New Estes Lynx Decals

If you've ever tried to do a clone you realize how models evolve over the years. Nose cone materials and shapes change, decals can go through revisions.

Harold sent an email and attached a picture of his recently finished Estes Lynx. I thought something had changed. Compare the differences in the face card picture and the decals on the finished model.
This kit has only been out for two or three years and the decals now have an extra thin border line on everything. Instead of a difficult mask around the white "rudder", now it is painted black and a white decal trim is in its place.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Finished

For a smaller 13mm model, there is a lot of detail.
The small engine vanes take time (and tweezers) to position. There are the intake tubes, the fit of the upper and lower wings and that bulbous canopy nose cone. The nose cone looks so much better on the Lynx compared to the old Space Racer model.

This one is a rewarding challenge.
I'm glad Estes is still making builder's kits.
John Boren did a great job with the design.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 17, Decals

The metallic black paint isn't as smooth as a normal gloss paint. I very lightly sanded the decal areas with some old, reused 400 grit sandpaper. The paper is probably closer to 800 grit by now.

Like the white decals in the Mercury Redstone kit, these are very hard to see until they are soaking in water.
Be sure you cut inside of the gray border lines or you will see the lines against the black paint on the model.
Look at the upper decal in the inset picture. I had to set this one back on the transfer paper for trimming.

The wide wing decals aren't split where they go over the gun dowels.

For the right side of the wing decal - 
I set the decal down and burnished the side towards the center.
The decal was cut with a sharp single edge razor blade.
The left side was slid to the right making a space between the halves.

The right side decal (not soaked yet, still on the backing) shows how hard it is to see the white decal on the white backing. Take it slow cutting them out inside the gray guidelines.

After the decals had dried they coat a coat of Future rolled on with a Q-tip brush.

On the left - 
You might want to double check the decal positions before soaking them. The shapes and angles are different.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 16, Nose Cone & Engine Mount Paint

The nose cone mask went well except for a small lift on the right side.
I used a fine point Sharpie to color in the gap. Again the metallic paint is forgiving and after a little bit of Future, the touch up isn't noticeable.

Here's the mask for the engine mount.
There is two pieces of masking tape (sticky side out) in the engine mount tube to keep out any paint.

The engine hook has a strip of Scotch tape over it.

On the left is the first light coat of the metallic black. Right now it looks like a blackened silver color. Go light with your coats.

The middle shows some light sanding after the second coat.
Sanding between coats can help fill any gaps on the root edges of the vanes.

The third picture is after the final third coat, all the tape has been removed.
A great thing about this paint - It seems to dry to the touch in just five minutes.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 15, Fix the Paint

After the model sat for two months I decided to tackle it again.

The lightly roughed up rudder fin was masked again and shot with the Rusto Metallic Night Black.
This time I ran my knife blade tip down the tape edge lines, cutting the paint edge and preventing tears. Cutting down the mask line isn't usually necessary, I just wanted extra assurance that the paint wouldn't lift and tear again.

The tape lift was much better this time, but the mask on the right side of the rudder was higher than the left side.

I didn't want to sand and mask it again.
Instead, I sprayed a scrap piece of clear decal material with the metallic black paint to make a decal patch piece.

On the left you can see the cut patch before being slid to the right over the white/black color separation line.

Here's the patch in place.
Enlarge the picture and you can see the piece. The metallic paint camouflages the edges very well.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 14, Paint - Whoops!

Here's the model, dry fitted before the white undercoats.

The rudder and canopy were carefully masked off.
The black color is a favorite, Rustoleum Black Night Metallic.
I've had great results with it in the past.

Maybe not this time!
This metallic paint isn't like other spray paints.
It didn't adhere well enough to the white paint underneath.The white underneath might have been a little too smooth for the paint to grab. When the tape was lifted the metallic black coat came up!

I lightly sanded down the paint ridges with some 400 grit.
I didn't want the torn edges to show through a repair coat. The metallic paint is pretty thin.

I was disappointed and set the model aside for about two months!
The build is continued in the next post, though.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 13, Intake Tube Gluing

Dry fit the intakes before using any glue.
Hold in place and trace around the ends for easier placement when the glue is used.

Apply glue to the inside edges of the intakes. Keep glue off the outside edges.

With the engine mount out you can hold down the intake ends.

Here's the underside of the model with the intakes in place.

Apply fillets where you can. Remove excess glue with a Q-tip. You'll never get a fingertip in the tight areas by the wings.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 12, Lug Gluing

Here's the front and rear lug.
The front lug needs the standoff with the rear lug already raised on the wing.

TIP: Use very little glue when first gluing down two small, inline lugs. After drying, that little bit of glue allows you to re-position the lugs if needed.

Check the lug alignment by carefully sliding a launch rod between them.








Fillet the lug joint with Titebond M&TG.
Roll off and taper around the fillet end with a Q-tip. You can "sharpen" the Q-tip by rolling it between your thumb and index finger.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 11, Ends and Edges

Titebond M&TG fillets were added to the engine mount vanes.

