Brief
This is an approximately 1/5th scale model of the Harpoon anti-ship missile.

Construction
My kit arrived in a "standard" long plastic bag. All parts were accounted for, and in good shape. The body tubes appear to be standard BT-80, and the nose is a PNC-80B. There were a couple of nice sheets of balsa for the fins, plus some strips for making some of the detailing. The included recovery system consists of a mylar chute, complete with snap swivels, etc.

The instructions are straightforward, and easy to follow. There are a couple of drawings to illustrate positioning of various elements, as well as to help with placement of markings on the finished product. Templates are included for the two different fin sets, but TLP has neglected to include a fin marking guide (I snarfed one out of my Estes Phoenix kit). Launch Lug placement is left to the whim of the builder- it isn't even discussed in the directions.

After the amount of effort required on my last TLP kit (the Sidewinder), I was braced for more of the same here. I was quite shocked at how easy this bird went together! A bit of care is needed assembling and installing the boat tail and the paper "hat" on the nose, but the rest of the kit was a breeze.

Finishing
As with all TLP kits (to date, anyway), no decals are included. They do provide some painting information, including two different schemes.

I ran into two problems during this stage: First of all, I accidentally sanded the tip off the paper shroud on the nose (and I wasn't sanding hard, either). I filled the resulting hole with some Fill 'n Finish, sanded that, and then soaked some CA into it, just to be sure. The other problem is one of the suggested detailing techniques. The instructions call for the builder to CA 150 pinheads in place in various locations on the rocket. I have patience, but there's a limit! I found a good work around, however: One of the R/C aircraft companies produces a sheet of 1/5th scale decals (dry transfer). I picked some up, and they work fine!

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight
So far I've had one flight with the Harpoon, and I was impressed. I loaded the recommended 1st flight motor, an Estes D12-5, and hoped for the best.

I was not disappointed! The missile lifted off at a nice speed- fast, but slow enough to watch and appreciate. Ascent was arrow-straight, with no arcing during powered flight.

Recovery
The chute deployed at apogee, and the mylar chute brought the ship down safely. It looked a bit quick, but no damage occurred (not a scratch!).

I'm still a bit iffy on the TLP way of securing the nose to the shock cord (with a bit of thread), but I've had no problems so far.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary
I'm very pleased with my Harpoon. It's a smart looking rocket, and the kit is challenging, but not frustrating.

It's not as complicated to build as some TLP kits, and is perhaps a decent introduction to their line of products. Some modelers may have trouble with the paper cone and boat tail, but the key is to go slow, and pay attention to the suggestions in the instructions.

The quality of materials is quite good. I'm beginning to appreciate the mylar chutes that are included- they seem far more resistant to ejection charge damage than plastic. My only quibbles about the supplied parts are: (1) the inclusion of barely enough sheet balsa for the job. I can understand the reason for doing so, but it means really having to fiddle around to ensure you have enough for all the fins. (2) The lack of a fin marking template of any sort. This is easy enough to produce, and it can be printed right on the instructions (as Estes Does). (3) Finally, the lack of any decals for finishing. The instructions suggest cutting the heads off 150 pins and CA-ing then in place on the rocket. Neat idea, but extremely time-consuming, and for folks like me, would require lots of debonder! I opted for a sheet of dry-transfer rivet decals from Carl Goldberg, an R/C airplane manufacturer. They worked great.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

* SPECIAL NOTE off of RMR from Chuck Barndt, President of The Launch Pad

Brief: The Harpoon is a scale model of a US Air-Launched Anti-Ship Missile, The Launch Pad's kit is an excellent first mid power and scale rocket.

Construction: I was so glad when I finally got my hands on my AGM-84 Harpoon. One of the members of my club was going down to the US and was kind enough to bring it back for me. I received the Harpoon with all pieces present, in good condition, and good quality. I have heard some not so great things about TLP's balsa wood, but I found the wood for the Harpoon great, with a little help from CA.

The instructions were clear, but I wish they would have included more help and info on how to get the little hat that sits on top of a FatBoy style nose cone, straight and in the middle, that was tricky, but I think mine is close enough for my standards. That was the only real "gotcha" for this rocket, the fins aligned great, and everything fit together perfectly.

