Dat Rhino

[Namactual]

Hehe, today is just not my day.

So, not being able to get the laughable color print thing off of my mind, I called the next nearest Staples. The guy was super nice, very knowledgeable and said the local Staples was full of . It was only a 30 minute drive from here so I decided to drive out there and have him print it for me. I get there and the guy is super cool about everything. We go to print and the printer malfunctions. He tried to get it working for the next 30 mins or so, but no dice. He called a service tech, but realistically I am looking at Monday before they get out there and fix it he said.

I stopped and got myself a Blizzard on the way home to cheer myself up. Doctor said I need to put on a few pounds anyway. I don't think this is what she had in mind, but tis a minor detail.

Anyway, I do not want to wait until Monday to get started, so I am going back to plan "B".

 

[rockyboy]

I finally get out of work early and head over to Staples just to be told that they were going to charge me for Poster prints rather than color engineering prints. Oh, she was going to print them in the lower engineering quality, but still charge me for photo quality.

Wow! That's a load of BS.

I've always submitted the files through their online printing service for local pickup - and you can even pay ahead of time online so the local ID10T folks at the counter can't mess with you at pickup time.

 

[Namactual]

Aye, I might have to give that a shot if all else fails. I am going to call the farther one Monday and see if the printer is working. I would rather deal with someone competent and spend a little more on gas that deal with the local one.

Update...

That's a lot of cutting and taping I have to look forward to.

But the printing is out of the way at least.
Speaking if which, the colors did not translate the greatest on that cheap lightweight copy paper. If I used the more accurate color profiles for photo printing it would saturate the paper. It still looks good, just a little muted. If I had more time I would exaggerate the digital colors to compensate. I think I am going to see how the Staples prints do first.

Other than the colors it looks good. This will be a lot lighter than my prototypes. I will document the overall weight addition once finished.

Off to cut and tape.

 

[Namactual]

I am going to update this as a go and try to document the skinning process. There will be a lot of updates so please bare with me.

First cut the prints along the cut lines. Use a ruler and try to be as straight as possible. The more accurate your cuts are the easier they will tape together. Leave the excess paper on the outside edges of the foamboard ends. You will need some overlap on the paper side. (see below)

Note the excess paper on the perimeter.

The first 2 are full 30x20 sheets of foam. The third should be also. I just made a mistake on the print that did not allow the cut lines to line up so I left them separate. (will fix) The last pic is of the under side of the wings, they will not be glued into place until the top wing plate is cut out. These will then be glued to the underside of the top plate.

As for the other sheets, some will be glued to foam and then cut out. Others will be trimmed of excess paper and glued to the backside of other pieces. I will cover that when I get to that point.

When gluing single sheet prints to foam, I trace the print with a line about a 1/2" larger than the actual print. I then cut out the print using the penciled line as guide. Once cut out, I trace the outline to a scrap piece of foam. I then cut the foam shape using the penciled area again as a guide. I usually under size the foam in relation to the paper print by about 1/8"-1/4" so I can see where I am placing the foam when gluing into place. See below.
(Edit: the measurements are not critical, I just eyeball most of it. Gluing the print to the foam without waste is the goal. At the end of the day, you could just glue the entire 8.5x11 sheet to a 8.5x11 piece of foam.)


Now when I lay the print face down, I can still see it with the foam centered laying on top. Once I am ready to glue, I would spray the foam face touching the print and carefully set into place centered on the print. Once attached and turned over, with the extra paper on the outside print should ensure that the actual print area is completely covered by the foam backing.

If anything is unclear, just let me know. I will try to be more clear.

Next is the spray adhesive fun! It it supposed to rain tomorrow, but if it is not pouring cats and dogs I am going to take everything to our massive garage at work. It all depends if I can get everything to my car without getting wet.

 

[Namactual]

The weather is not looking good today so I am putting the skin work on pause. I am going to spend some time documenting my changes to the prints and getting the non-skined parts printed, cut, and assembled.

I will be building a second one right after this using the Staples full size prints to document that process as well. It should go much faster as I don't have to cut and tape all of these little pieces together.

I am also going to try to document some more of the build that I did not really cover that well in the build guide. It looks more complicated than it actually is. If I had a place to do it, I would do a build video. Maybe I will look into doing some simple CG animations of the assembly.

 

[Namactual]

Quick .svg test.

Can you hear me now?
Good!

 

[Namactual]

Today has been a mixed bag. Half of my day was shot doing other RL things.

I did get a lot done with what time I had though.

All of the skins have been attached to foam. I spent about 4 hours at work today getting this far including pictures for documentation, pack up, clean up and travel time. This also includes a lot of cutting so I could glue the parts that have skins on two sides. I am not sure how well this will turn out, it was awfully humid out today. It never rained, but the air is very damp. The skins being lightweight copy paper really did not like the moisture. It did not want to lay flat. It liked to soak up the adhesive as well. In the end, I only sprayed the foam with adhesive to counter this and stuck it to the paper after a few seconds. Its the only thing that worked. It seems to have bonded well enough, but only time will tell.

I am going to try to get the wing plates cut completely here in a few so I can start the bonding of the 2 plates tonight before bed. That's about it for today. I have to be back to work first thing in the morning.

 

[kilroy07]

Target, cease fire.

