Anybody have a Quest Quadrunner painting mask?

I've been working on the Quest Quadrunner for about a month, and I'm nearly done. But tonight, I made a painting mistake, and I need to figure out how to fix it.

The Quadrunner comes with a paper painting mask with a curved top. You cut it out, place it on the rocket with temporary spray adhesive, and extend the lines to the base of the rocket with tape and masking paper. I was really careful getting it perfectly placed and centered, and I was really proud of the mask.









But when I laid down a thin coat of the white undercoat to seal the mask down, the paper pulled away from the rocket, breaking the mask. I think perhaps I used too little spray adhesive, or perhaps the Elmer's craft adhesive isn't very good. In any way, the mask is now taped to the rocket at the base, and the top has peeled away.





I'm really frustrated, because I'm nearly done, and I have a launch Saturday, and was looking forward to launching this thing. That may not happen now, but I'm not going to launch the rocket until it's finished - I'm too fussy with my rockets to do that.

So I need to let the paint dry a day or two, and re-mask. I might be able to salvage enough of the paper mask to re-apply it, but it might be tricky. I was wondering if anybody might have a PDF of this particular mask. I found the instructions online, but the mask seems to be a separate document, and I can't find it.

Thanks!

My bet is that some solvent from the paint caused it to release.

I'd be willing to cut a mask out of vinyl masking material; it's low-tack film that is designed for something like this. It looks to be 82.5mm wide; how long is it? No charge, just paying helpfulness forward.

Doug

That's odd, I looked all through my box, and didn't see a painting mask anywhere!

I guess you can add my name to the list of people asking for a PDF of the mask...

The_Lone_Beagle said:

That's odd, I looked all through my box, and didn't see a painting mask anywhere!

I guess you can add my name to the list of people asking for a PDF of the mask...

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Well, I did manage to get mine off intact. I'll see if I can scan it and save as a PDF, and post it here for you. Alternatively, if you bought it recently, you could contact the vendor and tell them it was missing. It's a key part of the build if you go with the suggested paint job - which I really wanted to do. It's my first mask that's not just a straight piece of tape, and I like the look of the rocket.

Mine was missing two of the four thrust rings. I could have returned it, but I didn't want to. And I'd just bought a bag of 20 thrust rings from JonRocket.com, so I just used a couple of those.

Guess some of the packaging people at Quest can get a little sloppy sometimes.

dcbertelsen said:

My bet is that some solvent from the paint caused it to release.

I'd be willing to cut a mask out of vinyl masking material; it's low-tack film that is designed for something like this. It looks to be 82.5mm wide; how long is it? No charge, just paying helpfulness forward.

Doug

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Thanks! That could be it, but it looks like it was really solidly attached except for the sides. I think I was just a little sloppy with applying the adhesive. I managed to get it off in one piece, and I'm going to try again tomorrow. But if that doesn't work, I'll be in touch with you!

dcbertelsen said:

My bet is that some solvent from the paint caused it to release.

I'd be willing to cut a mask out of vinyl masking material; it's low-tack film that is designed for something like this. It looks to be 82.5mm wide; how long is it? No charge, just paying helpfulness forward.

Doug

Click to expand...

lcorinth said:

Thanks! That could be it, but it looks like it was really solidly attached except for the sides. I think I was just a little sloppy with applying the adhesive. I managed to get it off in one piece, and I'm going to try again tomorrow. But if that doesn't work, I'll be in touch with you!

Click to expand...

Frisket film is the low tack stuff that you want. I found it at Hobby Lobby.

samb said:

Frisket film is the low tack stuff that you want. I found it at Hobby Lobby.

View attachment 249535

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I saw some of that stuff the other day, but I wasn't sure what it was for. I'll have to try it on my next build.

Clear low-tack masking material. You trace the paper Quadrunner mask onto the paper side of a sheet. Cut it out. Peel off the paper to expose the sticky side and lay it on the part to be painted. I'm sure you'll find all kinds of videos and how-tos on the web.

samb said:

Clear low-tack masking material. You trace the paper Quadrunner mask onto the paper side of a sheet. Cut it out. Peel off the paper to expose the sticky side and lay it on the part to be painted. I'm sure you'll find all kinds of videos and how-tos on the web.

Click to expand...

I got some and found it really useful for repairing my damaged paint job. I basically cut out a negative mask and repainted the exposed, damaged undercoat.

Didn't turn out perfect, but pretty well. With the decals on, you have to look really closely to see the flaws. I'm glad I was able to save this one. I nearly thought I'd ruined it!

Hi all

might I revive this one and ask again if someone got the masking template as pdf?
The approach via the masking film sounds promising but still makes me need the pdf template first.
With my earlier version of the kit the template was sadly not included.