Sheri's husband was the builder. He made scratch built models for museums. At some point he decided to sell mid-power rocket kits but he was not a rocketeer. I don't believe anyone on the forums ever met him or saw him or Sheri at a launch. The first kit they offered (Redstone?) had 32mm motor mounts. They shortly switched to 29 mm, but all of the tubes and stuff they used were not rocket company tubes, and very poor quality. Most of the kits are really pretty bad. I had a couple I never built and eventually sold. I've seen a few nice builds out of them over the years but those builders had way better than average skills and would have done as well scratch building. If I recall someone on one of the forums saying they had built a few of the Sheri's kits and really liked them. So your milage may vary. I don't ever recall seeing photos or videos of a built Sheri's shuttle.
I have some of the SHRs including the shuttle which is being sold.
I'd agree that it's not for everyone... actually not for most. However I believe I'm in the target market...I like the challenge of making a complex kit and getting it to launch nicely and if the kit is really daunting...all the better.
At one point I wanted to build and get a good launch on all of the "bad" Estes kits (Outlander, Venus Probe, Cosmos Mariner, etc.)...I guess I'm a glutton for punishment!
One past example was the Hangar 11 4" X-15 kit...that was quite a challenge because of the poor directions, poor/missing parts and the designer told me it wasn't possible to make dual deploy, but I did it and got my L2 on what wasn't possible.
Other things I like about these "garage" kits is the subjects are usually less common in that scale and the parts are multiple media. I have the Titan kit and the metal bell nozzles are stunning. The Mercury chrome wrap really makes it stand out.
Of course one can try to scratch build, but in this scale it's tougher and I prefer a kit that supposedly the designer and others have actually flown.
