Quest Stiletto Build Part 17, Nose Cone Decal

I could see this coming - the rear of the decal won't lay down where the shoulder straightens out. You can see the two raised areas on the blue area of the decal.

I don't have decal setting solution.
Here's one way to fix and get rid of the wrinkles.

With a new razor blade, cut straight lines through the decal skin a little above the length of the raised wrinkle.
When cutting a decal already on the model you are making light cuts. You don't want to slice into the paint!

Lift the middle (the back of the decal had two slices, cutting the rear of the decal into thirds) and set the outsides down first.
Lay the center piece over the sides you've already set down.
The middle cut will overlap the sides and get rid of the raised wrinkles.

"Mold" the decal to the surface by rolling over it with a damp Q-tip.
You can see the cuts if you look very close, still it's better than the raised folds.

On the back edge there is still some very small raised areas in the clear border.
Making small slices, cut through these too. Wet the decal and roll over he cuts with the damp Q-tip.

NOTE: This slice and overlay idea doesn't always work. It can work with water slide decals - not with stick on decals!

Here's the assembled nose cone with the decal on the upper half.
This is only a dry fit - no glue yet!
I will probably have to add clay weight inside the nose cone with the heavier D12-5 engine in the rear.

Thankfully the decal has a white undercoat and the blue cockpit shows up well. If there were no white background it would disappear into the black paint.

Quest Stiletto Build Part 16, Black Mask

The model got an overall white undercoat, then Rusto Metallic Bright Silver.

Along with one half of the nose cone, the only other black paint goes on the two larger rear fins.
I used my regular Scotch tape mask.
The corners were rounded off a bit.

Masking tape and grocery bags followed.
With the big intake tube so close there is some areas where the paint could sneak in. Double check for any open areas and apply more tape if in doubt.

After spraying with the Rusto black night metallic the tape was pulled.

My Titebond M&TG fillets were smooth and the mask lines came out sharp.

MPC Titan IIIC and Vostok Kit Review on YouTube

The "Mole" on TRF found a review of the MPC Titan IIIC and Vostok models on YouTube HERE

A good overview of both models.
References are made to the convertible flying versions.

Quest Stiletto Build Part 15, Nose Cone Paint Solution

I'm jumping ahead to the nose cone paint . . .

You are given two choices on painting the nose cone.
Step 20 has you paint both halves separately then glue them together.
(The copy says Step 19 - 22, but it is really Step 20 - 23, Oops!)
Step 23 has you mask off one half after the two piece cone was glued together.
This is a no-brainer. Why mask when you can simply glue the two painted sides together.

It's a brilliant solution to a nose cone made from old molds.
In my experience, the Quest (MPC) Nike Smoke nose cone takes a bit of fill and sanding to get rid of the seams. Why not use the seams to your advantage?
Painting one side silver and the other black will visually cover up any bad fit.

I'm using Rustoleum Metallics, for sport models it's my new favorite paint.
This paint covers easily and dries very fast. It looks best under sunlight.
The shoulder and nose cone tip were masked off.
Metallic Black went on one side and the tip.
Metallic Silver went on the half of the nose cone.

The picture doesn't do justice to the Rusto Metallic paint.
Nobody will be looking for the seam on the half-half nose cone. They might wonder how you got such a good mask line.

Rustoleum Metallic Paint Update Part 1

My local Home Depot only had a limited selection of Rustoleum Metallic colors.
I went to the Rustoleum website to see if more colors were available. HERE

There is a good selection .
I was interested in Red, Orange, Yellow and maybe a pearl White.
No Pearl White but there was a definite metallic Red.

Look close at the can. Rustoleum makes different Metallic paints, try to get the one shown on the left.

The "Gold Rush" (first in the second row) color could work for Yellow.
But there is no real Orange.
It's a good start, though.

I checked Amazon and you can buy single cans, but the prices do vary.
Lowest price is $5.77 for the black to $17.55 for a single can of Red!
That's not including shipping.

For now I'll use what I picked up at Home Depot, about $6.50 a can.
The way this stuff covers, that single can will last quite a while.

Instead of just black . . .
Imagine this one in the Black Night Metallic?

This is a perfect paint for sport flying models.

NARCON! Cocoa Beach, FL, March 1, 2014

NARCON WAS A BIG SUCCESS!
Everybody who attended would agree.

I had only been to NARAMs and some smaller conventions in the past.
I'd forgot how great these get-togethers can be.
Along with the technical sessions it's about meeting the people there.
There were over 100 people attending with home states as far away as Oregon.




A lot of people from my rocketry past:
Trip Barber - Past NAR President
Matt Steele - (North Coast Rocketry)
Richard Fox - Foxmitter

And of course - This guy!




I had that rocket nerd obligation to have him sign my Alpha.
I shook his hand and made the comment: "Thanks for keeping me out of trouble during my teen years. I didn't date a lot, but I did fly rockets!"
I don't think he got the gist of the joke.


I had the chance to finally meet:
Wes "Dr. Zooch" Oleszewski - My Saturn V and Soyuz shelf queen models were on display at his table.
Tim Van Milligan and Family- Apogee Components
James and Campbell Duffy - The scale master of the Mercury Little Joe.
James introduced me to his daughter Campbell. She used the blog posts to help with her Sat V build!
Steve Kristal - "Gus" on TRF

My LPR build session was well attended.
I don't think I shut up for a second through the entire talk. I had a lot of material to cover.
I introduced the new PIGASUS! kit and showed off the new parachute.
The FINTOOL was demonstrated and many were interested at how small, simple and accurate it was.
I went back to the JonRocket table and sold all of the pig kits.
Other vendors were already pre-ordering the new parachutes.
A big day for me and Odd'l Rockets!

A tip of the hat to Pat McCarthy for a very well run event !

Quest Stiletto Build Part 14, Sands and Preps

This post is a mixed bag.

From the back end you get an idea of Shrox designs, certainly not a four fin model with the fins spaced at an even 90 degrees.
(Yeah, I know - there are five fins here.)

I cut a higher spine that is between the two wing fins.
This was done so it could be sanded to surface afterwards.

Originally the plan was to sand the spine flat and keep the top square.
In the end it was slightly rounded off.

I looked ahead at the canopy decal placement.

On the old Nike Smoke nose cone there is an molded antenna (I believe it's an antenna) that would sit under the front center of the decal.
Like the hatches this will be sanded off.