Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 7, Die-Cut Balsa

The hold down tics on the die cut balsa sheet were pretty wide. You'll definitely need a sharp knife to separate the pieces off the sheet.

Here's the back of the sheet. You can't see the die cuts meaning the blades didn't go all the way through the sheet. It took a lot of work to cut and free the fin pieces.

With old-school die cuts, there will be some variance between the pieces.

You'll have to stack and gang sand them using a sanding block with 220 grit.

After sanding, the forward fin fairing tips ended up uneven.

Line up the backs and trim the front tips even.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 6, Shock Cord & Engine Mount Gluing

Here's the finished engine mount with the Kevlar line rolled up inside.

The Kevlar line is pulled out and tied to the elastic shock cord with a simple overhand knot.

Roll up the elastic and Kevlar and push into the motor mount tube before gluing the mount into the main airframe tube.

I used and old dowel to apply the glue into the main airframe tube before sliding the engine mount in.

Set the dowel beside the engine mount just below the upper centering ring. 

Mark the dowel at the end of the engine tube.

Apply a ring of glue around the top of the dowel. 

Insert the glued tipped dowel into the tube up to the pencil mark on the dowel. Roll the glue around the inside of the tube.

Quickly slide in the mount into the main airframe tube.

You can use the flat face of a sanding block to help press the mount tube ends even.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 5, Engine Mount & Kevlar

The Quest instructions use the engine block height to mark the slit cut line. 

Pencil mark and cut the 1/8" wide slot for the engine hook.

The instruction say to glue the two rings 1/2" from the top and bottom of the engine tube.

I don't think that offers enough flex of the engine hook when sliding in an engine.

I set the low centering ring 7/8" from the bottom.

Instead of 1/2" from the top of the tube - 

The upper ring was set over the upper bend of the engine hook, approximately 1/4 from the top of the tube.

I've pencil marked the ring to show how the ring is centered over the hook.

This strengthens the mount. 

The instructions have you tie a double overhand knot to secure the Kevlar under the upper ring. That thick knot might bulge the outer tube - not much room between the 20/50 rings and 1" diameter tube.

I rolled the Kevlar around the tube with the overhang tail twisted under the start of the line. The twisted Kevlar end is pushed into the glue fillet.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 4, Parts Prep & Centering Rings

The shoulder base was glued into the nose cone using Fabri-Tac glue.

This glue works great on simple plastic to plastic and plastic to body tube joints.

It is not recommended for delicate assemblies like a Mercury Redstone tower.

The Quest instructions offer a great TIP:.

For a better fit over the engine mount tube: Use the tapered nose cone to compress down the burrs and slightly widen the diameter of the centering rings

I'm replacing the thin yellow engine mount tube with an Odd'l Rockets heavy wall BT-20H. This will require a some  peeling of the inside layers of the centering rings to fit the  slightly wider diameter tube. 

It doesn't take much of a peel for a good sliding fit.

Odd'l Rockets BT-20H heavy wall tubes are only available through jonrocket.com. 

TIP: In the left pic: To prevent peeling, don't cut an engine hook recess slot on the diagonal inside seams. 

Right side pic: Start your notch on the other smooth side.

On the left: The engine hook notch is cut. I marked it with pencil to show up better in the picture.

On the opposite side of the engine hook notch, the upper ring gets a Kevlar notch made with a diamond file.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 3, Parts Prep

I always check the tube end cuts with the flat face of a sanding block.

The cut was off and took some square sanding with 220 grit on the sanding block.

The tube had a slight dent that would show up with paint applied.

I filled it with some thinned CWF and followed with 400 grit sanding.

There was some molding flash on the nose cone end plug.

This was trimmed and sanded off. 

 

The nose cone tip had some mold lines at the rounded tip.

On the left is the before - 

On the right is after sanding with 400 grit.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 2, Engine Mount Tube

I don't know why, but sometimes the Quest engine mount tubes are a little under the standard 2 3/4" length.

The yellow tubes work fine, but seem thin. This tube was starting to peel at the ends.

I switched out for an Odd'l Rockets heavy walled BT-20H tube cut to 2 3/4" long.

I was curious of the weight difference - 

The Quest tube weighed 4 hundredths of an ounce.

The slightly longer Odd'l heavy wall tube weighs 6 hundredths of an ounce.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Part 1, Parts

Above - 

All the parts that were still in the bag.

Seems I had thrown away the Quest engine hook. The Quest hooks aren't spring steel so I switched it our for a BMS engine hook with no finger tab.

The 3/32" thick balsa sheet is die-cut.

The yellow engine mount tube seems thin walled and is starting to peel.

The nose cone is an older MPC style with a very short shoulder.

The shiny strip on the right is all I could salvage from the stick on decals that peeled off the backing sheet. I'll have to re-draw and print some home made decals.

For whatever reason, I assembled the parachute.

This is an older, "crispy" Quest chute with the shroud lines tied to the Quest "gripper tabs". The tabs are very thick and make it difficult to pack the chute.

Quest Intruder Kit Bash, Background

You should be familiar with the Interceptor, the fiftieth kit produced by Estes. 

