Brief:
This kit is a beautiful upscale and upgrade to the Estes classic Starship Vega. Magnificently engineered and loaded with top-quality components and features, this rocket would be a great addition to any BAR's fleet. From what I can tell, upgrades to the original design include nose cones on the wing pods/landing gear, a fully functional set of shock absorbers in the landing gear, and a very impressive motor mount/thru-wall fin mounting. It's also up-scaled to a BT-60 tube and 24mm motor.

Construction:
As I opened this kit, I immediately noticed the hand-checked parts list on the outside of the bag header card. Nice touch, and not surprisingly the parts were complete and in good shape. The decal pack was missing one decal, which the staff at QModeling caught before I noticed it, and a replacement was already in the mail before I contacted them. Now THAT's customer service.

The parts list for this kit is fairly extensive due to the fully functional landing gear assembly. Parts were top-notch quality, with fins and rings all laser-cut. The body tubes are white paper/cardboard with very light spirals. Mine had a slight dimple from tight packaging, but was easily repaired. The motor mount tube is foil-lined, something I've rarely seen in commercial kits for the modroc crowd.

One nice touch to the parts assortment is that they were bagged in modular fashion, so rather than sort through dozens of small parts in the early stages of construction, you simply find the bag for the sub-assembly you're working on, and pull out the bag which contains all the parts for that assembly.

Throughout the construction of this kit, I kept getting the feeling that this is what happens when guys with access to high-tech manufacturing equipment and an interest in rocketry get too much idle time. Everything about this kit is precisely engineered and fits perfectly. This kit is loaded with great design features to make it fly well and last forever. I'd rate it somewhere between a 2 and 3 on the difficulty scale, leaning towards a 3 based on the intricacy of the landing gear and motor mount as well as the through-wall fins.

The 18-page instruction manual is very well written and illustrated, and filled with plenty of construction tips and 'whys'. Construction begins with the motor mount assembly, which is a 24mm tube framed by balsa. The design is similar to the Estes E2X-series plastic frames, but with the supports cut into the balsa, I suspect this is both lighter and stronger. The 6 balsa braces fit snugly around 4 centering rings. Parts were perfectly dimensioned, and I had very little sanding for the fit. The intricate laser work on the balsa was just amazing!

The landing gear assembly consists of three BT-20 tubes with mini piston assemblies and springs, acting as shock absorbers. This is a terrific upgrade to the Estes design. This is a heavy-duty kit, and not likely to suffer damage under a normal descent, but the shocks are a cool touch. As evidence of the level to which this kit has been engineered, the 'feet' of the landing gear are two small wooden disks, one smaller than the other, with the larger one having a laser-engraved centering line to properly locate the smaller one. The landing gear is topped off with resin-cast nose cones, offering a much better appearance than the original Estes open-tube design.

The fins are pre-cut for mounting the pod/landing gear, and I was very surprised by how well these fit. On my kit, I had to sand the rougher edges a bit, and had a small amount of area at the point of the cone to fill with paste, but the finished product looks as though the cones and tube were cast directly with the fin. I did find aligning the tubes to be a bit of a challenge, and would have loved to see a template or alignment pattern, but eyeballing can still work fairly well.

Before bonding the fins, I like to fill spirals on the body tube, and that helps on this kit, as there are a total of (6) fins at the aft end of the rocket, making sanding in that area a bit tricky. After filling and sanding the spirals, I mounted the motor mount and bonded the through-the-wall fins. The fin tabs were a bit too long (the first part of this that actually needed any work for a perfect fit), but once trimmed they fit very well in the slots in the balsa framework inside.

The nose cone 'assembly' is completed by inserting a plug and crew eye into a resin-cast cone. There was only a slight trace of a parting line on the cone, requiring a scrape or two with a razor blade to remove the flashing.

If there is a weak spot to this kit, I'd have to say it's in the recovery system. The kit comes with a very nice 24" mylar parachute (mine was gold), but only 6 shroud lines of 18" length. Optimal shroud lines for this size chute would be (8) 24-36" lines. The shock cord was 24 inches of ¼" elastic using an Estes-style paper tri-fold mount. Given that this rocket is over 30" tall, I substituted 48 inches of ¼" elastic tied to 120-pound Kevlar® line and used an epoxy clay mount.

