Well progress has been made. My box-goggles came in this week so that knocked out a day of playing with those. I finally decided on laminating this one. I was going to use fiberglass resin but when I grabbed the can of base (unopened) it was solid as a rock. Couldn't be that it was 5 years old...
I'm liking this laminate though. Its a breeze to apply and if you screw up it doesn't rip the paper off your plane. It also wont rip or run whatsoever. I screwed up a piece because I sliced it with a razor and missed a few inched at the end. When I tried the packing tape trick of just pulling and letting it run, the laminate balled up like an old 5 1/4" floppy disk case. To seal it into place I used an old broken glue gun tip with the shield removed, and ran it around the edges. Once I've got the entire fuse covered, I'll hit it all with a blow drier and pray it doesn't shrink lol.
The nose is turning out well so far. I'm still debating on how to lay out the interior. Basically I'm doing this just like the Guinea Pig nose. I've peeled the inside paper off the nose and curved it in. Everything curves in to a point about 1/2" square at the nose. I found the perfect clear pyramid shaped Lego for the nose cone. I've got a white led I'll throw behind it as well. The bottom and first 20% of the top cowling will get covered with curved foam. This is going to leave a large cavity in the nose and a hinged hood just like the Mini Cruiser. I'm going to add some bulkheads and possibly some trays to accommodate the battery and fpv gear. I've got a couple of options with those as well that I haven't decided on. I've got a micro 20/200mw tx with a 3db dipole and a decent ccd paired. I've also got a 20/200mw all in one that I think would fit well in the nose with the cloverleaf sticking out. If I use the mico transmitter I'll solder on an extension so I can use a full size clover or pagoda. Either way, I plan on adding a little hood scoop to poke the camera out of. Far enough back to stay protected but far enough forward to keep the nose out of view. All it all it'll be "close" to the dh-88 nose. I'm not trying any master-build tricks to get it rounded out since I'll be smashing it into a tree within a month anyway
I must say it's been an awesome build and I'd have been done 3 days ago if I hadn't over-sized. It's easy to let your symmetries get out of wack. My power pod mounting holes were way off on my first cut and had to re-do the wing halves again. I'm going to mount the servos in
Well I hope to have the fuse laminated and the tail/turtledeck finished up tonight.
I also have a confession. Part of why I've been delayed is I just got a few 5" drone kits in the mail this week as well. I've promised myself not to touch them until I'm done with the cruiser... can't help from fiddling tho!
What size lipos have ya'll been running? I've got 3 or 4 good 2200 3s's I was planning on using. (and a 1300 4s for mach "oh hell" runs)...