Brief:
Having already released a kit for just about every Saturn ever flown, the Zooch line delves into the realm of Saturns never flown with this kit. Originally announced in December 1961, this monster (363 feet tall, 5 F-1 engines, design weight over 6 million pounds) was not quite finished when Congress pulled the plug on the Saturn program.

The Dr. Zooch kit reviewed here is for a prototype. The final kit is not yet released but if you pester him and threaten to send him about $25 plus shipping, I'm sure he can put together a kit for your building and flying pleasure.

Since this kit is very similar to the Saturn V kit, I'll stick to main differences for most of this review, and refer you to my Saturn V review for more details.

Construction:
All components were packed neatly in the box, which can double as a storage box for the finished model. This is a very cool feature that I love--not only for the protection it offers, but because with so many different Saturns in the fleet, it can be a little tricky remembering which is which (the boxes have pictures and labels on them).

Other than the basic Saturn V parts, this kit also included a baggy of tiny wood dowels that looked like they were custom turned for this kit. Anyone who worships Dr. Zooch should now skip to the next paragraph--after emailing my amazement at the quality of the wood details for the price, Wes replied that they were just the ends of some toothpicks he stumbled across at a Japanese restaurant one night out. This destroyed my image of the poor guy toiling away to produce the perfect kit.

The instruction for this kit were copied from the Saturn V kit (and the prototype even included a misplaced gag to that effect). They were laced with sarcastic humor, some good construction techniques, and decent illustrations. There is also a nice one page bio on the background of this particular rocket, which I found very interesting and a nice feature to the kit.

Motor mount assembly consists of a BT-20 tube, a couple of centering rings (I think the outer tube is BT55, though could be 56), and a metal clip held in place via masking tape. No motor block, but I added one on my own. The instructions call for mounting with the forward end of the clip 2" from the aft end of the tube, which I felt would cause the motor to stick out beyond the F-1 engines, so I moved it forward and went with 2-1/2". Wes says that's on purpose, to help protect the F-1 engines upon landing.

As with the other Zooch kits, pre-painting of the body tubes is a good idea since the majority of the finish is through paper wraps, which don't exactly mask well.

The engine fairings are cleverly made from cutting a BT-20 using a cardstock pattern (see the Saturn V review). One tip I'll offer up from having done this a couple of times now is to slip a spent motor into the BT-20 before cutting it. The motor will support the tube, which gets structurally weak as you cut away the fairings. It also saves a few potential finger cuts.

The S-II-SIVB transition is a balsa transition and BT-20 tube. The balsa was fairly good quality, but took a couple passes with Elmers Fill 'n' Finish to clean up the grains.

Once the tubes are ready, it's time to apply the paper wraps. As with other Dr. Zooch kits, there is no alignment guide for orientation of the roll pattern, so you're left to either research on your own (Rockets of the World is a good reference although it lacks this rocket) or choose not to worry about it. While the Saturn V wrap fit perfectly without any trimming, I had to trim about 1/16" from this one to avoid an overlapping seam. I blame this on a very light/thin paint job on my end, not on a problem with the pattern.

Fairings are attached to the lower thrust structure via a bit of white glue. (Watch out using CA instead, as it can run and ruin the cardstock pattern.) Personally, I think the fairings would look better painted white--the instructions omitted this and will probably be corrected prior to final release.

As with the Saturn V, the tower on this is a cheesy paper wrap. It looks OK, but I very much prefer the option of building from wire, as found in the Saturn 1 kits. This tower though, gets a couple additional details. First, a red cardstock wrap is coiled around the top of the tower, and then 3 tiny nozzles are painted red then tacked onto the coiled wrap. I like the details, and the splash of red is a nice visual effect too.

Fins are hand cut from 3/32" balsa and painted white before attaching to the fairings. I had to trim mine a bit for a proper fit to avoid a slanted fin look.

The F-1 engines are one of the best features to a Zooch kit. For some reason, the last couple of kits I've picked up (including this one) have replaced the Kevlar® thread used on these with a bonded poly nylon weave. The nylon is coated with something that makes it much harder to work with for these F-1 engines, so it's tough to tack down one end and wrap around to finish.

Construction wraps up with construction (more like whittling) a bunch of details from dowel stock. The details involved are 2 cable tunnels, 8 S-IC retro motors, and 4 LOX tunnels flanked by 8 ullage motors, along with the previously mentioned custom-turned ullage motor toothpicks.

Finishing:
As most of the finish is done through pre-printed wraps, there's not much involved here other than hand painting the wood details before bonding. There is a set of 4 water-slide "United States" decals to complete the decoration.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The motor recommended in the instructions jump from A8-3 to C6-3, though I suspect a B6-4 would do well in the middle. I opted for the C6-3 and flew it on a breezy day (10-14 mph) at a field of dried mud/very hard surface.

The flight was impressive with only slight weathercocking. I'd peg it closer to 500 feet rather than the 800 the instructions indicate were simmed in RockSim. The 3 second delay was definitely too early and I'd go with a C6-5 on future flights.

Recovery:
The red garbage bag chute deployed fine and brought the rocket down at reasonable speed. Unfortunately, landing on the hard ground led to some minor damage. I broke loose 3 F-1 engines (I guess Wes was right on that one, but I think my mounting job looks better), and the shroud lines appear to have torn off 2 ullage motors. After discussing this with Wes, it looks like the ullage motors were too long and prone to snags, so he's going with much shorter ones for the final kit.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is another fine Saturn in the Zooch line. PROs include the details and value, plus I especially like the background on this C-5 and the splash of red color on the tower.

CONs would include the paper tower and lack of engine block.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5