Quest Striker AGM, Moot Point Fix

I didn't like the red, white and blue bands between the fins, they seemed thick.

Looking closer at the old Enertek catalog picture, I realized the red band was about half the thickness of the white and blue bands. Maybe this could help the look.

On the left is the before with all colors bands the same thickness.

On the right is a new thinner red band. I think it looks better with just a little space between the red and the upper fins. Maybe this is why the Enertek designer went with the narrower red band.
A moot point, this might explain why I'm single.

Quest Striker AGM Afterthoughts and Comparison

My old Quest Striker is on the top, the Enertek Astra 2000 decor is below.
I actually like the look of the Enertek model, except for the red, white and blue bands between the two sets of fins - a bit corny. Looking at the Enertek catalog page, the red band is about half the width with the blue and white bands wider. The older white rocket does look a bit taller and wider.
The aluminum trim raceways worked well, adds a subtle dimension.

It never occurred to me until now - The Quest Striker AGM profile also looks like the Estes Shark, the white rocket in the middle. The Shark was one of the Cold Power Convertibles from the mid 1970s.

I'm looking forward to launching the new Striker AGM at the NEFAR field with the new Quest-Jet C and D engines, as soon as I get some!

Quest Striker AGM, Finished

In the fin picture above I added a black line above the tail cone along the edge of the body tube.

There are concerns with the kit - fin root edge fit on the plastic tail cone, engine mount adjustments and plastic nose cone mold problems.

I didn't mention the Quest parachute. It was one of the yellow and red 14" chutes with the crispy plastic. The chute is six-sided and pre-cut but the cut was off. The printed design and pre-punched shroud line tie holes were way off. The parachute is still usable, it just doesn't look right.

I liked this design the first time around and didn't mind building a new second variant. I hope to have this one as part of the active flying fleet for some time.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 14, White Background Decal TIPS

Here's the blue decals set onto the white decal sheet.

Let thoroughly dry before cutting out using a new blade.

Cut through the top decal and the lower white decal sheet with the white backing still in place. These are cut dry.

I made a placement template by tracing around a fin and cutting out the decal position outline.

Soak both layers of decals, the white and blue overlay decal should slide off and stay together.

Here's the finished decals.
There is a slight white outline around the blue overlay where the cut wasn't perfect. No big deal, close enough for me.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 13, Aluminum and White Trim Bands TIPS

The UNITED STATES  and flag decals were set down the tube centered between two fins.

These were placed as if the rocket were sitting horizontally on a ground stand. One UNITED STATES decal reads up, on the other side it reads down.

The original Enertek design had raceway tunnels (long thin strakes) above the smaller, forward fins. In place of those I used some aluminum Trim Monokote.

More white decal material strips were cut for two horizontal bands. These were set over the vertical aluminum tunnels. After the white strips dried, they were trimmed with a razor blade and the center overlaps removed.

I could have done a white decal rectangle under the flag, but didn't on this one.

The blue fin decals will need a white background.

Cut out the decals right on the outside lines, no clear border.

These will be set on a white decal sheet to give them a white background.

Soak the trimmed blue decals and slide them onto the blank white decal sheet.
Don't let a lot of water get on the white decal sheet.

Let thoroughly dry before trimming. (See next blog post -)

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 12, Red, White & Blue Band Decals

This is going to be interesting.
I have some blue Trim Monokote, but no red and white. The three bands are cut to 3/8" wide.

TIP: To make a red band decal I sprayed gloss red paint on a white background decal sheet. This will transfer like a regular water slide decal. No clear coat is needed with a spray paint decal. Cut a paint decal with a very sharp knife to avoid any flaking.

The white band is just the white decal sheet into a strip. No gloss clear coat is needed. The white also transfers like a normal water slide, it just feels slimy. A clear coat would get rid of the slimy feel, but really isn't needed in this application.

A blue Trim Monokote band goes on first right on top of the paint mask line. To keep it out of view, the end overlap is in line with a fin on the back launch lug side.






I thought I might have to do a double layer of the white decal. Sometimes a single white decal layer is translucent over a darker color. On the light gray it looked okay.

The cut red spray paint decal followed.
Look to the right of the lower fin and you can see the overlaps. All three are in line and won't be seen when the rocket is on the launcher with the lug in back.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 11, Nose Cone Fix and Decals

I got a pretty smooth coat of red on the nose cone except for a little dust fuzz.
This is one of those times where the decal could cover up that area if the fuzz is gone. I can sand down the raised thread.

To keep control over the width of the sanded area, I wrapped some old 400 grit around a Q-tip. This re-used sandpaper is probably closer to 800 grit by now.

I sanded in a straight line keeping the sanded strip in a narrow rectangle.

These are the nose cone decals. The clear border outside the black print will cover and shine up any roughened finish.

Sometimes laying a decal over a color break mask makes things more interesting. This is close to how the Astra 2000 was shown in the Enertek catalog.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 10, Masking

This is a relatively easy mask.
The body is light gray, the nose cone is red. The lower body is dark gray.

I could have painted the nose cone an overall red but decided to mask off the low taper near the shoulder. It's a little tricky to get the Scotch tape mask in a straight line and takes a few tries to get it in line.

I probably should have did a white undercoat but figured the light gray underneath would be okay.
Here's the nose cone after the tape mask was pulled. I got a very clean mask line.

Right above the lower fins is another easy tube circumference mask.








