Description
- The Bull Pup 12D is the sport scale version of the USAF AGM-12D Bull Pup and a great choice for your first scale model kit
- SKILL LEVEL: With moderate building and finishing skills, the Bull Pup 12D is perfect for this Advanced level rocket
- RECOMMENDED ENGINES: A8-3, B4-4, B6-4, C6-5
- PROJECTED ALTITUDE: 675 ft. (206 m) on a C6-5
- ESTIMATED ASSEMBLY TIME: 3 Hours (paint and glue drying time not included)
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ATC123 –
Great kit! Looks sharp on the pad and flies straight as an arrow! Don’t forget to add the included clay for nose weight to balance the rocket.
Chumly –
Looks good
curo –
Sure, anyone can just glue this thing together in a few minutes and it will fly, but to assemble the rocket properly does take time and some skill.
Just a few things to consider:
*This has balsa wood fins, and they do take some time to sand, fill, and then cover with paper (as reinforcement). I would not just glue the fins on without the paper covering as they will easily break.
*Instructions suck.
*Don’t use superglue, it is too brittle and will fail. Wood glue is a good option.
*You don’t have to make it look like the picture. I omitted the fins near the nose cone and painted it differently. It looks like a fairly generic rocket.
Catlin Yantha –
Exactly as described. Fast delivery. Good product
Ballistic_trep –
Qualité Prix OK
Chumly –
I fully agree with everyone prior to my review…I love this little sport rocket! I’m 42 and loved building rockets as a teen, saw and remembered wanting this, so as an adult I did the adult thing; I finally bought it just because! I still like building and tinkering and my kids and friends like watching launches.
This is a good looking and great flying rocket to get into if you want to advance out of the pre-assembled or E2A plastic stuff that you slap together in about 30min. Man I forgot how much work is involved just because it has balsa fins, but don’t let that statement scare you away since it’s still JUST level 2! That “2 minute” assembly time is probably possible, but I was in 2 hours before I just gave up and decided to just finish and fly this sucker. Wood/Filler, sand, Primer/filler, sand, primer, sand…I gave up early and just got the fins smooth enough and moved on. I imagine the next one (yes, I’m getting another!) I’ll be willing to slow down on but this one still stands out as clearly the best looking of my recent collection.
You can do this without any fin guides or extra purchases if you’re patient. Since it’s sport sized, perfect fin alignment is not an issue. The paper guide is close enough to perfection as you need on a sport rocket. I used Elmer’s wood glue for the motor mount and fins because that’s what I have. For fins there’s this technique called “double stick” that is advised but I even skipped that on this little build. Wood glue holds fast by nature and you can make fine adjustments as it dries. It cleans really easily with a damp paper towel, so that’s how you avoid bumpy glue joints: You stick it, hold it, wipe off the excess. With all four fins on, you can easily eyeball down the tube and make adjustments so that they’re all square (can also find paper fin guides if you don’t have that good of an eye on alignments). The only place I used Epoxy was with the bond from the motor mount to the rocket tube. Wood glue shrinks up inside the joint and the gap from the motor mount to the tube for mine felt a bit too loose to just use wood glue. Used my old trusty Loctite 2-part, slopped it in with an acid brush, and that thing is bound to the tube.
I included a picture of mine here right before I launched it. As that is in the pic is Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2x paint+primer in flat white and then the decals placed the night prior. I really wanted to get a good coat of Testers flat clear-coat over the water slide decals, but since I skipped all the filler in prior steps and got a tad sloppy with applying the decals, I decided again to just fly the darn thing! I don’t expect this one to stay purdy very long due to decals falling off with all the granite rock and tree landings I tend to do.
————Don’t read any further unless you’re AHDA or a Perfectionist and just buy this————————
5-stars, most of my complaints are due to me rushing things but here are my actual cons.
1) The water slide decals skimped on the adhesive. I build models, I know how to do them, but I got frustrated with how you get one shot at these decals. Good water slide decals have enough glue on them to move them around enough (slight) for adjustments. With this I felt it’d be better with fine tweezers or a thin x-acto blade. Made in china, skimp on taxes and quality, more trouble for the builder. This is only the slide decals I complain about. You can use a sharpie (props other reviewer) if you want to just fly this rocket. The decals make this thing though or I’d just keep flying the Estes E2A Heatseakers as they’re easier to get up in the air.
