Estes 0651 Der Red Max Flying Model Rocket Kit

I bought this because I wanted an Estes rocket that was close to looking like a v2. The build itself wasn't difficult, and was a perfect step up from their "beginner" rockets. I was worried about aligning the fins, but it comes with cardboard alignment tools that made it easy. I tried to give it a V2 prototype paint job (black and white in sections) but forgot that I'm not an artist. It came out looking horrible, and I ripped the decals when I tried to put them on.Mistakes aside, I've made 2 successful launches. It's satisfying and easy to track with both a B4-4 and a C6-5. The parachute got snagged around the shock cord and barely opened both times, but that's my fault. No damage on either recovery even though they were both hard landings. It's a good rocket to have!

I have the baby 8.8" Mini Der Max the medium 29.5" Der Red Max and the huge Estes pro Series II 4" x40" tall Mega Der Red Max I call them the triple threat.

ALMOST exactly the same as I remember from the 80's. It's been upgraded slightly:Parachute now has a skull motif and it arrives ready to go, with the guy lines already connected to the chute (no more applying the little sticky dots yourself..).This is the classic small rocket that can pack a big engine (C6-5), with a cool set of decals and an easy to paint color scheme (fins are same color as body), the nosecone comes black or can be painted glossy black. Applying the decals is probably the most difficult aspect of the job, there are a lot of them! We painted it red/black and applied about 4 layers of gloss enamel after the decals were dry. It's solid as a rock.. see below.With a stout rocket such as the Red Max, you won't have lots of room in the tube for recovery wadding, parachute, shock cord and nose cone, so you'll have to pack carefully, and don't skimp on that wadding. First flight B engine, perfect. My son skimped a bit on the recovery wadding on it's 2nd flight with a C6-5, perfect launch, at apex...poof...no parachute. So the charge melted the parachute and the nose cone popped off, but no chute deployed. Falling/tumbling down from ~600 feet onto grass, with no parachute: zero damage sustained to rocket (other than the parachute..).A must have for any collection.

Great skill level 2 rocket build. Construction was pretty straightforward, but be sure to watch videos posted on YouTube if in question. I had some difficulty gluing the fins on but the build itself went smoothly. Flew great on a B4-4.

Model looks great and can't wait to fly it. But the decals were so thin most of them were unuseable. Only used 1.