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 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 out of 5