F-35 my 3rd scratch build

Jgalbraith

New member
Started scratch Building planes a year ago and have since made 3. Just wanted to see what people thought of it.

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It's made from foam and balsa, Between raising my 2 kids its taken me 3 months. I'll show the build process if anyone is interested. It's almost finished.
 

French

Construire Voler S'écraser Répéter
Oh my!!! Look at those lading gear.

I think it’s safe to assume this isn’t comstructed with dollar tree foam board and hot glue. EDIT - I just saw its foam and balsa. Wow. It’s a sculpted art piece.
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
Hello Jgalbraith.

What a way to make an entrance. How long have you been in the hobby? What else have you done?

Yes, definitely. There is much to be gleaned there. Such a clean build with no visible linkages... wow. I would be interested in seeing the build video, ground op video, and of course a flight video. No rush, I'll wait up.:cool:

Welcome to the forum.
—Jim
 

Kunphushun

Member
Woah! That is impressive to say the least for foam and balsa. Do you have construction pictures or a build log anywhwere?
 

Jgalbraith

New member
Quick build process:

I first drew a template by scaling down a picture on my phone, I then cut several layers of 1/2 inch thick pink foam from home depot. I lightly tacked them together and rough sanded a basic shape.
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I then pulled the layers apart and created the inner structure for all the components.
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I then added a spar and wood glued and hot glued it together. I lined all the edges with balsa wood and shaped them for ding protection and strength.
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I added tubing for the wing led's so they could be removed for painting.
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Then the arduous part covering with wood filler to smooth the foam surface and add a little strength. This is the part I hate but it's very necessary for my builds.
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Don't have any images of building the thrust nozzle but what I did was cut a plastic cup and covered it with balsa wood, and sanded grooves length wise and it turned out great.
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After sanding all the wood filler, I covered the jet with 7 or so layers of polycrylic lightly sanding in between with 150 and 220 grit. Then primed it and sanded with 320 grit and finally primed it again with the color I liked. Really wanted a darker flat gray, but this is all I could find until I find a better way of painting besides using spray paint.
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It turned really well I think my best yet. I still have some more painting and decals to do, and my wife has a vynil cutter I'm going to utilize.
If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Here's a quick picture of my last build, I haven't flown it yet because Im not sure it will fly. It was more of an inspired build but it's fully functional with dual 64mm edf's.
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Jgalbraith

New member
Reply to - JimCR120

I've been in the hobby since 2010, started with helicopters and flew them for a few years. But when I moved to Georgia from Pennsylvania there wasn't many places to fly so I kinda fell out of the hobby. I've always loved building things and when I discovered flite test on you tube I knew what I wanted to do. So just last year in the summer I decided to build a foam board jet and as I went along i figured out I could do better and bought a whole lot of 4x8 sheets of pink foam and started sanding away. I'm now hooked for life, this is my 3rd build. The first is in wreckage and the second I'm not sure is so aero dynamically sound and am afraid to try it.

And there is visible linkages I just not in those first images.
 
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Jaxx

Posted a thousand or more times
Jgalbraith,

I'm completely blown away by your work!! What are the dimensions and weight of these jets? They look incredible!!
 
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