Brief:
Semroc describes the ThunderChief as the third largest member of the Thunder kit series that they are producing. This series is essentially the same rocket scaled approximately 1.25 times each step up in body tube size. The series is based from the Centuri Engineering Thunder rockets that included the ThunderHawk, ThunderBird, and ThunderRoc. With Semroc's introduction of this rocket and the other planned Thunder series rockets, there will be a total of seven Thunder rockets to add to your rocket collection.

Construction:
As is always the case with Semroc kits in my experience, the parts are high in quality and neatly packaged in several plastic bags. Included are detailed building instruction that provides a colored image of the rocket on the cover.

For this kit you get:

• 1 balsa nose cone
• 3 body tubes
• 2 tube couplers
• 1 motor tube
• 1 set of laser cut fins
• 1 bag of parts (launch lugs, motor mounting and recovery components, etc...)
• 1 12" plastic parachute kit
• 1 waterslide decals
• 1 detailed instructions, which can be found at the Semroc website

I ordered the rocket directly from Semroc when I first noticed it had become available on a Monday morning. I received an email that the rocket plus the other items that I had ordered shipped only 90 minutes later. I received the well secured package on Wednesday afternoon and was happy to see that I had landed production kit #9. This goes to show you that Semroc's service and shipping are absolutely fantastic.

For the construction of this rocket, I followed the instruction as they were laid out. As with most Semroc instructions, you prep the fins then assemble the engine mount. After that you connect the body tubes, mark the rocket for the fins, insert the engine mount, then attach the fins and launch lugs. The final steps have you prepare the nose cone for the parachute which you need to assemble and attach to the shock cord.

A couple of things to note during the construction was that the engine mount only has a single centering ring which makes it much easier to glue into the body tube. The anchoring of the shock cord is done with Kevlar® string tied to one of the tube couplers. I thought that this would make it too tight to couple the body tubes together but that was not the case at all. This is the first 3FNC rocket where I attached a launch lug along the side of a fin. My only gripe was with the fin marking guide. As with other Semroc kits, you stand the body tube over the instructions to mark the fin placements. I am not a big fan of this method since my body tube usually moves during this process. To make matters worse, the fin guide that was in my instructions was for a larger body tube. A quick email and reply from Carl at Semroc confirmed the misprint. I had the proper fin guide in another rocket's instructions so I used that.

Finishing:
The finish for this rocket uses a two color scheme so it is not very complicated to paint. I used some watered down Elmer's Carpenters Wood Filler to fill the tube spiral, nose cone, and fins. After sanding, I primed the rocket with Kilz Original spray primer and one coat of white primer. I masked off the lower half of the rocket and applied a couple coats of gloss white. Once dry, I masked of the top half and painted the lower section with Rustoleum Painter's Touch Gloss Marigold. This is the same color I have used on my other Thunder-series rockets. To finish the rocket, you apply the decals. I applied a coat of Future Floor Wax to protect the rocket.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The recommended engines for this rocket are an A8-3, B6-4, and C6-5. When I arrived at the launch field with the ThunderChief and reached into my field box for a B motor, I discovered that I only had a B6-4. I decided to load that into the rocket instead of an A or C engine. The rocket went straight up off the launch pad. As far as I could tell the rocket was still moving upward when the parachute ejected. This would explain why two of the tape disk that holds the shroud lines to the parachute came off.

Recovery:
The rocket uses a 12" plastic parachute which should be about perfect when you use the recommended motors. Since two of my shroud lines failed during flight, the rocket came down quickly but was not damaged when hit the lush green grass of the field. This is the first time I have had a tape disk get pulled from a Semroc parachute. If it would have been tied through a punched hole, I suspect that the parachute would have ripped or even worse that the body tube would have been zippered. Luckily, this did not happen.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I am a huge fan of the Thunder series rockets. The series may only consist of a simple 3FNC rocket that is scaled to different sizes, but I love the long sleek look of the design. The ThunderChief is another great addition to the series. I highly recommend this rocket to any fan of the Thunder series. The service and kit components that you receive from Semroc is well worth the cost of the ThunderChief.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Brief:
Several years ago, Semroc introduced the first of what promised to be a family of Thunder designs, each featuring long sleek profiles, swept fins, and progressing up in size. The first of these was the Thunderbee, one of my favorite 13mm models, but the ensuing bigger brothers never came to light until now. At NARAM-51, Semroc released the upscale Thunderchief, which is about double the length of the Thunderbee, and the Thunderstrike, a 54" long 24mm brute. Down the road, the rest of the family will hopefully make it to market as well (Thunder Roc, Thunder Storm, Thunder Hawk and Thunder Bird), since these are such great fliers and simple builds.

