Well I finally finished my MADCOW Jayhawk AQM-37A. Just a shout to Mike for manufacturer a fun and challenging kit to build. For my first time building this kit I'm pretty satisfied. It's definitely going to be a flyer, so most of the mistakes I made cosmetically with the kit really aren't that concerning, but I'll point them for the sake of just things I could do better next time.
If I decide on building this kit again, when it comes around to mounting the wings and winglets I will do all the sealing, sanding and primer before mounting them. It's just easier to sand with the grain of the wood when they are off the rocket.
I will make sure not to wet sand the primer pieces and wait until after I have paint the rocket. Why? The wood grain will laminate and raise and then there's additional sanding involved, which I had to do on this kit.
Painting the top coat was challenging trying to keep it even as having that "wet look" I would paint one side and it would look great, but the other side would have dry spots or "over spray" That's when I decided to shoot several layers of clear coat and wet sand the entire kit including the nose cone.
I used the decals that came with the kit. A few times I wasn't careful enough and torn some of the decals, but managed to slide them back into place without much noticed. I think I got about 85% of the details in the proper place. I wasn't sure where some of them went and when I did find a real Jayhawk on the Internet I couldn't make out the placement, so it is what it is.
Under fluorescent light you can still see some sanding scratches that I couldn't polish out, but like I said this will be a flyer so I'm sure it will get beat up on the landings.
BTW - I started sanding the body with 800 and then 2000. Maybe I should also used 1000 and then maybe 2000? It had some dry areas so I needed something with a little cut. Next one will be much better.
Pictured is the MADCOW Nomex blanket along with a 24"Fruity Chute (TARC) I might go with a 30" Fruity chute? I still need to run the numbers. I 'm really not a big fan of para-sheets for obvious reasons. I need this to come down without the swinging motion.
Overall I would rate my building skills on this as a 7 at best. Still plenty of room for improvement, but not bad for my first time building this kit.