The junior members built their first round of rockets as a group (some of them had previously built rockets on their own). They built Estes Wizard kits with guidance (but no hands-on assistance) from the senior members.

There were a few issues, all of which were resolved. Measurement and alignment of fins was marginal, and all of them were glued on with the grain running parallel to the joint (which means they are much more likely to break off, since defects propagate along the grain way more easily than across it).

To partially address the second issue we "laminated" the fins with scotch tape & crossed our fingers.

Construction took longer than expected and they still weren't painted when it came time to fly them so they flew unpainted.

After their first round of lights (all successful) they were painted. Initially the idea was to spray paint them with masking tape (like in Factory Balls 2) but then we decided that just letting the edges blend looked cooler and was a lot easier.

After they were painted the members at small took them out to launch again – this time without assistance or supervision (or interference or nagging) from the high schoolers. The older members did watch though.