So.... I'm not entirely sure if I'm in the right spot to post this (Mods, if it needs to be moved, I get it), but I did a couple searches and it looks like I'm definitely not in the common group for designs.
I'm not much of a tech-heavy designer. In fact, I'm about as green as it gets with anything you throw in the air with the hopes that it lands soft enough to throw again.
But I wanted to start somewhere, and I started with solid foam. I remember having those styrofoam gliders everyone had as a kid that you'd throw hard enough to make it do a loop before crashing. But they were light, and cheap, and I loved it. Flite Test has a ton of great ideas with particle board and power and electronics, but I'm really bad at detailed designs, and can't do any computer based plans at all.
So I decided to try insulating foam, cut with razor blades/etc.
For my first (current) design, I went with a PBY Catalina. I know it's nuts to try that first, but I might do 1 engine, I might do 2, no idea yet, I haven't picked my electronics quite so soon. I picked the PBY because at first I thought it would be the easiest wing - and a parasol wing is really smooth and stable.
The foam I used is the $4 hardware store special - a sheet of 48 inch by 24 inch. I cut the basic outline of the plane, then cut additional outlines of the smaller parts of the body and the wings.
After that, I just hand trimmed until it looked right, glued everything with hot glue, then hit it all with a 220 grit sanding block until it was smoother and I could actually get the shape of the wings to look right.
Oh, I should mention I did used to work in a guitar factory in the finish dept - sanding it something I can do better than cutting or measuring, so I depended on that a lot more than I probably should have. Eh, it's a first attempt, I'm not expecting it to be perfect.
For the skin, I was told that a 50/50 mix (I was closer to 30/70 I think) of Elmer's white glue and water was all I needed (I pulled the idea from a youtube video for a guy who did this to pre-made foam gliders), with carpenter's/painters brown paper soaked in that in strips and applied as the skin. It did dry very well, light and solid, so I think it'll work.
Here's where I'm at now. I need to trim the control surfaces and figure out what electronics I'm going to use. It's really light, roughly under a lb, and it's got a 48 inch wingspan. If anyone has ideas for what power I'll need, etc., let me know. I'm thinking of using the engines as rudder instead of added another control surface back there. Is that something that works well with two engines?
I'm not much of a tech-heavy designer. In fact, I'm about as green as it gets with anything you throw in the air with the hopes that it lands soft enough to throw again.
But I wanted to start somewhere, and I started with solid foam. I remember having those styrofoam gliders everyone had as a kid that you'd throw hard enough to make it do a loop before crashing. But they were light, and cheap, and I loved it. Flite Test has a ton of great ideas with particle board and power and electronics, but I'm really bad at detailed designs, and can't do any computer based plans at all.
So I decided to try insulating foam, cut with razor blades/etc.
For my first (current) design, I went with a PBY Catalina. I know it's nuts to try that first, but I might do 1 engine, I might do 2, no idea yet, I haven't picked my electronics quite so soon. I picked the PBY because at first I thought it would be the easiest wing - and a parasol wing is really smooth and stable.
The foam I used is the $4 hardware store special - a sheet of 48 inch by 24 inch. I cut the basic outline of the plane, then cut additional outlines of the smaller parts of the body and the wings.
After that, I just hand trimmed until it looked right, glued everything with hot glue, then hit it all with a 220 grit sanding block until it was smoother and I could actually get the shape of the wings to look right.
Oh, I should mention I did used to work in a guitar factory in the finish dept - sanding it something I can do better than cutting or measuring, so I depended on that a lot more than I probably should have. Eh, it's a first attempt, I'm not expecting it to be perfect.
For the skin, I was told that a 50/50 mix (I was closer to 30/70 I think) of Elmer's white glue and water was all I needed (I pulled the idea from a youtube video for a guy who did this to pre-made foam gliders), with carpenter's/painters brown paper soaked in that in strips and applied as the skin. It did dry very well, light and solid, so I think it'll work.
Here's where I'm at now. I need to trim the control surfaces and figure out what electronics I'm going to use. It's really light, roughly under a lb, and it's got a 48 inch wingspan. If anyone has ideas for what power I'll need, etc., let me know. I'm thinking of using the engines as rudder instead of added another control surface back there. Is that something that works well with two engines?
