The Krãken - A Scaled Down Version of the King.

A Big Creature from Ancient Sea Lore
The Pem-Tech Krãken (pronounced krã'-kin), named for the dark, sinister creature of ancient sea lore, is a one-of-a-kind sport flier featuring Pemberton's unique, sculpted tube-fin design. She is as much a fantastic flying machine as she is a work of art, created by you. Unlike traditional, and boring, tube fins the Krãken sports a canted leading edge tube fin with a short full tube that has been reported to be 30% more stable than square cut tube fins. Large, long and lean with sexy flowing lines, the Krãken will be sure to turn heads at your next launch.

About half the size of the monstrous King Kraken, this scaled-down version uses 24mm instead of 38mm, and allows you to launch in much smaller fields. Because you can use up to F sized engines, the Krãken includes beefy 1/4" launch lugs.

Get ready to spend a few days on this kit. The builder cuts those cool fins using a hobby knife with a brand new, sharp blade. It's not hard, but it takes patience. We know a lot of you will want to get right to the flying part, and that's great; if you assemble it, do some sanding and filling, and then paint it, the kit will look spectacular and fly straight. Your Krãken will impress every other flyer on the field. Pemberton recommends building this way in the "destructions".

For our display rocket (see photo at right) I did all the sanding, filling and final paint before assembly, then added the tube fins. This results in a gorgeous rocket, but if you elect to do the same, think of this as a Skill Level 4 kit instead of 3. When you sand and fill the tube fins inside and out, the resulting showpiece leaves fellow fliers slack-jawed, "Holy Cow... how in the world did you do that?" Some of the guys we showed the Krãken to at our last launch just said, "Wow!"

This futuristic single-staged denizen of deep space is so cool it's spooky. That doesn't mean it's hard to assemble. It is actually an easy to build kit. For example, the destruction step you may spend the most time on is cutting the tube fins and doing the prep work for painting. The tube cutting destructions are very clear, and, believe it or not (spoiler warning), it's a straight cut, created with a flexible straightedge. Pemberton reveals a cool tube painting trick, too, and you don't even have to do any masking. You'll find yourself flying this model after just a couple days of pleasurable build time.

This kit is a great introduction into the world of high power rocketry. You can build it and fly it on low-cost Estes black powder motors, but then you can graduate into composite propellant and/or reloadable casings. The range of motors available for this kit is astounding, and because it's a rear-bulkhead retention design, you're not limited to short motors.

I love this kit! It's big, distinctive, mean-looking, and sleek.

Pemberton does something creative with the visual impact of this kit. Layne calls the canards on the nose cone "squidly". They do have a decisively squid-ish look, and they give the kit that extra detail that defines it as the Krãken. The canards are surface mount balsa, and you cut them out from a pattern from sheet stock (old school), so they are easy to work with.

The kit includes nose weight for stability.

From out of that Wonder Bread world of the 50's, Pem-Tech brings you the coolest science fiction spaceships of all time: Sleek, silver, beauties like the King Krãken and the glorious golden hotrods like Bucky Jones Space Cadet.

Layne Pemberton is famous for his "destructions". The humor infects everything from motor selection to your household pets. Trust us, they're fun. The photos could use some upgrades to good quality line diagrams to improve legibility, but the destructions are otherwise good.

Beefy Motor Mount - No cheesy paper centering rings on a Pemberton kit! The rings are made of heavy paperboard that's two or three times thicker than you see on similar kits from the large manufacturers. They last longer and are laser cut. When I built ours, I didn't have to sand them at all because they fit perfectly.

Because you can use up to F sized engines, the Krãken includes 1/4" launch lugs, too.

You must note there is no motor retention system, though.

Tools needed to assemble this rocket kit:

• Pencil
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Masking Tape
• Hobby Knife
• Wood Glue or 5-Minute Epoxy

To Launch This Rocket Kit, You'll Also Need:

• Rocket Motors (Not included with this kit - See the motor selection above)
• Launch Pad (see below for suggestions) & Launch Controller (Not included with this kit)
• Recovery Wadding - Disposable | Reusable

Q. What launch pad should I use to launch this rocket kit?

A. Since this is a big rocket, you'll need very stable launch pad. We offer the Aerotech Mantis Launch Pad and the Estes Porta Pad-E.

Q. What launch controller can I use to ignite the motors?

A. We offer two different controllers that can be used for mid and high-power size rockets. The Aerotech Interlock and the Pratt Hobbies GO-BOX Controller.

Q. I need help selecting motors. What should I do? Can you teach me how to select them myself?

A. Watch this YouTube video - How to Select Model Rocket Engines

We encourage you to learn the proper motor selection technique. Please watch our YouTube video that will walk you step-by-step through the process