Mega Der Red Max Model Rocket Kit

This is a great rocket. Lightweight so it can handle stronger impulse motors, but because of its girth it has very majestic flights... However you need to do some things to make it a better performer. 1. Double the length of the elastic cord. HPR motors have significantly stronger ejection charges. For this rocket I prefer the elastic because the CRs are relatively thin. Using Kevlar or Nylon, regardless of length, creates a risk of breaking the forward CR. You can find strong enough elastic at JoAnn Fabric. Make it twice as long and you are good to go. 2. DO NOT USE WATER-BASED GLUE TO LAMINATE THE FINS. Water causes wood to warp. Therefore, so does water-based glue. Water-based glue also needs air to dry, but when you compress the fins under weight you also slow the drying process waaaaaaaay down. Instead, use a 15-minute to 30-minute epoxy. The longer setting epoxy doesn't need air to set. You can thin it with alcohol to make it penetrate the wood a little better and give you a stronger bond. Alcohol evaporates so quickly that it will be gone by the time you put the fins under pressure. The result is that your fins will be laminated in far less time, and the will not be warped. 3. Consider cutting off the cap of the nosecone shoulder and installing a bulkhead. That way you can house electronics in the nose cone if necessary, and you can create a better anchor point for your shock cord. 4. Use a chute swivel. Trust me, you will love me for this. 5. Apply thin CA around the forward end of the main airframe to prevent it from fraying. 6. When applying the decals, put a drop or two of dishwashing soap into a pint of water. Apply the water to the surface area the decal is to stick as well as wetting the decal. This will allow you to better slide the decal into place. This is especially important with the main decal (3 skulls) at the top of the rocket which will require considerable manipulation. For that one, I suggest a very fine pencil line be drawn on the finished product from about a half-inch aft of the forward end, extending down about four inches. This will be covered up when the decal is applied, and will help you better align the decal before you wrap it around the airframe. You will have a lot of fun with this and your friends will be very impressed.

If you are familiar with the Der Red Max family and don't have this one, by all means, get it! I had a blast building it and it flies great. My first flight was on an Aerotech RMS G64 and it nearly went out of sight. Next will be on a F52 so I can at least see the apogee and deployment. Anyone who sees this rocket for the first time just goes WOAH!! including myself.

The Estes Mega Der Red Max takes a common upscale, and puts it into kit form. At first glance, it's awesome in size, and for the flier accustomed to 24mm as being a big motor, it is. Obviously designed around the low impulse G's Estes has commissioned Aerotech to make for them, it has many weight-saving attributes: light airframe and nose cone, and balsa laminate fins, which, while TTW as one would expect, have a 1/8 ply core with a small tab which interlocks with the middle centering ring. The instructions use bizarre methods which, if followed, will result in weaker fin-to-MMT attachment than necessary--leaving off the aft CR and retainer to affix internal fillets would be preferred. The butting of balsa sheets end-to-end, then cutting out as appropriate and laminating to the plywood core makes for a fat, light fin, but finishing this is a chore (as there's inevitably seams to fill), and there's a lot of scrap balsa left over. The shock cord is typical Estes: far too short, and of elastic instead of nylon or Kevlar. Shock cord attachment points are absent, save a slot in the upper centering ring, through which it appears as though they would like the elastic slid, with terminal point being epoxied to the MMT (I say appears because I added a U-bolt on both those I built without consulting the instructions). With the weight saved, however, one can make use of higher-thrust, and higher-impulse reloadable 29mm motors to good benefit to speed and altitude. Bigger G's and small to medium H's do this rocket well, and there's ample room to cram in a baby I, if you've got the recovery area for it... I'd recommend this for the flier accustomed to Mid or High power rocketry, who already owns reloadable hardware and is used to building and flying rockets using their own developed methods.