I'm really glad you put the 1" square! Scale came in rather odd (I'm sure it's related to DPI vs CAD resolution but it was 90.000070866... ??)
Anyway, I have to convert to metric (Chinese laser/software and all) and I'll arrange to fit in the 700x500mm working area. Just checked the two largest pieces and we're fine! So, I'll get to work getting everything ready to cut and maybe by next weekend I'll start my first build.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Namactual]

Cool beans. I am glad you got it working. I should mention that there are a few parts that will need to be duplicated with symmetry. I am not sure if you saw that or not.

The "Intake" sheet, all three parts need to be duplicated mirrored. Also, on the "bottom wing" sheet, the elevon as well as the munition pylons need to be mirrored as well. Sorry if that messes you up. I should have said something sooner I just was in such a hurry last night I forgot.

Wing plates are now bonding. I just had to post this shot though.

I am not going to lie, it's rough around the edges. Bad paper, bad tape job, building in a hurry. I messed up on a few parts.
That said, from a few feet away it looks good, and in the air it will look even better. When I have full sheet skins it will look better still.

I am going to be working a lot of overtime next week, but I hope to have this in the air by the weekend.

Wish me luck.

 

[kilroy07]

Yes, I did notice... I was thinking Hummm... Doesn't the F-18 have TWO vertical stabilizers?... (No worries, that's what the "Mirror" command is for.) LOL
Looks like everything will fit on three sheets.

As far as munitions are concerned, I'm actually thinking... These would look pretty sweet on a finished build;
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2830219
And these...
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2813822

Speaking of "Full Sheet plots" the 500ps (I'm "sure" that means PostScript!) is ALIVE!!
Now, any chance you have those skins as a single sheet?...

I'll do a raster test run later this week... Most of my "free" time this week with be working on the Miss America build...(and getting MY first "skin" ready).
Or rather a couple of mustangs to get the hang of putting one together (today I finished a wing before putting the servos in, an easy fix, but still...)

Oh and I have two 3D printers to build...

 

[Namactual]

One step ahead of you...

These will be done. As well as some Aim9x's for the wing tips. It will not take me long to draw those.
FYI, Dat Rhino is 1:20 scale.

 

[DamoRC]

I am not going to lie, it's rough around the edges. Bad paper, bad tape job, building in a hurry. I messed up on a few parts. That said, from a few feet away it looks good, and in the air it will look even better. When I have full sheet skins it will look better still....
...Wish me luck.

We are always our own worst critics - I think it looks superb!

Good Luck!

DamoRC

 

[Namactual]

Thanks Damo!

 

[Namactual]

I had a mild heart attack when I go home today and checked on my wing plates. While the glue was curing, I set them on a piece of plastic on the tile floor and kept pressure on them using wooden boards. Well the moisture that was in the skin laying on the plastic had nowhere to go and when I flipped the plate over the top skin was wet and full of wrinkles. Laying face up for a while allowed the moisture to evaporate and the wrinkles are pretty much non existent. I can not see them, but I can still feel them when I run my fingers over the skin.

It may dry up fine.
Then again it may delaminate.

Anyway, I got a lot done today.

So close, yet so far away.

I am going to be living at work the next three days. I probably will not get much more accomplished until Friday. It sucks when you are finally firing on all cylinders and you have to try to stop. I want to keep going, but I have to get some sleep tonight.

 

[Namactual]

I did get some work done today, I probably should not have though. After work I really was not feeling it, but I forced the issue anyway. Made a lot of errors. Nothing noteworthy, just minor things. Enough for the frustration to kick in.

There really is not much left to do. I need to glue the backside skins to the vert stabs, super easy and something I can do here at home. I need to make a new motor mount. Then just final assembly of all the parts and install the electronics.

Everything fit well enough, so I am going to update the plans this weekend and upload the changes as well as the skins. It is supposed to rain all weekend anyway from the looks of it so it will be the perfect time to do it.

After that I plan to get a set of full sized prints and repeat the process all over again. I plan to take my time with the next build though. Hopefully it goes a little smoother next time as well.

 

[foamtest]

That model looks great, I can’t wait for the end of the year stress to go away so I can return to my building lair, not to be seen again in the wild until flite fest.

 

[Namactual]

Exams?

Look at the bright side, after school the Rhino should be a walk in the park.

I have been trying to plan out how I can get to Flite Fest. It's hard to reserve a hotel and such without knowing if I am going to make it and which days. Worse case scenario is depart Saturday morning, arrive at FF around noon, then headout Sunday afternoon for the return trip. I should be able to swing that at least.

 

[foamtest]

If you have a tent and don't mind camping you can join me and a few friends at my campsite, I'll be there for the whole event.

 

[kilroy07]

After that I plan to get a set of full sized prints and repeat the process all over again.

"I know a guy" who has just gotten his HP 500 "plotter" up and running. I'm sure he would print you out a couple "D" sized sheets and drop them in the mail to make that easier/cheaper for you.

 

[Namactual]

"I know a guy" who has just gotten his HP 500 "plotter" up and running. I'm sure he would print you out a couple "D" sized sheets and drop them in the mail to make that easier/cheaper for you.

I might just have to take you up on that.

I just wanted to see the results on the Staples prints so I could print on a whim so to speak. Eventually I am going to buy a wide format printer myself, but I am in the process of looking to buy my first house this year. I don't want to dip into the savings until I get everything taken care of financially and close.

I will upload the skins this weekend for sure. My only concern now is file size and hosting. Either way you will be able to test some prints soon.