I used the same Rust 2X Arctic Gray paint I used on the Dragon Ship 7 model. The darker gray looks better on this model.

Above this mask line will be red, white and blue bands like in the Enertek catalog picture.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 9, Paint Drying and Decal Draw

I hate humidity! If the paint would dry I would probably be finished with this one by now.

This lighter gray paint still feels sticky after two days. I don't want to risk spraying it too soon.

I drew up some decals to get the look of the Enertek Astra 2000.

Those blue "rocket" profile fin decals are a guess. It's hard to make out much detail in the online catalog pages.

The "SPACED NEEDLE" decals are for another project.



It's difficult to get the decals to the right size without placing them on the actual fin surface. A fin tracing was done and copied into Corel Draw. I did have to re-size them for a better visual balance.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 8, Gray Paint and Nose Cone Changes

On the left is the Winter Gray I used on the Dragon Ship 7 build. It turned out to be too dark.

I did find a lighter gray, the Rusto 2X Stone Gray. It's a satin finish, I might hit the model with a gloss clear coat so the decals will stick.






The gray color shown on the face card looks to be a medium gray. I've decided to go with the Enertek Astra 2000 decor, the design that inspired the Quest kit.






The raised hatches and antenna were sanded off to make the nose cone surface flat. This will get away from the Nike Smoke look. After sanding I will have to hit the nose cone with primer filler again.

That recess line that runs around the nose cone is filled with medium CA. Not thin CA, but medium, thicker CA glue.

Squeeze out a drop of CA glue onto some scrap cardboard. dip a toothpick into the drop of glue and let it dry. This prevents any more glue from soaking into the toothpick.
Dip the toothpick into the glue again so a drop is held on the toothpick tip. Run this drop into the recess line making a bead of glue that sits over the top surface of the nose cone.

It will take a few minutes, but let the CA glue bead completely dry.

On the right is that bead of CA sanded to surface. The recess line is completely filled. After another shot of filler/primer and sanding you shouldn't be able to find the line.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 7, Fin Gluing

The body tubes and fins got a shot of filler/primer and smooth sanding.

The root edge gluing areas were scraped with an old X-Acto blade for best adhesion. The troughs in the tail cone were also scraped to remove the filler/primer.

The question was asked earlier - How do you glue balsa fins onto a plastic tail cone?

On the left - the area that makes contact with the tail cone was marked with pencil. This area will get the Beacon Fari-Tac glue. The glue contains acetone that should give better adhesion where balsa contacts the plastic. The rest of the balsa root edges (above and below the gray pencil marks) will get wood glue. Above the pencil marking, the fin is against the body tube. Below the penciled area, the adhesive backed paper wrap adheres better to the balsa than bare plastic would.

I used my Odd'l Rockets FinTool to line up and hold the fins while the two different glues dried.









The smaller forward fins are glued on in line with the low fins.

A wrap of masking tape was used to line up the bottom corner of the trailing edge.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 6, Rounding The Fins Leading Edges

The fins are two piece assemblies. The forward strake hasn't been glued on yet.

The instructions don't mention rounding the fin edges, I didn't on the previous build. This time around I decided to round all the outside fin edges.

On the left is the forward strake and main fin with all edges square. To round all the edges you have to do a little extra work for a smooth round transition on the inside angle on the leading edge.

TIP: Sand the leading edge of the strake round before gluing it onto the larger main fin.

After the leading edge of the strake is rounded, glue it onto the larger main fin.

Now you can round the leading edge of the main fin, feathering the round corner into the already rounded edge of the strake.
A sanding block was used to start the rounded edge, from the main fin working up to the inside corner.

Here's how the round leading edges should blend with the rounded inside corner.









On two of the fins some dried glue made it difficult to sand into the corner. I wrapped some 400 grit around a Q-tip stick so light pressure could be applied for the sandpaper to "cut" into the corner.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 5, Fin Fitting

Every time my old Striker touched down, a fin would crack off the plastic tail cone. What glue will adhere to a balsa and plastic joint?

For the strongest root edge joint, the fit has got to be tight.
On this fin there are three different root edge angles that have to make contact.

The other problem is, there are four evenly spaced "troughs" in the plastic boat tail used for fin positioning. This leaves a hollow area under the middle of the root edge.

Here's how the fin fit when removed from the laser cut sheet. The two bottom edges "floated" above the tail cone.

That stepped ridge at the bottom of the body tube/adapter joint wasn't the same all the way around. I marked the fins 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each fin had to be individually fitted.

On the left is fin #1 after the root edge was trimmed and sanded to fit the complex root edge.

As explained earlier, strips of pressure sensitive paper were stuck around the front and rear shoulders for a better wood glue bond.

Quest Striker AGM Build, Part 4, Nose Cone Assembly

The fit of the nose cone halves isn't the best, the MPC molds are old.

To help the fit, I sanded the side that doesn't have the raised alignment posts.

I didn't apply plastic cement until after the sides were rubber banded and aligned.

The great thing about liquid plastic cement is you can apply it from the outside, right down the joint seam. The liquid glue doesn't distort or melt the plastic like the old tube cement could.

You might see some slight residue after the glue dries but it is easily sanded off.

I did try some old, dried up Squadron Putty, but even with acetone added it was still pretty crusty. That's the gray you see, left in the sanded joint.

I ended up using a bead of medium CA on any low areas. That was sanded to surface filling the gaps.