Upscale Quinstar build(s)

[neil_w]

Painted today. Two coats of white primer, followed by two coats of Rustoleum blue metallic. Sooooo much fun trying to get the paint into all the nooks and crannies. Have one spot on top where there is an obvious run, but overall I think it looks good. Now I gotta work on some decals.

[les]

Looks good - nice blue

[Charles_McG]

Time to light it up!

[neil_w]

Well, once the paint dries it's ready. We'll see if I can get vinyl on it before my next launch.

[Cabernut]

That is now one of my favorite colors! Nice! Blue metallic huh... I'll have to try that one of these days.

[neil_w]

I had the can left over from my Solar Warrior... it is a really nice color indeed.

[Lowpuller]

Same color as mine, but yours looks bluer from the sun.

[TangoJuliet]

Ooh, pertty!

[neil_w]

Here's something.

[neil_w]

And here it is, all gussied up:

I took inspiration from the original Estes design, but just tweaked it a bit for the sake of being different. Then I chose the holographic vinyl, also just because I wanted to try it. Not totally sure it was the right choice here, but it is interesting. It's incredibly hard to photograph.

And now all that is left is a bit of Future and it is done. Weather permitting, it'll fly in July at BARC.

[BABAR]

Will the future dull the holograms?

[neil_w]

I wouldn't think so, but I'll inquire.

[Charles_McG]

Shiny!

[neil_w]

Shiny!

Indeed. This was probably not the best application for it, but as I said I was curious to try it. It should look nice out in the sunshine, provided that we ever actually see the sun around here ever again.

[Charles_McG]

It was a compliment- as in "Everything's Bright and Shiny, Cap'n."

(I'm an unrequited Browncoat)

Still needs to fly.

[neil_w]

It was a compliment- as in "Everything's Bright and Shiny, Cap'n."

Yup yup, no worries.

Still needs to fly.

Yes!

I'm thinking it'll go up just fine, wondering mostly about the down part, and how hard the landing will be.... Mine should come down softer than yours (lighter) but yours is *way* stronger (plywood)... we'll see!

[LW Bercini]

Interesting coincidence:

[neil_w]

Finally got this thing into the air yesterday at the BARC launch.

Look! I haz a rocket!


And a nice blurry picture to prove that it actually did go up. That's an F15-0 in there (my first F, woohoo)


Overall it flew fine, remarkably similar (shocking) to the regular Quinstar but, uh, bigger. I don't think it went as high as the regular Quinstar on a "D", but that's fine. It did get a nice amount of spin going at apogee, and then it fell straight down without flipping over (same both times).

Landing was no problem. It landed on the retainer on soft grass. Overall it seems plenty strong and I have little doubt this thing could take a G.

First time I launched it off a 1/4" rod, but the second time that one wasn't out so I just put it on a 4 foot long 3/16" rod and that was fine.

While I was loading it up someone called out "hey, is that an upscale Quinstar" and came running over to look at it before it launched.

Success!

[Charles_McG]

Hurray!

[neil_w]

Someone took a video...


I don't think you can quite see the spin at the top of flight, although you can see it spinning on the way down. Charles, does that look significantly higher or lower than your flight, as far as you can tell? I'm guessing similar.

[Charles_McG]

I think a little lower. I just looked back at a G80 flight. 2 sec burn, 1 sec coast, 7 sec fall.

Yours was a 3 sec burn, no coast, and a 4+ sec fall.

So I think a bit lower, bot not a lot lower.