Spuce Goose Frankenstein Freehand

[RustyGimbal]

So I wanted to build an H4, but couldn't find plans... so I found some old plan style drawings to reference. After doing all the rough scale calculations I just started drawing lines and adjusting them until they looked close to the picture. Figured I would start with a simple profile design and work my way out from there. Here are some pictures of the early stages.

~56" wingspan, I ended up moving the engine nacelles about 6 times 😅

Prepping vertical stabilizer for horizontal stabilizer install.

 

[RustyGimbal]

Wing layout

Score cut lines

Forming over the tapered box spar

Stacking foam to form the nacelles.

 

[RustyGimbal]

Drawing out the lower fuselage

Wing floats were tricky but I think they're fairly close.

 

[rockyboy]

Looking great!

Love the step by step photos too - your building approach is different than a lot of folks and it's great to see it in action!

 

[RustyGimbal]

Looking great!

Love the step by step photos too - your building approach is different than a lot of folks and it's great to see it in action!

Thank you good sir!

 

[RustyGimbal]

Everything looked so nice, and I couldn't shake the desire to throw it to see if she'd glide. So I guessed the CG, taped some lead to the nose, and headed to the park.

Lift! We have lift! That was a level toss at a full run. I even caught her so zero damage. 😎 Time for a suitable power plant!

 

[RustyGimbal]

Servos installed and wired up.

Scavenged a 64mm edf from my grounded starmax a10 and rigged up a thrust tube for a test flight.

Takeoff was buttery smooth and level, she was flying great until the esc cut out, running on 4s and with flap servos I overloaded the integrated bec. She nosed in from about 15 ft but only caused a minor crumple of the nose, easy fix. It really doesnt need flaps for now so I pulled the servos and got a nice 6 minute flight with a great landing.
Its underpowered with the edf, but definitely worth the time and effort to get a few test flights in. Time for prop motors!

 

[RustyGimbal]

Motors mounted, getting the wiring sorted out.

She's all ready for a test flight as soon as I get some favorable weather here in Indy.

 

[rockyboy]

Not going with 8 little 1106 motors? Wouldn't be very cost effective, but would be neat

 

[Grifflyer]

Looks great!!

 

[RustyGimbal]

Not going with 8 little 1106 motors? Wouldn't be very cost effective, but would be neat

I'd love to, but this bird is on a budget, $7 in foam and $15 for the motors and escs. When the weather breaks and work picks up I'm going to build one scaled for 5in 4 blade props with 8 motors. 😁😁

This bird is mostly just a proof of concept/scale test platform. Its my first scratch build and also my first time wiring and matching up more than one motor and esc. Definitely a learning curve but I'm motivated and excited for 4 and 8 motors in future builds. I'm hooked on big heavy lifters right now, time to make a fleet!