Sunward offers an interesting, extensive, line of jet fighter type model rockets. Anything that is different from the usual 3-fin and a nose cone design always gets my interest. As such, this kit was quickly selected for review. This was my first time building one of the jet fighter kits. Other than the paper shroud, it builds like most other rockets. They look harder to build than they really are. This version of the kit can be build with either a 18mm or a 24mm motor mount. I immediately picked the 24mm motor mount. This rocket seems like it would benefit from a nice D motor, or possibly a 24mm rms reload.

Parts List

The kit comes in a large plastic bag with a big face card. The face card shows a silhoutte of the model rocket. As it doesn't show a clear picture of the rocket, it isn't easy to see what it will look like. When I ordered the kit, all I had to go on was the silhoutte on the face card, which is also shown online as the picture for the rocket.

- body tubes
- plastic nose cone with canope
- motor tube, engine trust ring and engine hook
- 2 centering rings
- shock cord & shock cord mount (to be cut out)
- 3 laser-cut balsa fins
- 3 laser-cut balsa wings
- parachute assembly
- fin tabs with fin marking guide(to be cut out)
- launch lug
- decal
- instructions complete with illustrations

The usual hobby supplies are needed to build this flying model rocket : glue, pencil, ruler. A hobby knife might come in handy to help remove the fins and wings from the balsa stock.

Construction

After assembly the motor mount, the three aft fins were attached, followed by the two wings. Attaching the wings is made easy by the fin marking guide which comes with the kit. At this time, it became somewhat clearer what the finished model rocket would look like. Remember, all I had to go on was the silhouete on the face card.

Next is the only tricky part : the paper shroud. Unfortunately, the cardstock sheet with the shroud had a crease in it. Just about at the worst possible location. I looked into scanning in the sheet and printing out a new one. The cardstock sheet was too large. Still, it turned out OK. Now the Sunward Phoenix is really taking shape.

The wing slots, when cut as directed, are too large. The gap was filled with balsa filler and a coat of white glue.

The instructions say to install the motor mount flush with the aft end of the body tube. As I may want to fly this on a 24mm rms reload, I wanted easier access to the motor and an area to wrap tape. Because of this, the motor mount sticks out a bit. To make up for the resulting change in the location of center of gravity, a bit of nose weight was added.

Finishing

After two coats of primet, it was time to paint this model rocket. The way the face card shows the Phoenix shrouds it in mystery. The model was painted charcoal grey, rather than black, to keep it mysterious (as least in my mind).

Next, the nose cone was masked off (except for the canope) and painted black. As you can see, two strips were masked off on the canope before it was painted. To finish the model rocket, the decals were applied, followed by clear coat. The instructions actually included suggested areas to place the decals.

Measurements

The Phoenix is 24.5" (62cm) long with a 13.5" (34cm) wingspan. It is BT60 based, which gives it a 1.6" diameter.

Field Testing

Sunward recommends these model rocket motors for the 24mm version : D12-3 and D12-5. I didn't check for 18mm recommended motors as it was built for 24mm.

For The first flight, a D12-5 was used. The flight went very well. Straight boost and ejection a bit past apogee. This was great timing and make for a second or so where the Phoenix appeared to be gliding. There were no "wild smoking nose-dives" as advertised on the face card. Maybe something for the next flight.