That is a small workspace, it's amazing how far we'll go for our hobbies.

I realize that I forgot to answer your question about the nozzles. Yes, they are a ring and come with the kit.

It is--I never thought I'd have to become adept at using so little space for model building, and it gave me a new appreciation for Estes' and Quest's E2X and Quick-Kits, respectively (I'm glad the Falcon 9 kit is of that ilk). Also:

Thank you for confirming that the nozzles come with the kit; it sounds like (with them being on a ring) the model can fly with them in place. (With a little modification, three of the Falcon 9 kits could be used to create a parallel-staged Falcon Heavy kit, where the outer booster cores--using short-burn, short-delay motors--would peel away and descend under parachutes, while the center core kept ascending under the power of one or more longer-burning, longer-delay motors.)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

My two SpaceX Falcon 9 and Fairing kits arrived yesterday! The FedEx driver had leaned the box against the door of my landlady's office downstairs (on a hunch, I just happened to look at the box while waiting for my Van Tran pickup, and saw my name and address on it...). Also:

I agree with Scud-B's assessment of this kit. It is well thought-out and nicely made. The first stage Merlin engine display nozzles are permanently attached, and they have "partial figure" nozzles that look complete unless viewed from the model's underside, providing a good scale appearance (the 24 mm motor fits through a circular opening in the center of the nozzles unit). Speaking of motors:

The Falcon 9's recommended motors are the D12-5 and the E9-6 (the kit includes a spacer for use with the shorter "D" motor). For small-field flying, I suspect that the model would fly well on short-delay 18 mm motors (using an adapter mount, of course) such as the C6-3 and perhaps even the B6-2, since the Falcon 9 is likely about as "draggy" as an Estes Big Bertha and probably weighs more due to its plastic parts. It has ample fin area, though; its four transparent (polycarbonate) fins are similar to those of the Estes Scrambler. As well:

Its pre-printed, pre-applied body wrap is accurately lined up, and all of the surface details are nicely represented. The landing legs are represented by die-cut (perhaps laser-cut, although no thin "burn lines" are visible) pieces of self-adhesive, 1/16" (or the nearest hard-metric equivalent) thick white sheet foam. Such non-functional landing legs could have been represented better (although probably not as durably) by pre-printed card stock legs that could be folded-and-glued to create the "prismatic," three-dimensional legs' shape. (3D printed plastic landing legs would be even better!) But I can't fault SpaceX, because model rockets aren't their main product line, and even if built "stock," the kit looks quite realistic (the plastic Merlin engine nozzles are an excellent improvement over their first [Falcon 9 and Dragon] kit, which had no nozzles). Plus:

The "omissions" such as actual grid fins and landing gear (whose absence I understand fully; the kit would likely have been prohibitively expensive to produce had SpaceX insisted upon them) provide a great "after market" niche for scale accurizing parts for the kit, which could be produced by model rocket 3D printed part makers. 3D printed landing legs (and perhaps also 3D printed grid fins) could even be arranged so that they would deploy at ejection via springs or elastic, for greater scale flight realism.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR