Stovi
The Loc/Precision Stovi kit was the fourth rocket I built and certainly the most substantial. The kit goes together completely with epoxy and has plywood fins and a complex tail end with six "auxiliary tanks" surrounding the actual motor tube.
This is the Loc/Precision Stovi. Kit information and a full-size picture of the front of the package is here. This kit went together nicely. The directions, although short were fine and the kit was well designed and the parts well made. The only annoying thing about this kit is that it has a 24mm motor mount and expects to fly on F and G motors. It would be more appropriate for this rocket to have a 29mm motor mount. (No single-use 24mm are currently available for it.)
The Stovi looked somehow Russian to me (complex and slightly inexplicable) so I decided to paint it fancifully as a Russian missile. No decals came with the kit so I painted it in three colors (red, yellow and black) and applied some Russian aircraft star decals to complete the effect. I like the way it looks, but I hope I can see it when it lands!
The Pictures
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There goes the Stovi on its maiden and final flight:
A nice flight too, angled slightly into the wind and going up nice and smoothly. Everything went smoothly, including ejection but the parachute never totally unrolled from the shroud lines so the 1 1/2 pound rocket came down on a poor streamer.
The damage was repairable: two fins broken off and the body tube dented. However, I didn't try to salvage it since the Stovi fin attachment to between two small tubes make them hard to reattach (there's no surface to work with).
By the way, the LUNAR launch site is very nice. Here are two pictures I took to burn the rest of the film on April 22. The first picture shows the sign-in areas and RCO doing his stuff. The second shows people watching the rockets in action.
The Loc/Precision Kit
The parts are very high quality and construction went smoothly, even though the directions are minimal. This kit goes together completely with epoxy, which means you have to find something else to do for a half hour after each step, and with six fins, that's a lot of breaks! It came out looking good (my version).
The only annoying thing about this kit is that it has a 24mm motor mount and expects to fly on F and G motors. It would be more appropriate for this rocket to have a 29mm motor mount. (No single-use 24mm are currently available for it.)
The kit comes with no decals or painting information since the Stovi isn't scale. The front of the instruction card has an interesting sponge texture which I liked (and will try some day), but looked hard to see on the ground. It looked Russian to me, so I painted it red, yellow and black with Russian aircraft stars on the side.
Loc-Precision, Inc.
1042 Iroquois
Macedonia, Ohio 44056
(216) 467-4514
web site
Kit specifications
- Motors: F44-5, G42-8
- Weight 22 oz.
- Length 44.5"
- Diameter 3.10" to 2.26"
Package Cover Card
The kit came in a bag with a single instruction card (instructions on the back and this picture on the front):
