Estes Rockets 0651 Der Red Max Rocket Kit, Skill Level 1 Brown/a

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.

The Estes Red Max is a great rocket. Never had the opportunity to build this bird back in the day and am enjoying the build (and a clone of the Der Red Max by substituting an 18" BT-60). Overall, high quality parts and superb laser cut fins from Estes - and fast shipping from Amazon always. I have found the water based DecoArt Sealer (with or without Japanese tissue on the fin surface) to work very well for making a smooth fin surface. Three to four sealer applications with 320 grit sanding between should help to seal the fin grain reasonably well. And remember, red primer for a red finish coat will do you a solid! Enjoy the Max!

This rocket is great and looks awesome once completed. I got this to build with my kids but the actual assembly was a little more than my 11yr old could handle. If you're impatient, not great at crafts, or have previous experience with model rockets you might want to look into a easier build rocket. This rocket isn't hard to build it just takes awhile. I went cheap with the paint so my rocket looks nothing like the colors in the ad for it. I attempted to make it hot pink and black. I primered the whole thing black first and when the pink went on it bled into the black making a blood red color. The rocket still looks cool a dark red with pink accents. The thing launches fantastic and comes down pretty softly. I launched it with b4-4 engines and they are too small in my opinion. The rocket doesn't go high enough to give the rocket time to open the parachute properly. I'd recommend a B6-2 or B6-4 engine.

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.

This is a horrible rocket!!!!!!! This product does not include the launch pad, the launch controller, recovery wedding, starters with engines, plugs with engines, engines be B-3 or B-4. This is ridiculous. None of the other reviews listed the extensive nature of this rocket project. I was looking for a rocket that you light with a lighter and it goes up. This is extremely disappointing that there is not explicit instructions for addition products to purchase. When you buy a rocket, you don’t expect to have to buy the engine plus and igniter let alone a launch pad.