in this case, with decals covering most fin surfaces, I would not suggest spending much time worrying about the grain.

Once strengthened, I then attached the fins with medium CA and white glue fillets--two "wings", on "cockpit" fin and one "bomb holder" lower strake.

With the fins in place, all that's left is a little decoration - an air of "bombs" to attach to the lower fin and a body tube/nose cone assembly that serves as an RPG that gets attached to the top.

Finishing:
Finishing is pretty simple on this, though there are quite a few decals to deal with. As mentioned earlier, filling balsa grains other than on cones is pretty pointless, as the decals will cover them up. I did pre-treat the body tubes filling in spirals and sanding down before bonding.

After two light coats of white primer, I followed up with two coats of basically a light tan, left over from a scale project that required a sandy earth tone. No contrasting colors necessary, just lay down a sand-like color base and let the decals take care of the rest. One word of warning though, go with a very light color base, not the darker earth tone I used. The decals are NOT printed over a white undercoat, so are a bit translucent. They do not show very well against my background.

The decals are a hoot (or blasphemy, depending upon your perspective). The model follows the theme of a certain religious fanatic prone to self-sacrifice, but since the safety code requires safe recovery, Semroc decided this would be more of a command vehicle than a single-use vehicular weapon. Perhaps the decal that struck me as most humorous was the "All your Qaeda are belong to us", a somewhat mangled reference to the internet meme "I'm in your base, killing your d00ds". Knowing Carl's age and somewhat conservative personality, I was blown away to see graphics inspired by the gamer crowd.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
For the first flight, I went straight for the max C6-5, knowing these Groonies don't boogie all that high. The non-standard fin orientation led to a slightly jet-like angled boost, but not too bad. The -5 delay was OK, towards the end of its ascent.

Recovery:
The 12" plastic chute worked fine, and everything survived the flight. I think the paper laminate made a big difference, as I normally have fin cracks on about 1/3 of my Groonie flights.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:

PROs: cool decals, innovative.
CONs: not exactly politically correct?

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Brief:
This is a Groonie, which I guess is something like a first cousin to the Estes Goonybird. I actually purchased two of these from Semroc, one to build and fly and one to add to the kit collection inventory. It's my first Groony build and I'm glad that I picked this unPC bird to break the ice. This is a very unique looking rocket and it's a lot of fun to build.

Construction:
I won't re-list the components, but I will address the balsa quality issue raised by the previous reviewers. I found the balsa quality to be acceptable. I didn't use any special treatments i.e. paper laminate or CA. However as I stated previously, this is my first Groonie, so time will tell whether or not the fins hold up on this stubby little guy. After all there are a lot of fin surfaces as well as an RPG hanging off this little guy.

The Semroc directions are excellent as always, with a good mix of text and graphics. I found no gotcha's along the way and actuall completely enjoyed the build. Obviously there are a lot of fillets to fill because of all of the extra lumber on this bird, but even that was a snap.

I sanded and filled all of the balsa parts and had to do some extra sanding on the nose cone shoulder to make it fit correctly into the body tube. It took a few series of sanding and wood filler application to get the look I wanted on the nose cone.

Semroc uses the Kevlar® thread tied off to the engine mount and connected to an elastic shock cord rather than just a shock cord glued to the inner tube and I really like this setup.

Finishing:
Finishing the model was a breeze. After two coats of primer with sanding in between coats. I covered the RPG and painted the rest of the rocket with two coats of light yellow paint. When that was dry I covered the rocket and painted the RPG red.

The decals were of good quality and went on nicely.

One caution I would mention is that if you end up sanding down the bomb balsa too much you will end up having to trim your bomb decals, same goes for the wheels and wheel decals. They are fairly close fitting so don't go to heavy with the sandpaper.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
I've used only C6-5 motors in this rocket. It doesn't boost straight up. It boosts at an angle but it gets respectable altitude and I have had no trouble with any damage on recovery to this point. I have only flown this rocket on a grass field.

