The Tres uses a three motor (18mm) cluster. The motor tubes are canted which gives this flying model rocket a unique look. Being a cluster rocket, it uses multiple motors which ignite simultaneously. The canted motor setup should create an interesting smoke trail as it leaves the launch pad. If you like tall rockets, you'll love the Tres. It stands close to 3 1/2 feet tall. It also sports large fins, which add to the stability of this flying model rocket. The Fliskits Tres looks quite impressive on the launch pad. The black & yellow color scheme used is the same as the one found on the face card. Included with the kit is a masking template to put the number 3 on the yellow part of the bottom fins. The original idea was to add those 3's on each side of the bottom fins. As there were too many small imperfections in the paint job as seen in the image, I opted against taking more risk by adding more detailed paint-work. It was one of those days where painting just goes wrong.

Parts List

The Tres model rocket kit comes in a good-sized plastic bag with the usual, color-printed, Fliskits face card.

- two body tubes (BT-60 & BT-55)
- 3 motor tubes with engine blocks
- engine mount shroud
- engine mount ring
- 2 fin marking guides
- fin and strake patterns
- 3 1/8" fin stock sheets
- 1 3/32" fin stock sheet
- balsa nose cone
- balsa transition and metal screw eye
- shock cord mount and elastic shock cord
- launch lug
- parachute assembly
- masking pattern (to be cut out)
- assembly instructions

To assemble this flying model rocket, some hobby supplies are required, such as a hobby knife, pencil, sand paper, glue, masking tape, ruler, and a used/expended motor casing.

The instructions also provide information on clustering in general and more specific clustering techniques.

Construction

The kit starts right with the interesting part, the cluster engine mount. The canted motors give it a unique look and promise to make for an interesting build.

Engine blocks are glued into the 3 engine tubes. A special engine mount shroud is cut out and glued together. You can see it between the motor tubes in the image on the right. A special ring is also included and required to assemble the motor mount correctly, located below the engine mount shroud in the image.

The fin marking guide has areas marked in grey which will be used to cut out the parts of the airframe tube in which the engine mount will be inserted.

Be careful while cutting out the engine cutout areas as applying too much pressure to the body tube can force it to fold, especially when you get to the last cutout area.

Some 400 grit sand paper was glued around a used motor casing to sand a bevel into the cutout motor areas. After inserting the engine mount, masking tape is applied to the back part (see image) to keep it flush with the body tube while the glue dries. There were some minor gaps around the back of the engine mount, those were filled with a small amount of white putty, as shown in the image.

The building done so far is likely the trickiest of this model rocket kit. Surprisingly, this was easier than expected. The motor mount shroud and special disc almost certainly played a part in this.

Next in line are the fins. Here, I didn't stick to the instructions. Instead, the strakes were glued to the fins before attaching them to the rocket. At this point, the assembled fins were filled with some wood filler (watered down). This should make it easier to get the strakes attached to the fins correctly and makes filling the fins easier.

You can glue the nose cone in the top section, or use it as a cargo section.

Finishing

The Tres was given a coat of Rust-Oleum automotive primer and a coat of white Krylon primer. The image on the right shows the rocket with the automotive primer. First, the yellow paint was applied to most of the rocket. The areas which had to remain yellow were masked off.

The masking took quite a bit more time than estimated. It is a fun paint job, if you enjoy that kind of thing. Finally, the gloss black (both Testors enamel spray paint) was added to conclude the painting.

A masking template for the "3" shown in the wings is included with the kit. It was not used for this review kit.

Measurements

The FlisKits Tres flying cluster rocket is 41.52" tall, has a diameter of 1.637" and a fin span of 9.625".

Flight Data

The three engine cluster Tres uses Estes B6-4 or C6-5 rocket motors, three engines are required for a single launch.

It was launched on three Estes C6-5 motors using a clip whip and all three motor ignited perfectly. It was a great flight to watch, not too fast and it reached a very nice altitude. Bit of a walk for recovery, due to the wind that day, which I certainly wouldn't blame on the rocket. Recovered without any damage and ready to fly again.

For the next launch (two weeks later, a day with very little wind) the same rocket motor combination was used. This time, the Tres started straight up, only to veer off to the left and go nearly horizontal for some odd reason. The parachute deployed fine and I started running to where I expected it to land. Unfortunately, it hit a power line and got tangled up in it.

Looking at the clip whip, all three igniters fired, which doesn't necessarily mean all three motors ignited. As the rocket couldn't be recovered, there no way to tell if they all ignited or not. It was a very spectacular flight, sadly it resulted in the rocket being lost.