Finishing:
Finishing this rocket requires a little bit of care and effort due to the amount of decals supplied. The foundation is a basic all-white finish applied over a couple coats of primer. The decals were mostly water-slide, and seemed to be much more durable than the common decals I've seen almost everywhere else. These need to soak a little longer, but when they went on they really stuck. The kit also comes with a metallic silver decal with black lines printed on it, though on mine the black stripes flaked off almost immediately, so I had to touch up with a black marker. I topped everything off with a Krylon gloss coat.

Construction Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Flight:
The only reference to motor selection for this was a comment to follow NAR code, and select a D or E engine. With such large fins and weighing a little over 10 ounces, I decided to use an E9-6 for the first flight. The rocket went up on a very slow, perfectly straight path, and watching the flame of the slow-burning E9 was impressive. The 6-second delay proved to be too late, as deployment was past apogee, resulting in a tangled chute (maybe I should have stuck with their shorter shock cord!). Even with the tangled chute and a fairly rough landing, the rocket was undamaged and ready for another flight. For its next launch, I think I'm going to have to upgrade to an F, as this is rugged enough to handle the higher thrust curves.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
QModeling's mission is to bring back the classics (there's a poll on at www.qmodeling.com for which one to do next), and based on this I'd have to say they're off to a great start. This is a great-looking rocket that will handle lots of flights, and while sticking close to the original Estes design, they've truly enhanced it with superior engineering and quality components.

Overall Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Brief:
QModeling of Temecula, CA has put together a great looking upscale remake of the old Estes Vega rocket. The kit has always been one of the more interesting looking "retro" rockets put in to flight and QModeling has done a fine job with this kit. She is a single stage, single motor, parachute recovered (with real spring loaded landing pods as part of the fins) model made of paper tubes, 8.0 oz light balsa, aircraft plywood, hardboard, and two part liquid plastic nose cones.

Construction:
I purchased two of these kits with the intention of doing a "by the book" kit as well as taking the second kits’ motor mount up to 29mm from the standard designed 24mm. The kits arrived a few days after I ordered them (good service on the part of QModeling). Each kit was in its own triangular mailer. One kit looked great. The other looked as if the postal system tried (and to some degree succeeded) in snapping the container in half. I inspected both kits and discovered that only the main body tube of one of the kits was bent and unusable. I contacted Tom Quinn and he promptly sent out another tube in the mail (again, great customer service).

Laying out the pieces (see Figure 1), I read through the instructions in the 18-page documentation included for construction and finishing. Each of the steps was clear and referenced a diagram showing the overall concept to be accomplished in the step. After reading, I saw only one section that I wanted to change: the shock cord (more on this later). I weighed out each of the dry components, totaling 261 grams dry weight & unassembled.

One of the things I noticed on the package was the absence of motors to use. It declared "D and E" motors but not the specifics of what to use. To answer this for me I went to RockSIM and attempted to figure out the answer for myself. Now I'm not a genius at RockSim so I fudged a bit when it came to the landing pods on the fins. I compensated for them by adding the mass of the pods to the overall weight of the fins themselves. I know that this won't compensate for the obvious draggy pods, but at least I could get it in the ballpark. It suggested that a D12-3 & an E9-4 would do well in Estes motors and 4 to 6 second delays in various Aerotech loads. My father always told me to "KISS" my first launches so I planned on the D12-3 for a first flight.

