Published: | 2011-03-01 |
Manufacturer: | The Launch Pad |
The Anubis is the first time I've attempted a kit from a company other than Estes. It arrived in the common long clear plastic bag, and upon inspection all of the parts were there, although there was no actual parts list with the kit. The instructions are basically two pages. The first page being a diagram of the rocket, fins, and motor mount. The second page was instructions on how to assemble the parachute on front, and a shock cord mount with instructions on shock cord assembly on the back of the page. One thing I noticed that I felt the kit lacking was that there are no decals with the Anubis.
The kit reminds me of older Estes and Centauri kits. Very basic parts, and plain sheets of balsa wood for fin material. A fin pattern on thick paper is also included. Since the kit has no step by step instructions I began with the fins. It was fairly easy to cut out the fin patterns and trace out the fins on the 1/8" balsa stock. Once finished I would caution anyone to pay careful attention to the grain of the stock. I cut the fins so that the grain goes parallel to the root edge, but due to a small knothole in the balsa I cut one of the fins with the grain diagonal to the root edge. This fin seems to be the strongest of them all, and the other three "main" fins have a little too much flex in them. The smaller bottom fins are made from 3/32" balsa.
The most tedious part of the construction has been the fairings that go around the top of the body tube. Two 9" long, 1/8"X1/16" strips are cut into eight two inch strips which are then sanded to taper the ends. Since there is an extra inch of material on each strip I cut them to 2 1/8" so that there would be a little extra for sanding down to the correct size.
After sealing the balsa parts it was time to assemble the model. Which leads to another thing I found the kit lacking... There was no fin alignment guide or fin placement wrapper. I made a guide and wrapper using VCP Then it was just the process of gluing the fins and fairings in place. I used white glue on the fin roots for quick drying, and used wood glue fillets for strength. There are no through the tube slots, so the glue strength is important on this model. I used the fin guide to mark positions for the fairings, and lined them up so that each one lines up with one of the eight fins.
The internal structure is a simple matter as well. The motor mount is a standard 24mm D sized mount. The centering rings are laser cut and slightly stronger material than the average Estes centering ring. There is also a baffle disk in the kit, but here there is a discrepancy with the diagram. It shows a plain cardboard disk that needs to have holes punched into it using a 1/4" hole punch, but the disk in the kit had a single 24mm hole punched into it. The hole was just small enough that it couldn't be confused with the motor mount centering rings. Since there is only one baffle disk I assume that it's only purpose is to separate the parachute compartment, and keep the parachute/ shock cord from falling down to the bottom of the tube.
The recovery system consists of 35" of 1/4" elastic as a shock cord, and an 18" copper colored mylar parachute. I am a little worried about the parachute as it seems like very thin material. It feels almost like the foil packages that trading cards are sold in. A snap swivel, and a barrel swivel are included to connect the parachute and shock cord to the nose cone. The shroud line is similar to that used in Estes models except that it is gray instead of white, and is held to the parachute with self adhesive paper reinforcement rings.
The last touch is the launch lug which is 2 1/2" long and made for a 3/8" launch rod. The finished model without paint or motor weighs in at 3 oz. A little light for a D engine rocket in my opinion, but I plan on weighting it down with a lot of paint.
The finish I've chosen is tan with the tips of the main fins painted black, and the secondary fins completely black. Giving it a desert type of look. As an added touch The tip of the nose cone is silver reminiscent of a Phoenix type missile.
The Anubis builds into a very nice rocket, but definitely not for the beginner. I would classify this as a skill level 3 model. I'm a little worried about putting a D engine in such a light model, but as shown in the in the instruction sheet it can use an 18mm adapter to fly on C engines. Just make sure you have a large field for this one.
I would rate this kit as 3 points
Think The Launch Pad just needs to add a decal sheet, and improve the instructions.
Have not flown so I can't help out there... Yet.
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J.M. (September 1, 1999)