Brief:
The Quest 'Lil Grunt is 17 inches tall, the kit features a plastic nose cone, laser-cut balsa fins and a rugged 24mm diameter motor mount. Flights with a D12-5 will go to almost 1,600 feet. The 'Lil Grunt is designed to recover on a big 3"x36" fabric streamer. Includes self adhesive decals.

Construction:
The kit arrives is a very nice box that should protect from most shipping damage. Included in the kit are the following parts:

• Instruction Sheets
• Main HD Body Tube
• Blow moulded Nose Cone
• Laser Cut Fins
• Thick wall Engine Tube
• Engine Hook
• (2) Centering Rings
• Thrust Ring
• Launch Lug
• Kevlar® Shock Cord
• Elastic Shock Cord
• Decals
• Ripstop Nylon Streamer

Construction is typical and very straight forward. The first part of assembly is the motor mount which is a standard design. One thing to point out here is that Quest provides a Kevlar®® shock cord that attaches to the motor mount. The completed motor mount is glued into the main body tube using wood glue or epoxy. At this point, I filled the spirals and primed the tube with one coat of Duplicolor High Fill Primer. I choose to prime the BT at this point because it's a lot easier to sand the BT with nothing attached. This doesn’t impact the glue joints because almost all of the first coat of primer is sanded off. Next up is marking the BT for the fins and launch lug using the supplied template. The laser cut fins are cut from 1/8" hard balsa. They were sanded and attached using epoxy. Once dry small epoxy and micro balloons fillets were added to both sides of each fin and turned out really nice. The launch lug was attached completing the construction.

Finishing:
First, I applied two coats of Minwax Polyurethane® to the fins. I do this because I believe it hardens and strengthens the balsa with very little weight penalty. Next, brushed on a coat of thinned spackle to each fin and sanded once dry. This process fills the grain of the balsa with minimal weight gain.

I sprayed a coat of Duplicolor High Fill® primer and sanded when dry. I repeated with a second coat which successfully removed all spirals and wood grain. The seam of the nose cone was sanded smoothed and filled where necessary. The nose cone was primed and prepared for color.

For the color coats, I used two coats of Valspar Premium Green Spray Paint® to the body and fins. The nose cone was painted with Rustoleum Metallic Silver®. Once dry the final step is to install recovery streamer, shock cord, and the decals.

My only knock is that I would prefer waterslide decals, not the thick self-adhesive provided.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
The first flight on the 'Lil Grunt was on a D12-5. Winds were about 10mph, still the Grunt produced a nice straight/stable launch. I recovered with no damage not to far from the pad using a 12" chute. Overall altitude was over a 1000ft and it probably would've been higher if it wasn't for the winds. I'll try the included streamer next time I fly.

Recovery:
Quest includes a 36" ripstop nylon streamer in the kit. The only problem I have with the streamer is its dark green which could make it hard to find. The dark green keeps with the military theme of the rocket, but a brighter color would make recovery much easier is some situations.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
The finished 'Lil Grunt is a neat looking rocket with the included decals. The military theme, and overall performance on D motors should make this an attractive rocket for people to build. It's easy to build and would make a great addition to anyone's fleet.

The cons in regards to the decals, and streamer are very minor. I'm a very satisfied customer, and can't wait for future Quest releases.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5