Major assembly is broken in to three sections. First was the assembly of the engine mount. For a low power rocket the design of a fin can that surrounds the motor mount tube isn’t original, but I admit that I've never seen it done with balsa before in a kit. The six plates that fit together to form the fin can were a good fit and went together quickly. No sanding or anything was required as the laser cut balsa was an exact fit. Figure 2 shows the completed motor mount as well as the parts used to construct it. The thrust/centering rings were of paperboard. The rear ring was bonded to the fin can and I had no worries about that one. The forward ring I had plans for. An issue I have with this kit is the shock cord attachment done in the third section. It was done Estes style with the usual too short shock cord and paper attachment style. I dug out some Kevlar® line and some epoxy clay. Drilling a small hole in the forward ring and threaded the line through it (fig 3) and then epoxied this in place with the clay (fig 4 & 5). With that in place I felt that the shock cord would now survive many more flights. Interestingly enough the diagram in step 10 references a "Shock Cord attachment hole" that doesn't exist and isn’t mentioned in the text. CA was used for tacking the fin can together and white glue for all portions after that for extra strength.

The remaining assembly of the motor mount/fin can was very straight forward (fig 6). Setting this aside I began on the major fins, which contain the landing pods.

Again the pods were easy to assemble and presented no difficulties to complete (fig 7). I would note however that the instructions call for light sanding on the pod nose cones, whereas I felt they should be sanded more soundly since they are part of the bonding point between the pods and the fin itself and I wanted good adhesion. Attaching the completed pods to the fins was interesting, but lining up the mold lines on the cones to pass straight through the center of the balsa fin didn't prove too challenging (fig 8). Inspecting the top of the nose cone on both sides of the fin to make sure spacing was even assured me a good, clean fit.

The final section deals with attaching the fin assembly and other loose fins to the body tube. Here the fin can did well. With the laser cut body tube and the fin can, there was little room for the fin sub-assembly to even move around. Squaring these up to be aligned properly was a non-event as they had little play to begin with. The remaining fins all attached easily using CA. I had some reservation about using CA to attach fins like this but after thinking about it, the fins are all non-load bearing and would never take the impact of a landing. Therefore, all they had to survive was boost and parachute deployment and I felt comfortable with that. All fins were filleted with wood glue so the chance of them tearing loose was minimal (even for the F impulses I planned to put this kit through).

The nose cone of the kit is a custom piece made by QModeling. It was very heavy and definitely was needed to offset the massive weight of the fins. The instructions call for using a hobby knife to trim with but I found the material tended to crack more than cut so I used a dremel with a cut wheel instead (fig 9). Then used a sanding block to make it look good and provide some minimal beveling to allow it to enter the body tube more easily.

After attaching the shock cord to my Kevlar® leader line it was only a matter of attaching the parachute and nose cone to complete construction.

PRO's: Easy, fast construction using CA and wood glue for strength where needed. Very nice components to work with.

CON's: Cardboard centering rings. Poor shock cord attachment style. Image in diagram 10 references a hole that doesn't exist.

Finishing:
Here again the direction are straight forward and easy to follow. If you've never completed a rocket before, the instructions lead you through each step in the process offering suggestions on how to achieve a fine looking rocket.

I do have two complaints for the instructions though. The first is the fin alignment template is on page 16 of the instructions. On page 15 (the shared piece of paper with 16) are the decal placement instructions. If you followed directions and cut out page 16, you lost 2 of 3 sides of your decal placement. Either you have to take a photocopy of page 15 before you cut out 16, or after cutting it out you have to tape it back in place so you can use it later. The second complaint would be the decal instructions. Since this isn’t my first rocket I knew better, but the instruction indicate that you have to soak all the decals and then apply them. One of the "decals" is really a sticker and the instructions never talk about it so the beginner would assume that it is simply one more decal that needs to be soaked and then applied--which is certainly not the case!

To get the nice looking finish I wanted, I shot three coats of primer and then three coats of white. Laid out the decals as the directions indicated. Then shot three coats of clear over the top of it all. I did mask of the silver sticker though as clear over it would have ruined its shine (fig 10 & 11).

PRO's: With the overall rocket being white and the quality decals, how can it not look GREAT!