Finishing: The only thing that really disappointed me in the beginning with the Harpoon was the lacking of decals. But, now I know that it much easier for the consumer to use his or her own techniques. I just painted the bands that go around the rocket, and for all of the small pinpoint rivets that are suppose to be on the rocket, I used a decal pack that I got from a local hobby store (East Coast Model Center) that was 1/5 rivet decals, perfect, went on with ease, and made the rocket look great. Still pondering what to do for the small amount of lettering that will go on the rocket. Just a note, I am not a perfectionist, or a great scale buff, my Harpoon was just sports scale, but I like how it turned out.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight: The recommended motors for the harpoon are a D12-3, E15-4, and a RMS F24-4 (24mm). I plan on using all of the recommended motors, but instead of the E15, an E18 (reload).

The day for the maiden flight for the Harpoon finally came. First flight would be on a D12-3. Everything was setup, pictures were taken, and after making sure the wind was perfect, that the launch rod was perfect, and that everything was perfect, it was ready to launch. I pushed the launch button and the Harpoon lifted off. The flight was perfect. The Harpoon flied straight as a rail, nice altitude on a D, and then right at apogee the ejection charge fired, and the nice mylar parachute deployed, and the Harpoon drifted down. Perfect flight and recovery.

Second flight, same day. I was going to fly my LOC Aura on an Aerotech E engine, that was the plan, but when I launched that on a D, the stock streamer didn't slow it down enough and it broke a fin off, so I thought I would fly it in the Harpoon. Everything was set, and was readied again. I hit the launch button, and the Harpoon lifted off the pad, the igniter clips didn't come off, it soared... wait a minute (my exact thoughts). The Aerotech igniter clips didn't unattach themselves from the Harpoon, when it was about ten feet off of the pad, the leads ran out of slack, which caused them to pull on the harpoon, causing it to go horizontal. The leads did finally come unattached. The Harpoon sailed directly away from us and over the small hill we launch on. Amazing sight. Then the realization set in. The slow walk started towards the crash site. As we got closer to it, we noticed that the parachute had deployed. Good sign. It landed in some alders, pretty good sign, but then we notice what we thought was the nose cone, was actually the top six inches of the rocket's body tube smashed.

Damage report. First six inches of the rocket are destroyed. The nose cone was completely smashed to bits, one broken fin, and all fins had small slits from the alder branches. It is fixable, it will be fixed, and it will fly again, and hopefully soon. I contact TLP and they were great enough to help me by giving me the length of the rocket, help me with a parts list, and are sending me a replacement 'little hat' that goes on to the top of the nose cone to give it the scale.

Recovery: One thing I really enjoy about the Harpoon is its green mylar parachute, it's easy to see, easy to pack, and has a snap for easy removal from the Harpoon. The 18" seems to be fine from the tests I have conducted (throwing it off my deck). The recovery system is a snap to put together, but instead of using the shroud line material to connect the nose cone to the swivel, I just tied the shock cord to the nose cone, and put the swivel 10" or so down, didn't want to trust that thin string).

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Summary: This rocket looks awesome, that is the best thing I feel about it. It is a nice looking rocket, the right size, nice motors size, nice scale touch, and a nice finish. The only thing I would say that I disliked about the rocket would be that little hat that goes on top of the nose cone. Other than that, all of the pieces went together easily. A good first mid power or scale rocket.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
A roughly 1/5th scale model of the air-launched version of the HARPOON missile, designed for the modeler. Some skills required for optimum appearance results but otherwise easy to build and fly.

Construction:
My Harpoon kit arrived in a small package for what promised to be a big kit. Everything was there, good quality tubes, and a neat purple Mylar parachute (which works well and is easy to see), but no decals provided.

A note: There have been previous reviews of this and other Launch Pad kits that have pointed out some issues. I offer a slightly different perspective in that yes, some things about this kit are not super-easy, but I think of the kit as a foundation for some modeling artwork. The skills needed to turn this kit into a really good military model are all in the paint, finishing, and build techniques. So on with the build!

The fins have to be cut out of balsa stock with a provided pattern. (They are not laser/precut so we need to work a bit harder.) The balsa is soft, which is a good thing, not a bad thing. It's easy to cut. Strength is not a problem because I always laminate/reinforce my fins for any model. (Don't you?) For the Harpoon, I used sheets of peel 'n' stick paper from the local office store used for printing shipping labels. Cut the balsa, peel back a sheet of paper, lay it down, trim, flip over, and repeat. In the end all you have to do is sharpen and finish the edges. It's real easy. No CA glue, no soaking, no wrinkles.