As with all short rockets where the chute rests near the engine you need to take special care to use enough recovery wadding to prevent damage to the chute, lines or shock cord.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary:
I like rockets that are different and this one fits that bill perfectly. I also have found that I like Groonies as well so I expect to be adding to the Groonie fleet.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
The Semroc Gee'hod is a single-stage, parachute recovery rocket and is the third release in their line of "Groonies" - grown up Gooney Birds. Where Estes Gooney Birds had 13mm motor mounts, Semroc's Groonies have 18mm mounts and are a bit bigger in diameter.

Construction:
Previous reviewers have covered the basics very well. I love Semroc's components...some of the finest in the business. I followed the directions and had no problems during construction. I don't think I had the same "flimsy balsa" issues others seem to have had with these kits. The kit does require some careful alignment of the four main fin components since they're not 90-degrees apart from each other. In fact as many rockets as I've built, I still managed to somehow get the lower "bomb" out of alignment. This didn't seem to affect flight though.

I waited to attach the "wheels" under the wings until I was completely done painting and decaling the rocket. Incidentally, I applied the decals to the wheels before painting them. One thing I would have done differently on the wheels was paint the center of the wheel silver or white before applying the decal. The "spokes" are in a clear portion of decal and therefore show the color underneath.

Finishing:
For the main fins "wings", I covered the top surface with a sheet of typing paper and wicked thin CA over it. After the CA dried, I sanded it smooth. This provieds a fairly nice surface for finishing. I used regular balsa sanding sealer on the bottoms of the fins (just a couple coats). The nose of the RPG got several coats of sanding sealer as did the "bomb" and that big nose cone.

I used Walmart's Color Place "Almond" to simulate the desert tan/sand color and it was a good, economical choice.

The decals were a joy to apply. I got as big a kick out of them as I do reading the instructions in Dr Zooch kits. I especially liked the "nose art". I'll leave it at that. Having spent some time in that region of the world, I can appreciate the Semroc version of a "pin-up" girl for this rocket. I placed the "quality parts stolen from Semroc" decals under the wing versus over the wing as shown on the instructions. I thought the recommended placement made the top half (as viewed from the side, like an airplane) too buzy. Just a personal preference.

Since this is supposed to represent an airplane that flies and supposedly lands, I have to assume they are goverened by some sort of air traffic control rules. I added a couple of extra dots of paint on the top and bottom of the fuselage as well as a red dot on the left wing tip and green dot on the right wing tip to simulate navigation lights. I also upped the armament on this beast by putting three small dots of black paint on the leading edge of each wing to mimic machine gun ports, similar to what you might see on WWII fighters. I just wanted to spice it up a bit and I think it looks pretty cool.

I haven't clear coated my rocket yet, even after three flights. I need to get on that though to protect the decals.

PROs: Cool decals and with a little imagination you can enhance it a bit.
CONs: LOTS of balsa to prepare for finishing.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
Saturday, 13 December 2008 was a nice day for flying at Rainbow Valley. I'd prepped several rockets at home, including the Gee'hod. I used the included Semroc chute, lightly dusted with baby powder to increase the chances it would fully deploy in the chilly morning air. First flight up was on a C6-5 and the rocket performed perfectly with a little twist on the way up. Ejection was perfect at just over apogee and the chute fully deployed for a good landing. Second flight up was also on a C6-5 and was a repeat of the first except that the RPG on the tail cleanly snapped off on landing. Thankfully it was an easy fix with medium CA as I really wanted to fly the Gee'hod again. Third flight was on a B6-4 and was a nice flight with no damage on landing. I really like this little rocket - Semroc has a winner here.

Recovery:

PROs - Cool styling, great flier.
CONs - RPG has the potential to snap off if rocket lands just "wrong"; Minimal space to pack recovery gear, but it works out.

Summary:

PROs: Unique styling, quality components, awesome decals, overall a fun build.
CONs: Like all squat rockets, minimal space for recover gear.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Other:
For the two wheels, I put a thin bead of yellow carpenter's glue on the edge to build up a "tread." This is only a very thin coating of glue and in addition to sealing the edge of the balsa, it provided a nice surface to paint the rest of the tire black after applying the decals.