I just purchased one of the first Black Brants from Mike and have started in on the kit. I had a passing interest in the Black Brant but after seeing the extensive flight testing of the prototype, I put my cheap a** low power tendencies aside and actually bought a real mid power kit that could stand up to many G powered flights. See video of the prototype at the COSROCs web site (Photos July 09). I had looked at the Cosmodrome version at the Apogee showroom but it always seemed out of stock and at $20-$30 more than Cosmodrome I had high expectations for any kit from this new kid on the block.
The materials in the kit are above average quality and should be for the price. It has a nice foam filled plastic nose cone and a custom plastic tail cone that is also foam filled. They are quite tough and dont need all the finishing required of balsa. The body tube is strong and nicely cut with minimal spirals. The fins are pre cut and are a really hard, high quality plywood. You could, with a lot of patience, sand a real nice bevel, but that is beyond what this newbie BAR wants to do. The wood centering rings are laser cut. There is a steel cable, thick Kevlar cord and recovery hardware I believe is drop forged in the Ruhr from the actual steel plate scrapped from Tiger Tanks. Well, at least thats my story. The supplied chute is sewn nylon what am I going to do with out rubber shock cords and plastic chutes? Even the supplied vinyl strips used to cover the steel crimps are far stronger than normal electrical tape.
Where this kit excels is where most kits completely fail, that is in the area of decals. The Black Brant is a challenge to paint but with this kit you can get a full body vinyl wrap, or you can opt out and paint it the old school way. Mike is a professional signage fabricator, so he knows his vinyl and the kit comes with the nicest decals I have seen. No more water slides or peel off stickers for this BAR. High quality thin mil vinyl is the only way to go. Even the goose decal looks good. The full body vinyl wrap might be a challenge for a neophyte to install but it sure beats all the hours spent trying to perfectly tape and mask all those black checkerboard patterns. The directions are very good and the illustrations and drawings are first rate. Everything is bagged nicely and the wrap came undamaged in a Fed Ex tube. With the supplied antennas and some silver paint pen rivets I will be the envy of all the Scale guys.
Now you just have to over come the fear of ordering from a new company and from a vendor who dose not shamelessly promote his products. Well he should and if you are not completely satisfied with his products and service then this forum is a great tool to either keep him in or put him out of business. He certainly could use a little more marketing flash but the kits will speak for themselves. I couldnt even talk him into a free kit to Beta test and then write guaranteed rave reviews on all the forums, or to even to use a 40% discount coupon as a fellow club member. I had to buy the kit and give him real, honest and critical feedback on the directions and kit with out bias, bribes or gifts. Maybe he will spend the big bucks and hire my cat below for his spokeskitty.