FT Duster - BUILD

[seanudal]

Hi, the colours come from HobbyKing as Wing Tape. I ended up buying all the colours and have some in thick and thin versions. I will be building lots more planes and figure having the tape will be useful. It is a pain to work with. First choice would be to spray paint the plane with a hobby model compressor. The tape looks good and it waterproof.

Sean

 

[Outlaw56]

Crafty Dan,

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the response to my question regarding the "Beef Kit" for my Duster. Im in the process of building my first flite test model (duster) but I went the hard route and started cutting out foam board (elmers brand). After my first set of wings and fuselage, Im realizing this is more complicated than it looks. But I have learned a lot just downloading and printing plans, finding a good source of foam board, learning more about foam board and whats available, cutting and fitting the pieces together. I have since discovered I also have access to dollar tree foam board which led to the question "Elmers/verses Rediboard". I can get either. Im going to pick up some dollar tree today and do it all again just for the practice. Ugh, now for cutting foam board...I can do a decent job on the top side of the cut but have a hard time keeping it square at the bottom of the cut. Also haveing a hard time keeping blades sharp, but its all part of the learning process. So much help and history on this forum. Thanks again.

 

[DDSFlyer]

Crafty Dan,

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the response to my question regarding the "Beef Kit" for my Duster. Im in the process of building my first flite test model (duster) but I went the hard route and started cutting out foam board (elmers brand). After my first set of wings and fuselage, Im realizing this is more complicated than it looks. But I have learned a lot just downloading and printing plans, finding a good source of foam board, learning more about foam board and whats available, cutting and fitting the pieces together. I have since discovered I also have access to dollar tree foam board which led to the question "Elmers/verses Rediboard". I can get either. Im going to pick up some dollar tree today and do it all again just for the practice. Ugh, now for cutting foam board...I can do a decent job on the top side of the cut but have a hard time keeping it square at the bottom of the cut. Also haveing a hard time keeping blades sharp, but its all part of the learning process. So much help and history on this forum. Thanks again.

Outlaw,
I did the same thing as you, first scratch build I went with Elmer's foam board. It is definitely a lot thicker and harder to cut, when you switch to Dollar Tree foam board it will be a lot easier. Still the key thing is sharp sharp blades. I do think though that if you are going to use a Swappable Power Pod I would use Elmer's foam board to keep it sturdy with all the moving it can have. Then use the Dollar tree stuff for the plane as the Elmer's made it a lot heavier than intended. I made the FT Cruiser first and am lucky it has two motors to power it and keep it flying. Good luck and keep building!

 

[Outlaw56]

DDSFlyer,

I checked out the local Local Dollar Tree store today and picked up some of the lighter foam board. It looks like the foam is about the same thickness as the Elmer Board, but the paper is way heavier. I assumed I was going to find "Rediboard" at Dollar Tree, but they have a made in USA brand called "Adams". I also picked up some USA made single edge razor blades at Lowes ($100 for $6 and change). Dollar Tree foam is much easier to cut...........and much easier to bend,compared to Elmers Board.

I agree using the Elmers Board is better than the lighter foam for building thepod. I think with scracth building and cutting your own foam, maybe build the pod after the fuselage has been cut out and glued up so you can check for possible modifications to the width of the pod. Im thinking the extra thickness in the Elmers may cause the pod to be too tight in the fuselage. Im also thinking I will try a modification on the pod tabs to a block/lock system to replace the tab and holes in the top of the fuselage. Its extremely difficult to get a perfect match on the tabs and fuselage, at least for me.

I bet your FT Cruiser flys better in the wind due to the heavier foam board? If you build a heavier version of the FT planes, can you compensate by using more powerful motors and batteries and pick up the wind advantage?

How is flying the FT Curiser compared to flying you HZ Super Cub? My first and only plane is the Super Cub LC. I am in the process of building a spare wing and putting alerions on it. I have been thinking I might try an HZ Apprentice for my next foamie, but meanwhile Im going to build a few of these FT Models. I wanted to try cutting one out myself and get the practice of putting one together before I order the speed build kits.

Thanks again for getting back to me.

Outlaw

 

[jhitesma]

I checked out the local Local Dollar Tree store today and picked up some of the lighter foam board. It looks like the foam is about the same thickness as the Elmer Board, but the paper is way heavier. I assumed I was going to find "Rediboard" at Dollar Tree, but they have a made in USA brand called "Adams". I also picked up some USA made single edge razor blades at Lowes ($100 for $6 and change). Dollar Tree foam is much easier to cut...........and much easier to bend,compared to Elmers Board.

Just to clarify. Adams IS Rediboard. Adams is the manufacturer and Rediboard is their name for the product.

 

[Outlaw56]

Thanks jhitesma, its good to know Im keeping consistent with previous posts and not wandering off in the wrong direction.

