This should be fun! Here's another kit that shows what can be accomplished using laser cut balsa. "Quin" is for the five point star saucer. No nose cone on this one and it's much larger than the Blenders. The Blenders use 13mm engines, the Quinstar is made for 18mm engines, the B6-0 and C6-0. The ...
The instructions have you make the engine mount first. I'm going to wait as there will be some changes to adapt it for both 18mm and 24mm flights. I'm not going to fill all the balsa, that could make an already draggy model too heavy. I decided to fill just the flat surfaces you will see looking ...
I usually sand off some of the burnt laser cut edges. Don't take off too much, the fit of the parts might end up too loose. When the center pieces are removed, there are many hold down "ticks" left along the sides. It takes a while (there are a LOT of cut-outs) but they can be smoothed off. Some ...
Look close at the picture to the right. Where the outside ends cross, the holes on the outside (far right) should be small and larger. If you have two outside holes the same size, it is assembled incorrectly. Try a dry fit first, no glue should be used until you are sure of the assembly. Pieces 1 ...
Be ready, the balsa is thin! If it breaks, just glue back together with some CA. Here's all the punched out girder pieces. There are a lot of them. They are probably too small to be re-used. Two different forum posts mention errors made when gluing together the wide center "cage" pieces. It's a ...
Flip over the cage so it can be pressed down and even on the tabletop. Before adding glue, the BT-50 was slid into the center cavity so the pentagon shape would be even. One of the centering rings was slid into the compressed BT-50 to keep it round. A line of glue was applied and smoothed with ...
There's FREE internet in Curacao, so today - A build post!
The star points are glued next. You probably could sand an angle so they fit without a separation line. That would shorten the width and require larger ones to be cut out. The angled spin tab flats glue to the outside. The structure ...
It's a blog post day - Free internet at the Starbuck's in Arruba! One of the "L" pieces has a hole in it for the launch lug to slide through. Apply a line of glue and slide the lug into place. Be sure that glue doesn't get into the lug. The 24mm mount is actually pretty simple. Glue a 20/50 ...
The 24mm BT-50 tube and ring are glued into the center hole of the cage. Glue was dripped down the side walls and the tube slipped into place with the centering ring (engine block) at the top. Glue together the 18mm mount as shown in the instructions but the top 20/50 ring is left off. That ring ...
The assembled model was hit with a light coat of gloss white. I wanted to use Rusto Red Metallic. It's a bit transparent and would need the white underneath it. I thought I might get by with Titebond M&TG fillets on just the upper part of the model. But, the bottom areas really showed the open ...
This was a fun build and turned out better than I thought it would. With just the flat, upward facing pieces filled and smooth the model looks good. The 24mm engine conversion was easy to do. Will it survive the boost or reach the S peed O f B alsa? Who knows. It'll be flown with 18mm engines ...
