Quest AS-1 Escort Build Part 1 Parts

I bought this one on Ebay.
I'd read about a build by JeffyJeep on YORF and there was problems. I was interested to see if I got one of the older kits. I understand corrections have been made.


It's a Shrox design and looks like a downscale of the Dynastar Firefox SHX HERE. Shrox designs are always a fun build.

The model is much smaller than I thought it would be. The face card shows the first discrepancy. While the advertised height is 17.3" tall, my finished model is only 13 3/4" long! Unless I made a big mistake in gluing, something is really wrong.
My kit was dated 8/26/2010. I checked a newer bagged kit dated 6/3/2011. All three body tubes were the same length in both old and new bagged kits. There is no way this all adds up to 17.3" tall.

Here’s the pieces of interest.
There’s a reverse bend in the motor hook, it should curve the other way, an easy fix. If a new builder installed it as shown, you could lose the engine at ejection. The bend on the forward end of the hook is very small.

The yellow motor mount tube is flimsey and the exposed end will have to be strengthened.

The gap caps should have been printed on a thicker stock. It'd be a good idea to laminate them with something like cereal box carboard. For the purpose of this review, I'll build it stock.

The fins are laser cut from some pretty good balsa stock.
At the upper left, Note the corner of the tail fins. It is off the balsa sheet.
On the lower right are the “Wing Fins 2". There is no laser cut down the middle to separate this into two triangles. It’s another easy fix, but should have been taken care of when the balsa was cut.

Get ready - This is going to be a bumpy ride!