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Flight day came (a 5-10 mph day in very DRY Wisconsin) and I set up with the D12-3 along with a spacer at the top of it, as the tube is designed to handle the longer E9s as well. I set up my ¼ inch 6-foot rod on a very parched baseball field. With the motor in place I put in "dog barf" as the wadding and loaded the 24-inch Mylar parachute after fluffing it. Put in an igniter and loaded it on the pad. Boost was great (fig 12)! Slow and majestic. Three seconds was just right on the delay and the chute deployed softly and the rocket came back very nicely. Altitude was about 400 feet. You can see from figure 13 that the rocket was angled back at about 25 degrees from vertical. It was at landing that catastrophe struck. The angle of attack caused a single pod to strike the ground first at about a 25 degree angle. The paper tube that holds the spring in place burst apart at one of the spiral seams, pushing the pod towards the engine. This caused the two remaining pods to strike the ground with a force from the inside out (which it isn’t designed to withstand) shearing them off. In Figure 14 you can see damage done to the rocket. Looking back at Figure 13, I think that the parachute never really opened up the way it should have (shroud lines too short or needs a bigger chute?) and the rocket came in a little hot. Add the hard landing surface and the angle of attack to that. Back at the house I rebuilt the Vega and used epoxy clay around all of the pod contact areas. This reinforced the whole fin while sacrificing only a modest amount of weight. Returning to the field a couple of weeks later with no wind, I launched right away with a F21. What a scream of a flight! Backed off to an E18 and still was a magnificent flight.

Con's: Don't fly this in any wind. If it comes in at an angle, it lands hard.

Pro's: Stable in flight. Looks awesome landing on the spring loaded pods (in no wind).

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
I feel that I purchased a good kit. It had some shortcomings with the shock cord attachment method and the mylar parachute. For those flying in even modest winds I would say to bump up the parachute size and strengthen the fin pod filets with epoxy clay instead. Now having said this I can report that QModeling has already taken care of the shock cord and parachute issues and has even gone so far as to add a Nomex® heat shield to the basic kit offering. With these improvements I believe that this is now a GREAT kit.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Brief:

The MRS-Vega is part of Q Modeling's Mega Retro Series. The series comprises upscale semi-clones of some classic designs, that also includes the Mars Snooper, NikeX & WACC. I say semi-clones, because the kits have been rescaled and designed from scratch using new parts and the latest techniques. The Vega is described as an upscale of the original Estes Starship Vega, rather than a clone of the larger, and later, Estes Super Vega, and builds to an impressive 820mm tall rocket.

I was supplied with this kit by Deepsky Rocket Shop, on the proviso that I write a review for their spanking new web site, an offer which I found far too good to refuse. If you haven't checked out Deepsky's new web site yet, I strongly suggest you do. It not only has a large range of kits and materials, but also tips, recommendations, customer reviews and a great online ordering system.

Construction:

The kit includes:-

• 1 x Main Nose cone - cast resin
• 1 x Main Nose Cone Plug - laser cut basswood
• 1 x Eye Hook
• 1 x Main Body Tube
• 3 x Upper Fins - laser cut balsa
• 3 x Primary Fins - laser cut balsa
• 3 x Secondary Fins- laser cut balsa
• 2 x Launch Lugs - these must be cut from a single piece
• 1 x Engine Hook
• 1 x Motor Mount - foil lined
• 1 x Rear Centring Ring - laser cut basswood
• 1 x Thrust Ring
• 4 x Hex Rings - laser cut balsa
• 3 x Support Brace - laser cut balsa
• 3 x Fin Brace - laser cut balsa
• 1 x Forward Centering Ring - laser cut basswood
• 3 x Landing Gear Pad - laser cut basswood
• 3 x Landing Gear Centering Pad - laser cut basswood
• 3 x Landing Gear Tube
• 3 x Landing Gear Shaft - need to be cut from a single length of dowel
• 9 x Landing Gear Centering Ring - laser cut basswood
• 16 x Water-Slide Decals
• 1 x Stick-On Decal
• 1 x Snap Swivel
• 1 x Heat Shield - Nomex
• 1 x Parachute - pre assembled nylon
• 1 x Shock Cord - Kevlar
• 1 x Small Spider

Yes, that's right, a spider. It was dead when I opened the bag, but had been very much alive when I first received the kit. I was quite relieved when I found it dead, since I didn't know whether it had jumped aboard at Deepsky or Q Modeling, and I'm not sure what kinds of spiders they have in California!

