Brief:
Single stage 18mm payloader. Single 12" parachute recovery. 6" long payload section.

Construction:
The kit contains two sections of body tube: one for the booster and one for the payload section, four laser cut balsa fins, balsa nose cone, balsa tube coupler, motor tube, two centering rings, thrust ring, motor retaining hook, launch lug, screw eye, Kevlar® cord, elastic cord, 12" colorful plastic parachute, and decals. All materials were very high quality and some components, such as the motor mount, parachute, Kevlar® and elastic cord, all come packed in sub-assemblies making them easier to find and small parts harder to lose. I ordered my kit directly from Semroc, and it arrived so well packed in packing peanuts and air bubble packing you could've dropped an anvil on it and it would've come through OK. Semroc obviously cares about their products and their customers.

Semroc's instruction booklets are superb. I have built three of their kits and each shows their obvious attention to detail. There is a complete pack list with illustrations and labels for each part, making it easy to be sure everything is there. A nice list of needed tools is on the first page. The instructions are broken down into logical sub-assemblies with check boxes next to each step so you know right where you left off. Each step is well illustrated so there is never any confusion. All the parts fit like they are supposed to, construction was straightforward with only a basic hobby knife, glue of choice, ruler, and sandpaper, required for the build.

Finishing:
There's nothing special about finishing, just follow the directions. Filling and sanding the balsa takes a little time, but is well worth the effort. I didn't fill the spiral gaps in the body tube, but you can hardly tell as they are so smooth anyway. I didn't use the decals, which is just a personal preference. They really didn't go with my color scheme either. I really like the long sleek look of the model with the sharp point of the nose cone.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
I flew it once on each of the recommended motors. All were very good flights, although I had a little trouble with parachute deployment. This was by no fault of the kit, however, it just got wrapped too tight and tangled. I used about five sheets of wadding per flight, the motor hook makes for quick and easy flight prep and turnaround times for the next flight. It had a little wobble when launched on the B motor for some reason, the rest of the flights were real straight the whole way. It didn't quite achieve the altitudes I thought it might (just by eye-balling it, there was no tracking or altimeter) but then again, I was launching with my brother who was flying a Quest Aerobee-Hi kit, so obviously he was getting much higher on the same motors with his smaller, lighter kit. Overall though, a very pleasing performance.

Recovery:
The Kevlar® cord is attached to the motor retaining ring and is longer than the booster section. The Kevlar® cord and the elastic cord are then knotted together. I really like the Kevlar®, since whenever the elastic cords go to far down they get burned through. When the chute did deploy on the last flight, it performed fine with an average rate of descent. On the flights where the parachute didn't deploy, it came down sideways and was recovered with no damage. Looks like it will be a durable rocket that has a lot more flights in it.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary:
This is a great second rocket but ease of construction would make it fine for a first time builder as well. The payload section isn't huge, but I usually don't fly anything in mine anyway. It would still probably easily accommodate some of the smaller altimeters though, such as the AA powered one available from Apogee Components. I haven't found much about the rocket that I don't like yet.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
This kit was originally produced by Semroc in 1969 as competition to the Centuri Arcon and has been faithfully reproduced today. It's a simple 4-fin construction and with the payload bay, it could be a nice means of venturing out of the basic intro rocket kits.

Construction:
Ben's review covered the parts fairly well. I'll add that the body tubes are the original dimensions, not approximated BT-50 equivalents and the balsa quality on the nose cone was superb.

This is a very simple construction project, certainly no higher than a skill level 2 and arguably is a decent cub scout den project. The instructions are clearly written with good notes on techniques.

The motor mount is standard 18mm tube with a couple of centering rings and a motor block. The kit also includes a metal engine hook, although the introduction made reference to a version of the original that had a paper shroud instead, which did not use a metal hook. Being a sucker for a nice boat tail, I am intrigued by how this design would look with an aft shroud...

The motor mount also anchors the Kevlar® shock cord attachment, which is a great technique to be sharing with inexperienced builders.

Tube marking is done using a marking guide in the instructions. I prefer a wraparound guide but to each his own.

To keep the construction pace brisk, I tacked my fins on using CA then let wood glue fillets cure overnight.

I cheated on the lug placement. The instructions say mount 2" from the aft end, but I generally prefer to stick closer to the CG so I went a bit more forward.

The payload bay consists of a body tube and a balsa bulkhead capped off by the nose cone. I went ahead and glued on the nose cone, as I'm not interested in flying payloads although I did confirm I could fit my Perfect Flite altimeter inside if needed.

Finishing:
I used my normal technique of diluted Elmer's Wood Filler on the grains and spirals, which were minimal. Then I followed the standard paint scheme, going with gloss white and trimming the fins in an alternating red and blue.

I also wound up using the waterslide decal, which fit very nicely with just a bit of overlap. The stripe pattern was very nice, but I'd also have liked to see something else to break up the long white body. At least a Lune R-1 name tag or a little spaceship on the way to the moon?

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
For the first flight, I decided to burn up some of my less popular motors and went with an A8-3. I expected a very low flight but this actually took it up a few hundred feet. Ejection was perfectly timed and it recovered without damage. Nothing wrong with that.

I'll probably prefer B6-4s for a little more altitude, switching occasionally to the C6 for more "show off" flights for the kids.

Recovery:
The plastic chute held performed fine on this and it came down in soft grass without any damage.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
Very nice and easy to build payloader. Heck, with a slightly bigger diameter, this kit could serve as an NAR competition payloader.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5