 

[DDSFlyer]

Outlaw

yeah the adams foam board is the right one. as far as getting the pods to fit better, the tip to use is not to cut the slots in the frame until after you test fit the pod, then you can get it just right with the little variations from build to build.

the FT cruiser was a beast to build and when it came to the maiden I barely kept it from heading straight to the ground. I needed to tone down all of my controls ALOT!!! the elevator was really touchy. Other than that it's a great looking plane in the air. It will have a tendency to need speed in the turns but has great rudder control. The speed part, though, I think is due to the weight of the Elmer's board. It probably could fly slower with less weight. I flew it with a 2650mAh battery and about 30 g of lead weight in the nose to get it to CG...way too much. It is a great sounding plane with the twin props though and I love flying it.

 

[Outlaw56]

DDSFlyer,

Awesome! How hard is it to fly compared to your super cub? I learned on the simulator, then the Horizon Super Cub LC. About 100 take offs and landings and no crash yet, but its just a matter of time.

Outlaw

 

[DDSFlyer]

Outlaw,
Lt me just say I probably wouldn't step up from the super cub. That was probably my 4th plane. Need another aileron trainer first, this duster build actually might do it, then maybe. It is definitely tricky to land as well, almost all of the landings haven't been the most graceful, but at least it's still in one piece!

 

[Outlaw56]

DDS,

Ill back track and spend some time with alerions before I finish the Duster. I dont want too many servos hanging out in planes that I am not flying, so I will just hold off on putting it together and back up a little to get some alerion training first. I get the feeling "park size" airplanes are also a lot different than the bigger planes. Its all so new to me.........but I love my Super Cub and have a lot of flying planned this summer with that before I do much more. I also have the alerion wing almost done for it...and Im getting the fever for the Horizion Apprentice. Im just hoping they will come out with the option of upgrading from the Spektrum 5 to a bind and fly.

Outlaw.

 

[beaves]

What are you guys using for paint? I assume you are leaving the paper on, so it needs to be non-water based so as not to ruin the paper right?

Thank you,
Bryan

 

[gabe221]

From what I gather use color packing tape from HK, or apple barrel colors on top of minwax. I think.

 

[DDSFlyer]

I've used modeled spray paint before after minwaxing the foam board. I'm pretty sure you can use any old rattle can spray paint just not too thick of a coat at a time ao you avoid the pooling of paint and bubbling/peeling of the paper. I am about to look into the whole airbrushing aspect too but haven't gotten that far into it

 

[Outlaw56]

I have seen several articles through out the forum and on the flite test videos on using minwax polyurethane. I build furniture and have used this product and was surprised no one has mentioned it also comes in a spray can. I have not tried it on the flite test foamies, but I would think it would be a very good choice. Just make sure you dont use the water base version.

 

[Raylon]

So I bought a spraypaint can of minwax and that turned into a disaster. Apparently you can't use any thickness at all and the paper comes peeling off. I kind of ruined the entire top of my Dusty. What's my next step after making all the paper peel off the foamboard? Use tape over the foam?

 

[DDSFlyer]

Hmmm that sounds off. Did you get the water based minwax? Probably too much sprayed on at a time? Did you wipe off the excess? If the foam is keeping its shape, then I would guess that tape would protect and hold it together from the outside.

 

[Craftydan]

How close were you spraying?

The propellant in the rattle cans will wet the paper, weakening the bond, but it usually dissipates over a foot or two (Arms length).

If it's just a corner or edge, a thin smear of hot glue or gorilla glue will work *after* the minwax has cured. If it's pealed quite a bit, you may have to finish pealing it and replace it with packing tape or similar. be sure to *not* skimp on the overlap between strips. 1/8" minimum. you'll find later the foam will split on any weak seams in the tape cover.

On the positive side, you can paint the duster then cover with clear packing tape and other than the seams it'll look great -- instant glossy finish!

 

[Yogenh1]

On my Duster I min waxed it and then use water paints on it and that worked great. I used spray can paint on an other one and that worked good too. That was after min wax too. Not water min wax.

 

[Timgfoley]

Just building one of these up for my little guy. Word of the wise though, do not work on wing until you watch the baby blender II episode! I went through 4 wings before finding out all the tricks (Elmer's is stupid stiff, once I switched to Adams it was much easier).

Just a suggestion Josh & Co., please try to not cut corners in the build videos, if there are important steps like the wings include it in the video. People may not have seen the earlier videos and be jumping straight into newer builds. At the very least put a link in the video or splice in the segment from the other video.

Should be fun to get this one up though! Now we just need a skipper ;-)

Cheers
Tim

 

[newTOpro]

Here's my Duster. I used the speed build kit and some parts I had in the parts bin. I have the typical HXT900s , an orange 6 channel receiver WITH an orange flight stabilizer, a Suppo 2212/13 motor with a master airscrew 9x6 and a 20 amp esc. The foam board was coated with poly after assembly and then I used colored packing tape. This combination has made it even more durable, even when landing in snow and getting wet, I see no degradation of the foam board. Nice and strong and water resistant.

She flies like a dream and then when I flip the flight stabilizer on.....oh she's like butter. Love this plane and hope to build more FT planes soon.