The kit came with a great looking nose cone, and of course instructions to mount that little paper "hat" extension to give an authentic profile. Well here's a confession. I just flew mine with the stock cone. No paper hat because I didn't want to mess with it at first. Now that the Harpoon has flown, I'm actually retro-fitting the hat extension, and it's fine. So again, it's a modeler's kit, skills not included but well rewarded. The nose cone is weighted with provided clay, and we're cautioned to install it exactly as designed!

There's a neat paper tail cone adapter that's formed by cutting out and gluing a paper shape. I found it a little difficult to keep it round and smooth but with some body filler and paint, another problem once again solved. There are eight fins, lots of cutting and finishing to do, but alignment in the four-four pattern is real easy. I found it cool that the forward fins even have little wooden tabs at the root edges, decorated with rivets, which I believe represent the fin hinges. In any case, they are a fun detail and look great. And again, the instructions give location but no alignment tool. That's fine. We shouldn't need one if we're building and flying at this level. Same for the lugs. I chose to discard the lugs provided and went with ¼ plastic tubing of my own, epoxy bonded in place.

Installation of the recovery system is straightforward and the same as any other kit of this size. I chose not to use the recommended method (thread to nosecone)...and used my own shock cord design with a removable locking hook (makes parachute maintenance easier). So overall construction: easy enough if you like to build models.

Finishing:
Standard body cleanup and paint techniques were used. Though really, with good primer and paint the body did not need much attention to fill up any lines. The only problem was entirely my fault when I inadvertently switched paint brands between coats (warning: Krylon and Rustoleum may not always be compatible)... That wasn't pretty and resulted in lots of sandpaper use.

No decals came with the kit, so between internet look-up and the illustrations provided by TLP, I made my own interpretation and printed them onto Testor's decal paper with my printer. I used paper wraps for the broad stripes, which once clearcoated are fine.

I did not try the recommended method of using nail-heads to simulate rivets. I chose to make decals. So for future products, if TLP would provide a good decal sheet, I'd be willing to pay a bit more for the kit just to cut back on at least some of the finishing work, but that's a small detail.

One last nitpick: the engine mount tube holds a regular 24mm Estes type motor, like the D12. To run an E9, I have to friction fit because the tube is short. A good modification would be to put a long E9-sized engine mount, like what is on the Estes Big Daddy, and provide a spacer for the short engines. Just a thought.

This model looks great and ready to go. Whether or not it's exactly a photo-real replica of the original down to every rivet is debatable, but the message is there. It's a model, not a toy, so the builder is expected to make some decisions based on experience. Good. It keeps the price reasonable and works fine.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight and Recovery:
I first flew the Harpoon out on the frozen lake near here with an Estes E9-6. There was even a small audience in the area. Sunny day, wind 10-12MPH. First flight was straight up and away, slow takeoff, a very realistic-appearing rocket launch. Instead of weathercocking into the 10MPH breeze, the Harpoon steered a bit, twisting and "seeking" slightly but all the while still proceeding straight up. One spectator pointed out that it looked like a real military missile, tracking a target as opposed to a whoosh-bang rocket. What a great flight. It went maybe about 350-400 feet up. Recovery with that Mylar chute was perfect. I thought the 6 second delay was getting a bit long though.

I flew again a week later with an Aertotech E30. Result: not so much a high flight but very sudden, almost explosive acceleration. No wind that day, but the harpoon seemed to corkscrew into the sky pretty broadly. I don't think this is the right engine for the job, but I will definitely try an E15. Last flight on another E9 was a repeat of the first, so it wasn't just luck, as it was smooth, slow, and maybe to about 400 feet max, but straight with a bit of steer.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
This is a very convincing, realistic flyer, well worth every effort.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

The following excerpt is from "Sport Rocketry". The intention is to allow guests to get a basic feeling about a kit. We strongly suggest that you get a copy of the referenced Sport Rocketry and read the entire article. Inside you will find many helpful hints in construction as well as other useful information. For more information, use the two links above.

"A BT-80 type body tube and a PNC-80b style cone provide the foundation for constructing the model." 
"The paper tail cone and nose cone are easy to form." 
"A convenient snap swivel and barrel swivel are provided to assure trouble-free operation of the recovery device." 
"The layout of the Launch Pad's AGM-84A Harpoon is straightforward and conventional." 
"Construction should pose no challenges to an experienced modeler." 

The entire article gives the impression is that it is a good value for the intermediate modeler.

* SPECIAL NOTE off of RMR from Chuck Barndt, President of The Launch Pad