V2 Model Rocket Kit

After buying the Estes V2 as a gift for someone else I decided I had to have one myself. When the kit arrived I was pleased by the quality of the parts, particularly the fins. Hard, straight balsa with not a twist or warp to be found. The tail cone was perfectly molded with a minimum of seam scraping needed. The nosecone had a bit of a wider seam that needed filling and sanding to fix. The rest of the parts were of typically high Estes quality. Construction of this kit differs from the average Estes kit because of the need to glue wood and cardboard parts to the plastic tail cone. In addition to wood glue you will need to use medium or thick CA. You will also need to fit the fins for a good glue joint with the tail cone. All other construction will be familiar to anyone who's built an Estes kit before. Painting the rocket is the hardest part of the entire build process. Masking the compound curves of the nose and tail cones takes patience and a good quality masking tape that can fit to the curves. It's very much worth the work involved, though, because once the paint is done it's a very sharp looking rocket! Overall I'm very satisfied with this kit. I would hesitate to give it to someone as a first kit, it would be much better left until at least a couple of others have been completed.

This was one of the more entertaining kits from Estes that I have put together in a long time. There are several deficiencies in the kit, but the end result is still a 5 star rating in my mind. First, the mold alignment on the nose cone is quite poor. Took a lot of filler and sanding to level out the step. Second, the instructions do not have you adding fillets between the fins and the plastic taper piece. In my opinion, edge gluing the fins blindly through the wall to the engine mount is not sufficient. I ended up using epoxy with microballoons to make some very smooth fillets that bonded well to the fins and the plastic taper unit. Third, and this is a jab at all Estes LPR's, is I don't know why they insist on using a cheap shock cord for a rocket. A Kevlar leader to an elastic shock cord is a near negligible addition in cost of the kit and should be included. On the plus side, the remainder of the components were very nice. Balsa was high quality. The body tube was stronger than most Estes kits I built (still highly recommend filling the seams). I ended up upgrading the shock cord, and applying a very light fiberglass to the fins. I also did a bit of research and modified the airfoil shape of the fins to be more representative of the actual V2. This was my favorite build and is probably the nicest looking rocket in my fleet. You certainly cannot beat the price. I look forward to flying it!

I have just un-boxed my V-2 and I am excited by the possibilities! I originally intended to do my usual - sort of follow the directions, upgrade to a larger motor mount, etc. but now that I see the unusually detailed fin area and the other cool details I have decided to try a scale project. The stock paint job is cool but searching online reveals a ton of options for cool finishes. I am looking forward to building this bad boy!