The 18 page instruction manual for this kit is of the highest quality. The build is broken down into major sections, Nose Cone Preparation, Engine Mount Assembly & Installation, Landing Gear / Primary Fin Assembly, Final Assembly, Making a D-Engine Spacer, and Finishing. Each section has an estimated time for completion, though I can't comment on their accuracy, as I was simultaneously working in had two or three kits.

Each major section is further broken down into a number of steps. For each of these steps, there is a detailed diagram and textual description. I dare say that you could build exclusively from either the pictures or text alone! There is even a comprehensive pre-launch check list. The instruction manual is labelled Version 7, so it looks like Q Modeling issue revisions from time to time. The the latest version of the instructions is available for download, in Adobe Portable Document Format, from the Q Modeling web site, so it's worth checking to see if there have been any updates, before you begin. Nose Cone Preparation

As previously mentioned, the nose cones appear to be cast from some kind of resin. There are a few mould lines but, being resin, they are very easy to sand out. There is a little excess resin on the shoulder of the cones, left over from the casting. The instructions suggest removing this excess with a modeling knife or razor saw, but it's quite thick and I found it easier to accomplish with a razor saw.

Engine Mount Assembly & Installation

Initially I was puzzled by the motor mount, as it seemed unnecessarily elaborate. It was only really when I came to build it that I realized it was an innovative solution to the perennial problem of fin alignment. The result is an interlocking construction forming rigid slots into which the fins may be inserted. The rigidity and alignment of these slots ensure perfectly-aligned fins every time. A triumph of design and laser cutting!

Landing Gear / Primary Fin Assembly

For me, this was the most interesting part of the build, the spring-loaded feet are really cool. Given the attention to detail shown in the rest of the parts, it's strange that the three landing gear shafts are provided as a single piece that must be cut to

length. I'm not really complaining though, it would feel odd to build the whole kit and not to have to cut something out!

You have to be a bit careful with the assembly of the landing gear. It's important that the glue doesn't stray onto the moving parts, otherwise the Vega would be in for some hard landings! As always though, the instructions are very clear and straightforward, so no-one should have any trouble.

There are only really two additions I would make to the instructions. The first is to suggest filling the gaps around the landing gear nose cones with light weight filler, rather then the suggested wood glue. The wood glue shrinks as it dries and doesn't really do a good job of filling what is quite a deep gap.

The other suggestion I would make is to paint the landing gear shafts before assembly. The reason being that the additional thickness of the paint can interfere with the movement. The landing gear on my kit was very free moving before painting, but sticks a bit now that the paint is on. I'll probably sand them down and repaint before flying again, but it's going to be a fiddly job.

To be fair, the instructions do mention to take care during painting and not to gum up the landing legs, but it's hard to apply paint and not build up additional thickness.

As previously described, the alignment of the main fins is due to the novel motor mount. You really can't go wrong. The other fins are surface mounted, but because of the thickness of the fins, this is easily accomplished. The instructions suggest mounting them with CA and then adding wood glue fillets, and this worked very well.

Making a D-Engine Spacer

A curious omission really. It wouldn't have added much to the cost to include this in the kit. But, as suggested, it's easy enough to make from a spent motor casing.

Finishing

I used Halfords high-build primer on the main fins. This helps to fill the grain, and smooth out any imperfections in the filler around the landing gear pods. Once dried and sanded I coated the entire rocket with ordinary white primer to create a consistent base coat. A little more light sanding and then two coats of Halfords Diamond White was applied.

The provided water slide decals are very good. Really quite thin, but not thin enough to be easily broken. They do have a slight tendency to stretch though, possibly die to the large size. So you need to take care, particularly when applying the large decals to the fins. One of the decals is of the self adhesive kinds. I don't normally like self adhesive decals, as they are usually thick and curl up at the edges. This one is relatively thin, however, and it's difficult to see how else the metallic finish could have been achieved. You do have to be a bit careful though The black pattern on mine has smudges in one area. Not quite sure what I might have had on my fingers to achieve that!

