This is a great kit for kids to build. My son Max, seven at the time, had this flying model rocket assembled fairly quickly. Having him build it was a great way to have fun together and to see if the fin jig actually helps kids install fins correctly. From what I can tell, it works rather well. The fins were certainly aligned better than had Max not had the fin jig to guide him. There is no knife or other sharp tools required to assemble the rocket, only glue. This alone makes this kit an excellent choice to build with kids, especially if you want to minimize the parts that mom or dad may need to help with. There are no real tricky parts that younger modelers may have trouble with. The only part I really helped with was aligning the second launch lug with the first. With some parental supervision and possibly assistance, most kids should be able to build this rocket. As it is tall, it gives them the pleasure of building and flying a "big rocket".

Parts List

As in nearly always the case with low power model rockets, the kit arrived in a plastic bag. There is no real face card, there is however a picture of a finished Polaris on the (black and white) instruction sheet.

- main body tube
- plastic nose cone with shoulder tube
- 3 pre-cut balsa fins
- motor mount tube with thrust ring
- Kevlar shock cord and Nomex heat shield
- 2 launch lugs
- plastic streamer (safety tape)
- fin alignment jig (with instructions)
- decal
- instruction sheet

At first, we couldn't find the thrust ring. It was actually inside the airframe tube, so if you think you're missing a thrust ring, be sure to check inside the main body tube. The kit used for review actually contained two lenghts of Kevlar instead of one. Never hurts to get some extra shock cord.

To build this flying model rocket kit, you'll need either yellow (casein) or white (aliphatic) glue. We used yellow glue to bond wood to paper or paper to paper. To glue the nose cone shoulder to the nose cone and to keep Kevlar knots in place, some white glue was used.

Construction

Start by assembling the fin jig, which comes in its own plastic bag with instructions. Basically, you glue a piece of paper tube to a fin guide on the jig base. When the glue dries, tape it down to an even surface. You can now slide the body tube onto the tube piece on the fin jig. The tube wouldn't slide on right away, I used a fingernail to put a very slight bevel into the aft end of the airframe tube to get it to slide on. Glue the fins in place and give the glue time to dry, move on to the next step while you wait.

Tie one end of the Kevlar shock cord to the nose cone shoulder tube and put some glue on the knot. Glue the nose cone shoulder into the nose cone and set aside to dry. Slide the streamer and Nomex heat shield on to the model rocket's shock cord.

Make a mark 1/4" from the aft end on the motor tube. Glue the thrust ring into the forward end. Once the glue dries on the fins and the motor mount assembly, pass the free end of the shock cord through the airframe tube. Tie the free end of the shock cord to the hole in the motor mount tube.

Glue the motor mount assembly into the main body tube until the mark you made earlier is flush with the aft end of the body tube. Complete constructing by applying fin fillets and attaching the launch lugs.

Finishing

While the instructions do mention painting the model, the picture in both the instructions and the Pratt Hobbies web site show the model rocket without finishing, other than the decal included with the model rocket kit.

The glassine on the main body tube overlaps quite and bit, leaving the tube less than smooth. For a smooth finish, you should probably remove the glassine layer, fill any spiral which you may find and go from there.

Measurements

This flying model rocket is tall and slender, it measures about 26" (66 cm) long.

Flight Data

The Polaris can fly on B and C model rocket motors. The instructions specifically mention the B6-4 and C6-5 from either Estes or Quest.

For some extra fun, you can use the two stage booster. That's exactly what we did, a C6-0 staging to a C6-7. Very impressive staged flight. It felt like the booster engine just kept going and going, until it finally staged. The sustainer kept going too and got really nice altitude. Very straight flight too.

The streamer is just about the right size. The rocket landed in an area with high grass and bushes so it took a few minutes to find it. Both booster than upper stage were recovered without damage.