Quest America Build, Part 2, Stickers & Finished

I made a Star placement template for consistent placement of the stickers.

These two Star stickers go on one side of the four fins.

The stickers are printed on clear plastic. Peel off the sticker, dip in water. Leave wet and set in place on the model. The wet adhesive allows lifting and re-positioning if needed. 

This red bar/name sticker is set between two fins and runs down the body tube.

A problem: The pre-cut band is wider than the area between the two fins!

Cut new vertical lines close to the red lines to fit the space.

See the finished side view picture below - 

 

This is a great looking rocket with clean graphics.

A patriotic 4F/NC model.

Here's the fin with the two sticker star placement.

And finally - The white nose cone to cap it off.

Quest America Build, Part 1, Paint

This won't be a full build. It's a basic model rocket, no intensive posts are needed. I'll be making some observations on how the rocket was finished.

I took the sticker sheet into Ace Hardware to match up the blue color to the available spray paints.

Here I'm removing the Scotch tape masks from the fin root edge / body tube joint.

Notice how the tape is being pulled - Back and folded over itself.

On the lower fin you can see the many pieces of tape used to round over the leading edge tip. 

Any "corners" can be rounded by pushing the paint back onto the blue fin. Note I said "push" the corners back. If the paint hasn't fully set-up, the blue paint should roll back and not effect the white underneath. Avoid scraping if you can. 

It's easier to do this when the paint hasn't fully cured. Don't wait a few days before cleaning up paint masks.

Light discoloration can be removed using a white eraser.

TIP: Don't use the pink eraser on the back end of a pencil!

A pink eraser is more abrasive and can leave pink stains.