A final coat of Halfords lacquer was applied to help seal the decals and protect from the inevitable finger and scuff marks.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight

As mentioned above, there is a pre launch check list included in the instruction manual. Obviously most of us won't need that, but it's a great introduction for any newcomers to the hobby. Once the Vega had been painted, I test-flew it at the WRS launch on 10th April 2004. I had wanted to wait until the decals had been applied, but I ran out of time. The weather conditions at the launch were almost ideal for a first flight, as there was very little in the way of wind, just a gentle breeze.

The recommended motors are Estes D12-3 and E9-4, but I see no reason why single use or RMS AP motors, with suitable delay, could not be substituted. For the first flight, I chose to stick with Estes. The boost was really straight, with deployment at apogee. The descent was really quite gentle and stable. If it hadn't landed in a ploughed field, it might have stayed upright on its feet.

Flight Rating: 4 ½ out of 5

Q Modeling can't be faulted for this kit. It's an excellent interpretation of a classic design and builds into an impressive rocket. At £46.95, the Vega can't be described as cheap, but very few corners have been cut here. The combination of top quality components, innovative design and comprehensive instruction manual, means that even a novice should have no trouble building and flying this kit.

Overall Rating: 4½ out of 5

Brief:
Upscale of an Estes vintage exotic kit.

Construction:
2 17" cardboard body tubes, 3 cardboard tubes for landing leg pods, steel springs for the shock-absorbing landing legs, high-quality, laser-cut balsa fins and motor mount "exoskeleton," reflective, heat-resistant coating inside 24 mm motor mount, steel engine retaining hook (long enough for a BP E-motor), resin main nose cone and landing leg pod nose cones, laser-cut balsa centering rings and nose cone screw-eye attachment, Kevlar® shock cord, nylon parachute, snap swivel, chute protector, water-slide decals, reflective peel-and-stick decal.

When I pulled the instructions out of the bag, I was intimidated! They consisted of a many-paged, stapled booklet of legal-sized pages. However, the instructions were very clear. The assembly instructions were broken-down into very small steps, each well-illustrated, which explains why the instructions were so long. Frankly, I greatly prefer to be walked-through a construction process with such detail, especially when it comes to a model as complicated as this one. The order of the steps was logical. I wouldn't change a thing about them.

Much has been said in other reviews about the unique motor mount/fin interface. In my case, the pieces for the MMT-exoskeleton fit together like a precision jigsaw puzzle. The illustrations clearly showed the up-down orientation of the pieces, but they only fit together in one way anyway, which made it "idiot-proof." After the fins were attached to the MMT, and the assembly was slid into the body tube, I noticed that there was a little bit of play to the fins; i.e., if I rotated the MMT, the fins would skew a bit from perfect 120 degree angles. In all honesty, if that play had not existed, it probably would have been impossible to insert the MMT. After applying glue, and sliding the assembly in, I rotated the MMT until the fins appeared to be perpendicular to the body tube, at least to "eyeball" standards. It was nice to not have to brace the main fins while the glue was drying. BTW, the shock cord attaches to the MMT exoskeleton.

Speaking of glue, I used white wood glue throughout the build, except for CA gel to glue the screw-eye bulkhead to the nose cone, as well as to glue the landing leg pod nose cones to the cardboard spring housings. I used the double-glue method to attach the auxiliary fins, lining them up by eyesight with the main fins, and using long strips of green masking tape to hold them in place while the glue set. Thin fillets of white glue were applied to the fins and to the launch lugs.

Finishing:
I taped off the shoulder of the nose cone, and the landing legs (to prevent paint from getting into the "springy" works of the landing leg pods). I hit the whole model with an initial coat of Kilz primer. After sanding with 380 grit, there was just a little bit of balsa grain visible, so I applied a second coat. Unfortunately, the Kilz did something at that point which it has never done before, in that it left tiny bubbles on one side of one main fin, as well as on all of the auxiliary fins. The bubbles quickly popped, of course, leaving pits in the finish. Sanding did not remove the pits (well, I could have sanded down to bare wood, but considering the amount of "lumber" on this model, that quickly exhausted me!). I tried another coat of Kilz, but the problem grew worse. I mitigated the problem by applying a couple of coats of white glue, using cardstock to scrape the glue into a smooth film, then lightly sanded. I applied two more coats of Krylon glossy white, sanding between coats. The pits in the fins were much better, although still visible up close. I gambled that the application of the decals would help to hide them.

