My Sons First MPR build, Estes Nike Smoke

This is my sons rocket and his build he typed up.


I built this with my Dad, I’m 10 years old and have flown low power rockets and watch my Dad fly MPR and HPR. This is the first MPR I have built with his help.

We built mostly by the instructions but changed the launch lugs for rail buttons and used Kevlar shock cord instead of what my dad calls underwear elastic.

First we built the fins, each one has 2 pieces that have to be glued together. We used CA glue, My dad glued them together and I used a q-tip with the activator so it dried faster. We did this for all the fins and sanded them a bit.

We sanded the nose cone next to get rid of the edges on the seams.

We then built the motor mount, we sanded the motor mount tube and centering rings. We measured and glued the front and middle ring to the tube with carpenters glue. We also glued the Kevlar cord to the motor tube with epoxy.

I spray painted the body tube with primer and my dad and I sanded it so there would be no spirals.

We put epoxy into the body tube where the front center ring will sit and put the motor mount into the body tube. We glued all fins in with epoxy and the rear centering ring. My dad mixed to much and it got really hot in the cup so he had to mix more.

My dad and I then painted it sparkly purple and sparkly black, we used Rustolium Metalic Black and Purple.

I wanted call it Night Smoke so my dad printed it for me and helped my put it on, it was cool to see him put on water slide decals.

We clear sprayed the rocket and put on the rail buttons.

Now its ready to fly:fly:

Thankyou for reading my post.

Nice rocket!

Awesome job! That'll be a sweet launch for him!!

From the looks of those pictures I'd say you and your dad did a great job on that rocket. Thanks for posting your build steps and techniques. Can't wait to hear how the first flight goes; do you have a motor picked out yet ?

You and your Dad built a fine looking rocket. Very nicely done. Good luck and here's to many successful flights. :clap:

Great job , got my son scratch building . And the ideas he comes up with . Need more kids doing rockets . Just think only four more years till you can do a Jr L1

Very nice work on that Smoke......very nice !!

I do really like the black and purple color combination ,looks cool.

You can come over to my house and paint my rockets anytime !

SWEET :handshake:



Paul T

Great looking rocket! Enjoy launching it with your dad.

Great job on your build,what a nice finish on the paint!Good luck and a safe flight to you.:clap:

Thankyou every one for sending replies to me. I'm hoping to build more rockets and post more pictures of my rockets.

I'm going to fly it on a F52-7 motor.