Brief:
The latest addition to the Groonies line, this very politically incorrect rocket is packed with humor and bears the chubby little BT-60 based styling of the other grown-up Goonies (Saki, Ruskie). The first Groonies were based upon rejected Estes designs recently made public, but this one is pure Semroc all the way...

Construction:
Parts included are:

• BNC-60 balsa cone (with clay weight, screw eye)
• BT-60 body tube
• Laser cut balsa fins
• 18mm motor mount w/die-cut cardboard centering rings, metal hook
• Balsa RPG nose cone (funky little nose)
• Plastic chute
• Kevlar+ elastic shock cords
• Waterslide decals

Instructions begin with some nice background information on Semroc, the Goony and Groonies lines, and the Geehod itself. Once you've covered the background, the build is a breeze and can be done in about an hour, plus finishing. There are about 30 well illustrated steps, and I'd rate the skill level about a 2.

Given the subject matter of the decals and kit itself, a certain degree of parental advisory is in order. Let's just say this is not something I'd recommend for a cub scout build/fly.

Construction starts out with the nose cone, which needs to be crammed full of clay before gluing in the disk and screw eye. Nose weight is critical on the Groonies, as without it they are terribly unstable. I also sanded down and treated my cone with a light layer of Fill N Finish.

The motor mount is typical tube/centering ring assembly, with a CR18/13 block. The Kevlarshock cord is tethered around the forward end of the metal hook as a shock cord anchor. The completed assembly slides easily into the BT-60, no sanding or trimming was necessary.

Next up comes the fin attachment. I've had problems with the other Groonies, which tend to break a fin if you even look at them funny. This is not a knock on the part quality, but more a condition of the bizarre fin patterns, which make it impossible to hide the grain weakness from all angles. To strengthen mine, I applied a thin layer of white glue and then laminated with computer paper. This also tends to make fast work of the grain filling process, though in this case, with decals covering most fin surfaces, I would not suggest spending much time worrying about the grain.

Once strengthened, I then attached the fins with medium CA and white glue fillets--two "wings", on "cockpit" fin and one "bomb holder" lower strake.

With the fins in place, all that's left is a little decoration - an air of "bombs" to attach to the lower fin and a body tube/nose cone assembly that serves as an RPG that gets attached to the top.

Finishing:
Finishing is pretty simple on this, though there are quite a few decals to deal with. As mentioned earlier, filling balsa grains other than on cones is pretty pointless, as the decals will cover them up. I did pre-treat the body tubes filling in spirals and sanding down before bonding.

After two light coats of white primer, I followed up with two coats of basically a light tan, left over from a scale project that required a sandy earth tone. No contrasting colors necessary, just lay down a sand-like color base and let the decals take care of the rest. One word of warning though, go with a very light color base, not the darker earth tone I used. The decals are NOT printed over a white undercoat, so are a bit translucent. They do not show very well against my background.

The decals are a hoot (or blasphemy, depending upon your perspective). The model follows the theme of a certain religious fanatic prone to self-sacrifice, but since the safety code requires safe recovery, Semroc decided this would be more of a command vehicle than a single-use vehicular weapon. Perhaps the decal that struck me as most humorous was the "All your Qaeda are belong to us", a somewhat mangled reference to the internet meme "I'm in your base, killing your d00ds". Knowing Carl's age and somewhat conservative personality, I was blown away to see graphics inspired by the gamer crowd.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
For the first flight, I went straight for the max C6-5, knowing these Groonies don't boogie all that high. The non-standard fin orientation led to a slightly jet-like angled boost, but not too bad. The -5 delay was OK, towards the end of its ascent.

Recovery:
The 12" plastic chute worked fine, and everything survived the flight. I think the paper laminate made a big difference, as I normally have fin cracks on about 1/3 of my Groonie flights.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:

PROs: cool decals, innovative.
CONs: not exactly politically correct?

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5