Construction:
The bag appears a bit small for the $14.50 price, but that's partly because the body tube is comprised of 3 shorter tubes. The parts were all excellent quality, especially the nose cone.

• Balsa nose cone
• 3 Series 8 body tubes
• 2 tube couplers
• BT-20 motor tube, centering ring/tube
• Laser cut balsa fins
• Metal hook
• Kevlar®/elastic shock cord
• 12" plastic chute
• Waterslide decals
• 1/8" launch lug

Instructions are standard Semroc: well written and illustrated. This would be a skill level 1 kit with about 3 pages of instructions. My build time was under an hour plus finishing time.

The motor mount on this is a little different, since the tube is slightly smaller than a BT-50 and doesn't leave room for a normal pair of centering rings. The solution in this case is to use a covering tube which slips down the motor tube, holding the motor hook in place and fitting to the ID of the body tubes.

I stupidly built this concurrently with several other Semroc NARAM releases, so I anchored my Kevlar® to the forward end of the motor hook just like the other kits. That would be wrong according to the directions, which call for anchoring the Kevlar® to the forward coupler. Due to my goof, I only have about 7" of shock cord outside the model, so I'll need to add more elastic on my own.

The body tube is marked for fin placement using a template. Early editions of the kit (including mine) had an oversize/incorrect template, although this has been corrected in later editions. After marking the first body tube, the other body tubes are bonded using the provided couplers.

Fin attachment is straightforward: tack on with CA then follow up with wood glue fillets. Add on the lugs (one at a fin joint, the other about a foot forward) and construction is done.

Finishing:
I very much like the color scheme of my Thunder Bee with white on the forward section and Dayglo yellow on the aft section. Unfortunately, Krylon's reformulation wouldn't cooperate and I was optimistic in taking the chance that it would.

I prepped all surfaces via grain and spiral filling, giving extra attention to the tube seams where the separate pieces are joined. I then hit everything with two coats of light gray primer and three coats of gloss white. So far, so good. For the yellow, I masked off the upper portion and hit the aft end with Krylon's old formula Dayglow yelow. Big mistake. It crazed and crackled. It wound up taking me 3 subsequent passes of sanding off the coat of paint, wiping everything down with rubbing alcohol, shooting with a light old formula primer, then topping off with the Dayglo yellow. The finished result looks nice but was hardly worth the effort.

There is also a basic name/logo waterslide decal provided, which is perfectly produced--nice and clear background, tough enough to allow the decal to be moved around for alignment, and thin enough not to stick up with that peel n stick look.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
For the maiden flight, I caught a wonderful day over Labor Day weekend, light winds, clear skies, moderate temps. Since I had this and the bigger Thunder Strike both ready, I decided to dig up the Thunder Bee and make a family outing of it.

I went for the max, choosing a C6-5 over a 7. Boost was straight up with a slight trace of weathercocking. The -5 delay was just about perfect, and I think in general the recommended -7 would be too long under all but the most perfect of conditions.

I'm not sure what the apogee wound up being, but I suspect it was a tad less than the estimated 950' on the header card. Still, it strained my 44-year old eyes a bit to pick it up.

Recovery:
The 12" chute is just about right for this. I caught a little thermal on the way down but once out of it started coming down fairly quickly. I have to admit, though, given the altitude I hit on boost, the blue and white plastic chute included in the kit was not exactly an optimal color scheme as it was very difficult to pick up a 12" chute at that altitude, especially without strong contrast to the skies.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I'm biased and really like the Thunder line overall. There's just something about those long, sleek models that appeals to me. Of the 3 currently available, this one strikes me as the most flexible, being able to handle A through C (and comically could fly OK on a 1/2A6-2).

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5