The instructions called for spraying the water-slide decals with clearcoat before applying them to the model. I did so, using Krylon glossy clearcoat. After drying, I applied the decals. Even after clearcoating them, a couple of the smaller decals still tore, although the resulting cracks in the decals were hardly visible after shifting them back into the correct positions. The mirrored decal, which replaces the red body decal from the original kit, was a nice touch. As has been noted in other reviews, care must be taken with this decal, as handling it too much tends to cause the black printed "ribs" on the decal to crumble. This happened to me, although, again, it was barely visible, only upon close-up scrutiny.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I inserted a D12-3 and a E9-4 into the Vega, and verified that the CG was still in the proper place (as identified in the instructions).

The maiden flights of the Vega were on Feb. 14, 2009. At that point, the Vega was still in primer. I launched it twice that day, on a D12-3 and a E9-4. The D12 boosted the Vega straighter, due to its more abrupt thrust profile. The thrust of the E9 tails off towards the end of the burn, which, in any kind of wind, causes the Vega to "flop over" onto its side and to fly horizontally for the last few seconds of flight, which is always unnerving. During the first flight, the shock cord and parachute hung up on a landing leg pod, so the parachute didn't fully deploy. Fortunately, the Vega landed in a loose tangle of dried vegetation, cushioning the blow. She was undamaged. During the second flight, the shock cord again hung up on a leg, but the parachute fully deployed. She landed horzontally, which kind of defeated the purpose of the shock-absorbing landing legs. Again, no damage, other than a landing leg pod popping off of a fin at the glue line. The spring was recovered, enabling a complete repair.

The Vega's third flight occurred on Mar. 21, 2009. By now, she had her "final" coat of glossy white (more on that later). She launched on a E9-4. Due to the almost nonexistent wind that day, she boosted straight up like an arrow. Unfortunately, the parachute wrapped around a landing leg again, and she dropped straight as an arrow onto drought-hardened soil. One of the fins was snapped off at the body tube joint, and two of the landing leg pods popped off; one of the pod tubes buckled noticeably, as did the lower body tube (right where the mirrored decal was to be attached). Back to the "shop" for an extensive refit.

Flight 4 occurred on Jun. 13, 2009. With the (truly) final coat of paint, cardboard reinforcement of the buckled body tube (covered by the mirrored decal), and the full set of decals, the Vega was resplendent in her glory. I had reattached the parachute to the nose cone screw-eye, rather than onto the shock cord, halfway between the nose cone and the top of the body tube, as specified in the instructions. She was packing an E9-4 again. The Vega weathercocked, but achieved a safe altitude. She had her best recovery yet, landing on her spring-loaded feet, although falling over on her side immediately thereafter. There was no damage.

Flight 5 occurred on Sept. 9, 2009. I had grown dissatisfied with the "puffy"-looking mirrored decal, so had replaced it with a chrome-painted strip of corrugated styrene (to give the Vega a "ribbed" look, as though it had "radiator panels" for its "reactor"). I tried a D12-3 again to see if this motor minimized weathercocking. Nevertheless, the Vega flopped over on its side at altitude, although she didn't fly as far away due to the shorter duration of the burn time. The shock cord caught on a leg, so she landed horizontally, although without damage. This day, the Vega also survived an assassination attempt (within inches) by the power pod of a Cosmos Mariner, which ejected same upon impact.

Recovery:
Nov. 14, 2009: Zipper! I had used an AT E15-4. I almost didn't get the motor into the MMT; the motor retention clip caused a slight inner bulge, which I had to trim away with a hobby knife. In the process, a main fin fillet cracked; I did a field repair with CA gel. In flight, the delay seemed longer than 4 secs. The ejection charge also made quite a "bang." The Vega drifted back towards our club's GSE, and would probably have landed on top of us, had it not drifted right into the side of John Lee's U-Haul truck. Sometime during this eventful flight, the Kevlar® shock cord cleaved the body tube in twain, just below the auxiliary fins. A main fin also snapped off, as well as two of the landing leg pods.

