Those MRC Concept II kits were great! Well thought out with nice optional features and high quality parts. The Iron Man kit was a favorite of mine and I built one a few years ago. Still unpainted. But today all of the kits in this line go for big bucks, more than I'm willing to pay, especially when I have to pay USPS as well. Now, if I could get another Iron Man and avoid paying postage, I'd pay a pretty good price.

Does anyone have any of the MRC Tracker engines that they could post a photo of here in this thread?

These are the MRC Tracker Motors. MRC also had - and I forget what they were called - motors that only produced a thick white smoke (maybe they were called 'smokers'?) that were ignited 5-10 seconds before the standard motors were ignited. I never used them or saw them in action - maybe someone here can fill in the details. I believe MRC sold a special Launch Controller that had 2 launch buttons and 4 leads to handle the motors.



Sean

I think the smaller smoking motors were called FX motors if I am not mistaken. And you are right about the special controller to light them before actual rocket liftoff. I have one of the controllers, pads, and a pack of the FX motors, but have never used them before. Was gonna use them when I built one of the Concept II kits that use them.

Earl

Sean, thanks for your post. Have you ever actually used one of the Tracker motors?

Yes!! FX motors is correct. I was too lazy to dig out my Trail Blazer kit to check. See the diagram below.
I bought this kit from Kevin at Countdown Hobbies way back when. Got it on the cheap because it's missing the lower fins.(if anyone out there has a spare set, PM me).

No, I haven't used them. I bought these from a fellow member at a CMASS club launch, but never got around to using them.

Joe, they were just the regular German-made MRC motors with a black label slapped on them and the nozzle-like igniter holder (predated Estes' plugs by a year or so)

The FX motors were a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes they would work, sometimes they would fizzle, and sometimes they did their version of cato -- just spit themselves onto the ground, smouldering. I'm about to post some video (on the royatlvideo YouTube channel) of the 1991 ECRM contest in Middletown, MD. There's a Saturn V being flown with them. First attempt, the owner calls a hold at 'one' because the LCO didn't fire the FXs. Then the next attempt is shown with both (? not sure how many there were) FXs spitting. Out of the three packs I bought, I only had 2 FX successes, though in one case, the main engine didn't fire!

The MRC FX motors were just very small smoke cartridges that the modeler could ignite before the rocket launched to give the effect of pre-liftoff smoke.

The actual smoke produced was thin and wispy and could be hard to see.
A neat idea that added 'play value' to the product but not that noticeable.