Brief:
8 fins, futuristic styling, menacing looks--what's not to like? I saw one of these on display at NARAM and just had to grab one.

Construction:
My kit came in a sealed bag, with cover art, nice and professional. The parts were very good quality and consisted of:

• Balsa nose cone (BNC55)
• BT-55 body tube
• BT-5 trim tubes (2)
• Laser cut balsa fins (8)
• BT-20 motor tube, centering rings, metal hook
• Mylar parachute
• Waterslide decals
• Elastic shock cord (tri-fold mount)

The instructions are clearly written, with a light smattering of drawings, printed on very nice glossy paper in black and white. This is probably worthy of a skill level 2 rating, mainly due to some slightly tricky fin alignments (and the fact that there are eight of them).

Construction begins by binding the two pieces that form each of the larger wings/fins. A good glue joint is critical here - I used the double glue joint method. After letting it cure out overnight, I followed up with a thorough sanding and application of wood putty filler to virtually eliminate the seam.

The motor mount is the usual 18mm tube with a pair of centering rings, a 20/5 thrust ring motor block, and a metal hook. It slides into the aft end of the BT-55 body tube.

The BT-55 is then marked for fins and launch lug line using a wrap-around template. There are two short BT-5 tubes that get marked as well, along with a small scallop type cut on the end to give them a little angled look. These BT-5's are bonded to the BT-55 on opposite sides, then the larger two-piece wings are bonded to the BT-5's.

The rest of the fins are a little tricky, mainly because this has such an unusual arrangement of 6 fins plus the 2 large "wings". Two of the 6 fins go between the wings, but the other 4 are tacked into the fin/tube joints on each side of the larger wings at an angle.

The launch lug is tucked discretely inside one of the BT-5's, and the shock cord is attached via a paper tri-fold. All that remains is to attach the screw eye and washer weight to the nose cone, and assemble the mylar chute.

Finishing:
I decided to go with a chrome silver type of paint finish for this, which is always a big risk in my part of the country, where it's almost always humid. I got lucky, though, and after the 2 primer coats I caught some nice weather and got 3 light coats of chrome silver sprayed to a nice finish.

The waterslide decals on this are very nicely designed, though very fragile. Also, in my case I had to soak the decals a good 25-30 seconds in warm water before they'd separate, and when I then tried to apply them I found that most of the adhesive was gone, so they barely stuck in place. I managed to tear a couple trying to position them.

After letting everything sit around the house for a week, I figured it would be safe to hit it with a clear coat. That turned out to be a mistake. I used Rustoleum clear gloss, since I'd painted the model already using Rustoleum products. The Rustoleum attacked the decals, and in the case of the wing/fin patterns, ate some of them (see photo). I've had various cases in the past of clearcoat going on a bit dull, or causing inkjet decals to run, but I'd never seen a case of the clear eating the decal. Most of the decals survived OK, but my finish was definitely marred.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
For the first flight I decided to burn off one of my old C5-3's I'd picked up off someone getting out of the hobby, so grabbed one from the bag, loaded up the Predator, and sent it into the skies on a moderately windy day (6-8 mph on ground).

With the added nose weight I expected a little weathercock action, but this held dead straight, with a just a trace of roll on the way up. Apogee was not terribly high, maybe 400-500 feet, but a good overall flight. The -3 delay in this case was about right, maybe a hair before apogee.

Recovery:
This came with a bright red Mylar chute, 12", and it was up to the task--easy to spot in the sky, easy to spot in the tall grass from 50 yards away, and brought the Predator back down safe and sound.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
Other than my bum luck with the decals versus Rustoleum and their fragile nature, I think this is a great design and am glad to have added it to my fleet.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5