Throughout these flights, when the chute deployed completely, the descent rate and drift rate were just about perfect. The flame-retardant chute protector material has always done its job. It's a joy to not have to worry about wadding!

Flight Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary:
Pros: high-quality materials, unique motor mount/fin interface exoskeleton; great instructions; great flyer (in low winds). IMO, this is one of the best upscales of a classic kit on the market.

Cons: be aware of the winds: this model carries a lot of "lumber." The motor mount may need to be of a thicker tubing to avoid the inner retaining clip bulge which caused me so much trouble with a composite motor (never an issue with BP motors). IMO, a model this heavy needs some sort of elasticity in the shock cord; perhaps this would have prevented the "zipper." The decals have not held up well, even after clearcoating as directed in the instructions.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other:
The Vega has been reassembled since her last flight. I intend to extend the ribbed "radiator" section to hide some of the cracks in the airframe. Additional cracks will be hidden by decals (from Jimz Plans) printed on cardstock. I blew up some of the original Vega decals from Jimz site 170%, and printed them out on business-grade paper on a business-grade laser printer. They came out with vivid color and a glossy finish. I smeared an even film of white glue on their backsides, and applied them to the Vega; she looks better than ever. I had intended to restore the Vega for display only (she has always been one of my favorite models from the 70s, one I always lusted after in high school, but never acquired then). However, I'll consider retrofitting her with some sort of "zipper-proof" shock cord setup, and may fly her again.

The following excerpt is from "Sport Rocketry". The intention is to allow guests to get a basic feeling about a kit. We strongly suggest that you get a copy of the referenced Sport Rocketry and read the entire article. Inside you will find many helpful hints in construction as well as other useful information. For more information, use the two links above.

Courtesy of QModeling

"...this QModeling kit is of the highest quality, well designed, and included intelligently written instructions."
"...is 1.68 times larger than the original Starship Vega sold by Estes Industries in the 1970's."
"Its light-weight construction enables it to fly nicely on an E30 or F21."
"With over 60 components and 4 sheets of decals, the Vega may appear daunting..."
"...the easy to following instructions include numerous illustrations and are filled with hints and suggestions to make the job go well..."
"More recent deliveries have been upgraded to include a Top Flight Recovery lightweight Nylon parachute, Kevlar® shock cord, and Nomex® flash mitigation pad."
"The nosecone and landing gear pod nosecones are hollow cast urethane."
"All of the fins are made from 3/16" thick balsa wood."
"The vertical portions of the ingenious motor mount are made from 1/8" thick balsa wood while the rings are from 1/8" Masonite, all laser cut..."
"The airframe tube is also laser notched for through the wall construction of the large main fins."
"The landing gear uses real springs for shock dampening."
"The assembly procedure is laid out in a logical 'divide and conquuer' stragety..."
"In the end, it took me about four hours of assembly."
""The six small fins (3 canards and 3 secondaries) are surface mounted."
"...worrisome is the possibility that lack of adhesion between the balsa fins and the ureghane landing gear nosecones may end up leaving the outboard sections of the main fins unsupported and easily broken. Fortunately, Vega would have to land almost on its side to cause such damage."
"To provide an attachment point on the tail endo fo the hollow cast nosecone, the kit comes with a Masonite disk and a screw eye."
"For those that like finishing rockets, this bird presents a wealth of surfaces to sand, seal, and paint."
"Vega's first launch...the F21 power plant should have carried Vega little more than 1000 ft up... landed over 1/2 mile downrange."
"Landing the Vega with significant ground speed caused minor damage to one of the landing struts. Even with a 30" parachute..."

Overall, the article shows that this is an involved kit to build, great to look at, and interesting to fly. The author noted that he has also built other QModeling kits and believes the "Q" in QModeling is for Quality (Just as QModeling says).