2) No motor retention what so ever. Another reviewer mentioned that it hasn’t improved…I understand fully. It’s not really broke so don’t fix it, but another had their motor fall out and eat the dirt. Mine was tight enough that it didn’t fall out without adding any sort of tape, but that was this single purchase. We adapt, but if Estes understands that people like us are suggesting that people move up to Level 2 builds, actually spend 6 hours making it great looking and even slap their decal on it…well, the motor shouldn’t just fall out and eat dirt the first time they try it. It’s a hobby that I understand but, I’m forty stinking two and check this stuff. It’s a hobby, give it some retention device, and let’s not deter any possible future rocketeers due to some minor oversight. We learn to adapt and fix things as engineers, but probably not so much at stage 2…you become a growing engineers at stage 3. Minor rant because you can do this and figure it out, parents and Rocketeers alike. It’s the scientific method but yet frustrating at the same time.
3) Instructions assume a lot, See #2. Copy and print the instruction sheet as you’ll be cutting stuff out. The fin guide is early on and the rubber band recovery part will be cut out last. I understand I’m cutting this out and should do something but again, teach the up and coming fans of rockets to copy and print 1:1 and cut out the copy or you’re not letting read the 2nd page. (I’m not positive right now, but I believe a piece on this one was labeled “not used” and for a fact was used in the build.
Very very minor long rants about stuff I’m sure you’ll overcome as you see them yourself. Do not let that turn you off as this really is a 5 star level two rocket. When you step up in ability this is just stuff you learn in hindsight…and that’s learning.
Last note since this is level 2: Go right to the B6-4 motor! You have another beginner rocket to use up those A8-3’s with (silver arrow launch kit, heatseaker E2A if you’re just starting off). Test launch those, see how the layered winds are and when you feel good about it…break out the bullpup and a B6 😀
Thanks for reading my very minor perks and complaints on this purchase
Benjamin Thompson –
Thought it be fun to do with my son. Just a rip off, just a paper towel toob and cheep thin plastics. You are better to make your own rocket, buy the engine and ignition on there own. As there not included in this so called “kit”
David –
If you are looking for a beginner’s model for you child to put together, this is definitely one to consider. The instructions are ok but it is pretty simple to figure out even for a 10 year old. The recommended color scheme is a bit bland and does not lend itself to being easily found if it lands in rough areas. After 10 launches, it is still intact, so overall it is a good introductory model and the price is certainly right.
curo –
Pretty easy to assemble
akira –
Great rocket
Grippy –
It’s extremely easy for you to assemble if you ever put together a puzzle. Or like to build things. Attaching the fins will be the tricky bit if you don’t know about the two block method with any 2 or 4 fin rocket. Otherwise it’s just fallow the instructions and Fly…. in an appropriate location
rlb3 –
This was a nice little rocket that went up well with a size B or C. We didn’t have D’s. One of the little fins got damaged during transport and we had to duct-tape it back on. A trick we discovered is to put a small piece of duct-tape on one side of the engine before you install it so it won’t fall out. On our first launch the engine came out but this tough little rocket lawn darted 300 feet away and came out without a scratch. After that we shot all day no problem. As with most rockets I’ve owned you have to put it together and like most other rockets you have to read the directions carefully. At one point you have to cut out a portion of the directions to size and place the fins, be careful not to cut out the next step when you do this, ha. Assembly was straight forward, give yourself a few days to wait for stuff to dry. We could not get the stickers on like the photo shows. You have to soak them in water and they aren’t that easy to work with when they are wet. Nevertheless I give this one a 4 star because we shot it for 4 hours straight, and except for the first launch, we had no problems. Towards the end of the day, like most rockets, the parachute starts to get all tangled up but it was time to take a break anyways so that did not bug us.
Mark Mayberry –
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Very fun and simple rocket from Estes, this one was my favorite so far of the 5 or 6 my son and I have built so far. Very easy built in one day while doing laundry/cooking in the background