The fillets were smoothed and excess glue removed using Q-tips.

The intake tubes got medium CA applied to the exposed front end.

The ends also got some CA. This is just to harden up the sides so the fuzzies can be sanded smooth. Keep the CA glue off the edges where they will be glued to the main tube.

It's interesting that a Great Planes sanding block is illustrated in the instructions. I doubt a younger builder would know what it is.





Glue the "K" stabilizer parts on the wing edges.
Be sure they are glued on at a 90 degree angle to the lower wing.
I had a little bit of wing over the front and rear of the stabs.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 10, Details and Wing Fit

The lower flat wing is centered and glued even with the back end of the BT-20 maim air frame tube.
The engine mount is just dry fitted, not glued in yet.

The dowel is cut into three 1" sections. The left over dowel was thrown in the spare parts box.

Two pieces of dowel are glued into the wing slots. I glued them in now, it's easier to fill the gaps with the wing pieces off the model.

The dowel diameter is wider than the 1/16" thick wing stock.
It's harder to fill the slot sides or lay on a decal with the dowel raised over the top.
You could leave them round, I decided to sand them flat with wing.






The root edges of the wing glue to the side of the long rudder strake.
The outside ends of the upper and lower wings should match up

Sand the wing root edge at an angle for the best fit.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 9, Engine Vanes and Launch Lug

I read the instructions wrong. I glued the vane glue template onto the rear centering ring. Step 2 and 4 of the instructions show the paper ring being slid on and slid off after marking.

It was cut oversize and trimmed after the glue dried.

With the pencil marks extended down the centering ring it's pretty easy to glue them on straight.

It was better to fill these before gluing in place. It would be impossible to get them sanded clean afterwards. The vanes are small.





The launch lugs are different. One forward lug gets a standoff.
The rear lug is glued to the middle of the (raised) lower wing.

It helps to hold the standoff on the lug with tweezers as the glue starts to set up.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 8, Intake Tube Cutting

The instructions have you tape the intake tube pattern over a BT-5 and cut through both the pattern paper and tube at the same time. I thought that would lead to some shifting of the pattern while cutting.

I taped it on and used a pin to make small holes around the pattern.
The pattern was removed and the holes connected with a pencil line.

The kit supplies two BT-5 tubes. If you carefully place the pattern on the other side of the tube, you can cut both intakes from a single body tube.

Cutting the intakes was easier than I thought it would be.
The intakes were cut with a sharp knife. Notice the intake back end (inset picture) wasn't rounded off, yet. For now it's easier to just follow the cut curve to a point.

The rounded end (final shape) was done with sharp scissors.

The intake edges were sanded down until the needle holes were gone.

Some 400 grit was wrapped around the BT-20 main air frame tube and lightly sanded to contour the edges for a better fit.







Here's the inside and outside of the intake top after contour sanding.
On the left you can see the edge isn't square but sanded at an angle to fit the curve of the body tube.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 7, Seam Fill, Primer and Kevlar

The body tube seams were filled with thinned CWF.
Even the exposed seam on the rear of the engine mount got filled.

Fill the BT-5 intake tube seams before cutting.

Everything got a shot of Filler / Primer and light sanding with 400 grit.
The small vane pieces were stuck back on the tape after sanding. These would be easy to lose.

The engine mount got a length of Kevlar tied and glued beneath the upper centering ring.
The outside of the upper centering ring was notched for the Kevlar. This prevents the main air frame body tube from bulging out.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 6, Gluing up Fins and Grain Fill

The wing halves, rudder and wing stabs are glued together.
Hold the pieces at 90 degrees on a sanding block to get some square gluing edges.







The rudder and forward strake are glued flat on a straight edge.

The wing halves are glued together.

The forward stabs and wing stabs are the same size and shape.







To apply CWF filler, the small vanes were stuck on some tape to hold them.
I didn't have to hold them, CWF was simply brushed over the sides and top.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 5, Clay Nose Weight

You are directed to cut off 1/4 of the clay pat.

The clay starts at .25 oz. With 1/4 removed it ended up at .19 oz.

Pretty close to the actual .1875 oz. it should be.

TIP: Instead of making long worms out of the clay, roll small balls out of the clay. 

It's easier dropping a few in and packing them down instead of chasing around a clay worm inside the nose cone.

Estes Lynx, Kit #7233, Build Part 4, Engine Mount

Here's how the vanes will fit with the centering ring dry fitted 7/16" from the rear.






The rear ring is notched for the engine hook.







I wouldn't cut them the way the instructions show.

Cut through the ring with it standing up.
With the ring laying flat, you have a bigger chance of cutting an angle, not straight down.

Here's how it looks with the 1/16" adjustment to the rear.
The forward centering ring is even with the end of the tube.
An engine block is glued in right above the upper bend of the engine hook.