Boosterdude
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2009
- Messages
- 1,664
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Without a doubt the Stiletto is one of the cooler rocket designs I've seen in a while. All the parts in the kit were very nice quality upon first inspection.
One thing I noticed with this design is that I would build and finish it in two modular pieces. For me, it's just tough to sand, and get a good finish on the Stiletto when it's one piece. So the main BT would be finished with the tail and rudders installed. The intake with the wing attached would be finished separately and attached to the BT.
Nothing really particularly hard about building this model, but a few tricky parts do exist. Cutting the intake BT at the angle is a little tough, but with patience it works out.
So far the issues that I've run into are as follows, all fairly minor:
1. The laser cut balsa pieces for the wings are not the same size. Meaning the left wing doesn't match the right. So you have to trim the larger wing to match the smaller.
2. The template for cutting the intake is a little small so it doesn't wrap around the BT. However, it still gets the job done.
3. The fuselage marking guide that is supplied is way to small to wrap around the BT. You need to blow it up to 140%, I think that's what I did.
4. The supplied nose cone is the Quest Nike cone. It takes some work to get it to fit together to close the seam gaps.
5. The supplied decals only provide two star and bars when the supplied artwork shows four.
6. The biggest problem for me is the instructions show the launch lug glued right on on top of the wing. Why go through all the trouble of designing such a cool rocket, and screw it up by mounting the lug on top of the wing center section? I'm going to move that between the intake an the fuse so it's hidden.
I'll post some pictures shortly.
One thing I noticed with this design is that I would build and finish it in two modular pieces. For me, it's just tough to sand, and get a good finish on the Stiletto when it's one piece. So the main BT would be finished with the tail and rudders installed. The intake with the wing attached would be finished separately and attached to the BT.
Nothing really particularly hard about building this model, but a few tricky parts do exist. Cutting the intake BT at the angle is a little tough, but with patience it works out.
So far the issues that I've run into are as follows, all fairly minor:
1. The laser cut balsa pieces for the wings are not the same size. Meaning the left wing doesn't match the right. So you have to trim the larger wing to match the smaller.
2. The template for cutting the intake is a little small so it doesn't wrap around the BT. However, it still gets the job done.
3. The fuselage marking guide that is supplied is way to small to wrap around the BT. You need to blow it up to 140%, I think that's what I did.
4. The supplied nose cone is the Quest Nike cone. It takes some work to get it to fit together to close the seam gaps.
5. The supplied decals only provide two star and bars when the supplied artwork shows four.
6. The biggest problem for me is the instructions show the launch lug glued right on on top of the wing. Why go through all the trouble of designing such a cool rocket, and screw it up by mounting the lug on top of the wing center section? I'm going to move that between the intake an the fuse so it's hidden.
I'll post some pictures shortly.
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