A fiftieth kit is a milestone and had to be special. It was! 

I remember first seeing it on the cover of the 1971 Estes catalog - CLICK HERE

Quest had their own version of the Interceptor - The Intruder!

The Estes Interceptor was larger, BT-55 based and had a new plastic  nose cone with canopy and detail pieces. The water slide decals sheets were big!

The Quest Intruder was smaller, with a 25mm body tube, close to a standard BT-50 diameter. The decals were peel and stick and followed some of the Interceptor red, white and blue decor. 

Originally I picked up two of the Quest Intruder kits. One was re-sold on Ebay. 

A few years back, I opened the remaining kit. The peel and stick decals were off the backing sheet, stuck to the instructions and  unusable.

I set the kit aside until a few days ago.

I'm going to "kit-bash" the model making it a look like an Interceptor downscale - sort of.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Finished

 

I can see this model as the perfect, personalized gift for a model rocket enthusiast.

At 22 1/4" tall and BT-60 based, it's tall and burly. A little like a Big Bertha with a twist.

A great model for small fields with a B6-4.

I cut the parachute to 12" diameter, I probably should have gone with a 15 or 18 inch.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 14, Decal & Parachute

The LETTER GO NAME is a water slide decal.

Before transferring, mark the center lightly with a pencil,

Then mark the center of the white span between the upper two black trim strips.

I set the decal at the pencil marks. I thought it was centered but got it wrong!

It was repositioned using a visual centering.

You are supplied with two LETTER GO decals. I used only one.

The elastic shock cord is tied to the Kevlar line.

The elastic is tied to the nose cone lug leaving a 8" tail. A small metal ring is attached at the end of that 8" tail.

The snap swivel (and parachute) is clipped to the metal ring.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 13, Black Tape Strip Trim

The kit supplies some pre-cut black vinyl trim strips.

When applied on the model the black and white paint pattern reminds me of the Wac Corporal.

The black trim is 1/4" tall. Get an idea of the spacing by setting the strip with 1/4" of the white showing.

The instructions wisely suggest wrapping a strip of paper around the tube for an alignment guide.

Don't peel all of the backing off initially - 

peel back an inch or so, apply and repeat.

Notice the pencil mark. That's the stop and start point directly over the launch lug. I started the strip with a slight overlap in mind so the left end is placed to the side of the pencil mark. 

With the rocket on the launcher and the launch rod in the back, any misalignment of the wrap won't be seen when taking pre-launch pictures.

Here's a better look of the alignment paper and the start (center) of the tape strip.

There is a third wrap strip at the top of the body tube.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 12, Fin Masking

According to the face card picture,

the fins will be white, the lower body tube black.

This was a fairly complicated mask, each fin was different.

First the marked Scotch tape lined the root edges.

Brown masking tape covered the rest of the fins.

Before spraying, reburnish the Scotch tape masking strip edges with a Q-tip.

If your root glue fillets were smooth the Scotch tape masks can give a very clean color separation.

I had a few small over sprays. Those were cleaned off with a damp[ magic sponge.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 11, Tube End Masking

I like to keep paint out of the tube ends. Paint can slow a smooth slide of an engine into the engine mount and a nose cone in the top of the body tube.

I rollup a piece of paper towel.

A painting wand is slid into the engine mount.

The paper towel is pushed into the recess below the centering ring.

Cut off the paper towel overlap and press in the end.

I use tweezers to get the paper towel into all the open areas.

On the open upper end with the nose cone removed - 

Some masking tape is rolled around the end of the tube.

Before pressing the tape in the tube,

Press the sticky side of the tape on your pant leg and pull off. This leaves some lint on the tape making it less sticky.

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 10, The Parachute

Gee, where have I seen this parachute design before?

I'd place the reinforcement disks towards the outside corner of the chute.

The printed placement disk outlines are pretty big.

A toothpick is supplied to punch holes in the plastic.

I like a cleaner assembly so I punch a round hole using the rotary punch.

Set some scrap cardstock under the chute plastic for a clean, round punch. 

The shroud line spool is pretty smart.

Hold the side (over the punched hole) with your thumb and index finger. 

As you pull the red shroud line with your right hand, the spool wobbles back and forth releasing the line. 

No tangles!

I actually enjoy assembling parachutes - 

Especially after I started using ling tweezers to tie the knots.

I use a simple square knot - not a "Granny".

Square knots will not come undone. If you don't know how to tie a square knot: CLICK HERE

New Way Letter - Go Build, Part 9, Fin Gluing

I applied wood glue to the root edge and to the sides of the TTW (thru-the-wall) fin tabs.

The name letters should read clockwise, to the right.

Note how the letters lean down, like a down swept fin.

I drew an arrow to show how the fin should intersect the centerline of the body tube. 

Here's all five fins viewed from the rear, spelling my first name.

I tried to fill the nose cone seams using medium CA glue and sanding to surface.

Well, the CA glue doesn't stick to this polystyrene plastic!

Filler/Primer and paint doesn't adhere to this plastic either.

Rough up the plastic surface before spray painting with color. 

The upper picture shows a painting "handle" using a wrap of copy paper.