(Contributed - by Andy Hobbs - 01/17/07)

Brief:
Lance covered the components and construction of the rocket very well in his excellent review. I also built the model exactly to the plans the kit is rated skill level 5. I agree with this, although it maybe is not as detailed as a Saturn V, but it's probably not recommended for the impatient type builder.

Construction:
The components are top quality. All of the tubes are thick wall 3" with a 3 x 12 LOC nose cone. The canopy is a Sig WW-2 style 7". The kit includes a 29mm x 17" motor mount tube, 2 chutes, lots of nose weight, bulkheads, and centering rings. Those last 2 items are made of 5 ply aircraft grade plywood. There are lots of other parts and details as noted. Most wood parts are pre-cut but, the wings, rudder, tailplane, finette, etc., have to be edged with 1/4" hardwood, rounded, and all trailing surfaces have to be heavily beveled. The rudder alone requires 1/4" balsa, hard wood, and ply to complete--that's my kind of kit! I used yellow wood glue througout the construction except for the canopy attachment and nose weight. I used epoxy in those cases. I am very impressed with the quality and fit of components and the inclusion of 2 ripstop chutes (they appear to be standard Top Flight brand.) Cutting the shapes from the heavy wall tubes for the intakes with a X-Acto was not fun, but I couldn't think of an easier way, however, after several passes they were done.

On the busines end, I lined the interior with aluminum tape from the hardware store. This helps the aft end from getting charred. The tape was applied with a very thin coat of epoxy. The adhesive on the tape was strong but started to unpeel after a few days, so I knew it wouldn't hold up to heat well, hence the epoxy. Problem solved. Lastly, I used a T-nut and mirror clip for motor retention.

The model has an integrated 1/4" launch lug. I would have preferred rail buttons but I stuck to the stock kit instructions and it has worked very well.

Finishing:
Phred of Excelsior decals did an amazing job of creating a decal sheet for me from some vector files I combined together. He is typically very busy and I appreciate him taking the time out to get it done. He runs a top notch service!

I opted for a military scheme. For the canopy glass I masked off the frame structures, cleared the tape to reduce leaking, then I sprayed a Duplicolor chrome. Once that dried a bit, I sprayed iridescent blue with the airbrush. It's hard to tell from the pic, but it has a sort of glass-like sheen from a distance. (That's the idea anyway.) The Excelsior decal worked very well by following the included tips. They have a "painted on" quality. I put my NAR# on the tail.

Flight and Recovery:

I flew it first on the G64-7W and the delay was way too long. It barely inflated the chutes in time and the shock cord broke both rear wings from the abrupt seperation.

I repaired it and flew again on the G64 drilled to a 5 second delay and it was beautiful. It was a perfect flight. The body chute was a little slow coming out so I will pack it on top of the nose cone chute next time. However, it recovored just fine this time around as it even went into a short horizontal glide before ejection...

Summary:
This is an excellent and very cool kit. I would really like to see Fat Cat return to the rocketry world with their very interesting line up of kits!