This TLP kit is a builder's kit. It is fun and rewarding to build with plenty of little details to keep a modeler happy. It is labeled as a Skill Level 3 kit and builds like one, it may even come close to a level 4 kit. This is a great kit for the more experienced modeler who wishes to try a The Launch Pad kit. It isn't as hard as some of their Skill Level 4 kits, yet offers sufficient challenge. Developed by the US Navy, the Sidewinder was the first effective air-to-air missile to be launched from fighter aircraft and some helicopters. It gets its name from the Sidewinder snake, which senses heat to locate it's prey. The rapidly changing path of the missile's flight has also be compared to the snake's movement. Speaking of its movement, the instructions for the kit state the rocket may experience "unfortunate steering effects" if the forward fins aren't attached 100% correctly. This immediately got me excited about building this kit... should make for fun flights, one way or another. This flying model rocket kit is usually sold for around $25 to $29 which is fairly reasonable for this kit.

Parts List

This TLP model rocket kit comes in the customary plastic bag, complete with parts and a nice looking face card.

- plastic nose cone
- 2 body tubes (BT-60) with coupler
- 2 balsa fin stock sheets
- balsa strips and hardwood dowel
- 2 presentation board discs
- fin template sheet
- template sheet for body rings
- motor tube and engine hook
- 3 centering rings (one notched)
- shock cord, shock cord mount and launch lug
- Mylar parachute assembly
- clay nose weight
- assembly instruction sheets

Only the usual hobby tools and supplies are required to assemble the TLP Martel. Make sure to put a fresh blade in your hobby knife and have a pencil, ruler, glue and plenty of sandpaper handy.

Construction

First the motor mount is assembled and inserted into a body tube. The body tubes are glued together with the provided tube coupler.

The fins are a lot of fun to build. As I had plans to fly this mid-power rocket on an F12, the balsa fin stock was replaced with 1/16 liteply. This should keep it light in weight but add strenght. The fin pattern was modified slightly. In the original, you cut out a rectangle, only to glue in a piece at the back. I went for a design where that back piece simply isn't cut out.

A half circle is placed in the gap of each fin. In front of that, a small dowel piece is placed. The gap area is covered with a cover (top of above picture) on each side.

The idea is to paint the disc and dowel black and the fin covers brown. As this could be quite tricky to mask off those small areas, I opted to paint the discs, dowels and covers separately. The gap areas were masked off on the fins prior to priming and painting. The areas were the small pieces would be glued to the gap area were masked off also. This was done to allow the glue to form a strong bond.

The strips seen under the fin are supposed to go next to the fin, on the body tube. I managed to get this wrong and glued them to the fin instead. By the time I noticed it was too late, the glue had set.

There are also two wedges (one for each side of the fin) which are not included in this picture.

The forward fins have a gap in them. A piece of dowel, shown on the right, is shaped to fit into that gap. The large fins were attached to the rocket first. Once those were in place, the forward fins were attached. It is important to line up the forward fins with the back fins. Not lining them up correctly can make the model rocket exhibit "unfortunate steering effects", according to the TLP instructions.

The large fins and the importance of lining up the fins is likely why The Launch Pad only lists the D12 as the recommended motor and not E or F model rocket motors.

The instructions say to use paper strips (with pieces of balsa) to form the ties which wrap around the airframe. I used some plastic ties instead. While this will be slightly heavier in weight that paper and balsa, it adds quite a bit more dimension to the model rocket. As you can see in the image, a standoff is used for the launch lugs, to ensure the ties won't interfere with the launch rod. The launch lugs were also upgraded to 1/4" lugs.

Measurements

The TLP face card lists dimensions as 36.0" long and a 1.6" (BT-60) diameter. The fins are huge. The fin span for this flying model rocket is around 7 3/4".

Finishing

The small fin pieces were painted separately and attached to the fins after they were painted. The fin sections where the details would be glued were masked off. This was done to avoid getting primer or paint on those areas, to ensure good glue adhesion. All the paint used for the TLP Sidewinder is Rust-Oleum protective enamel spray. The body was painted semi-gloss white. The wraps were pained antique white, the forward fin section charcoal gray. It also has red, orange and yellow lines pained on.

The decals used did not come with the kit. The Launch Pad kits don't come with decals. Someone on TRF was kind enough to share some. They were printed on clear Avery label paper and cut out. They were applied and sealed with a layer of clear coat. I'm quite certain I didn't apply them all in the correct location. I wasn't going for scale, just something that looks good.

Flight Data

While the face card states "Flying Mid-Power Rocket Kit", the only recommended motors are the D12-3 and D12-5 which are not mid-power motors.

The rocket build for review came out too heavy to fly on a D anyway, so a an F12 was used for the first flight. After some issues with the copperhead igniter, the rocket finally took off for a nice, slow flight. Ejected fine and landed fairly close to the pads. The F12 is a great motor for this rocket (when build like mine).