spitfire micro rc - home made build (1 min 42 sec)

this is my homemade micro spitfire... I was asked from many flyer on how do i build this bird up... so i'm going to share a bit of building this bird... above was a complete image of the bird and how it flies... sorry again for bad flying skills plus video camera takes...

since i'm building another for a gift to my brother for his birthday... i'll be sharing a bit of how the build goes...

at first i purchase and download the skins of the bird... this birds are actually a display cardboard model and not much of a flying model...

so i modified the design to make it more easier to build and maybe easier flying characteristics... those modification were mostly on wings airfoil and dihedral angle... and i have to design a proper fuselage construction for rc airplane applications...

once the design is ready, i print and cut them out



as for what kind of foam should be used?... u can use any foam... from recycled tv packaging foam, epp, depron or styrofoam... any foam will work...

i personally recycle and used tv packaging foam for my 1st spitfire... 6 times crashes and she is still flying strong just as picture taken above...

since my work stop here for today... i'll be posting the next step later...

sorry for my bad english... ask me if you you don't understand and need advices

just to sore your eyes... i've completed this stuka a week ago and already maiden it... i need to fix the video 1st because my brother didn't take a good video of her when she flies... once the video is completed, i'll share it here too...

Nice, they have good detail and as we can see from the video they fly okay too. Well done for your innovative build style.

SUBSCRIBED
Question for you - what is "TV foam"? Can you take a pic? somehow I'm envisioning closed cell foam but that can't be right

Great job! That's not an easy plane to fly and micros are harder to fly than the big ones.

so the next step is to build the structure... building the structure is similar to building a flat platform plane like the epp techone piaget... except you need to assemble the bulkhead and build the longerons... i'm using the puzzle method to attach them together... i use ca glue for quick dry... any foam safe glue will work... i advice not to use epoxy cuz the plane will be heavy... the target is max all up weight is around 200grams... you may add up some cf rods to strengthen the structure... my horizontal and vertical stabilizer are cut and design so that they are detacheable... i want to build an airplane which i can repair and maintainance later... so here's some picture to look at... ask me question if any of you don't understand

Originally Posted by whichwaysup

SUBSCRIBED
Question for you - what is "TV foam"? Can you take a pic? somehow I'm envisioning closed cell foam but that can't be right

tv foam is basically a foam that you get when you purchase any electrical appliances and there is a packaging foam in it... compressed packaging foam from my point of view is almost as strong as epo foam... plus they're lighter and easy to cut and shape just like other foam... here's an example



since they re recycled material... i consider them as free and add no cost to the plane... my previous spitfire is made 100% entirely of the foam

as for my stuka and 2nd spitfire i'm building now, i use combination of the packaging foam and styrofoam

my next step would be a bit critical... building the wings... which i'll post later

spending whole day with work, evening with gf, and night with airplane really grind me down... sigh

ok so i screwed up my wire cutter table... thats means i have to skip building the wing for a while and continue building the fuselage... here's some picture





beginning by filling and forming the fuselage by reusable foam... trim, and sand it down till you got a good looking fuselage... since i really need weight on the nose, the battery compartment and ESC is located just rear the motor... cut and trim down the compartment, and not forgetting some holes for cooling and wires routing... i cut the belly of the plane to put in the servos and receiver... other than that i glue some foam to make the wing fairings, as you can see i didn't make them properly as i can't get the real shape until i stick the skins...

once the fuselage is completed... its time to play with the stickers... ;D... here's how the plane look once all the stickers were stick in...






as you can see... before the stickers is put in, i did put some plastic pieces to some of the part like cowling and canopy... this allow me to put on screw... i used some leftover sheet of wood to make the motor mount... i used epoxy and not normal glue as i need strength there... as for the canopy, it is made of thin sheet of plastic, bent and glued to make a real look like canopy

from the picture you can see that the wing fairing is properly formed, by using the premade stickers, i just stuff some foam, glued and sand them to make a fine finish...

SORRY for the delay of this thread, have been busy lately...

Still watching

What is the wing span please?

Originally Posted by focae

What is the wing span please?

forgot the measurement... last time i measured is around 600mm...

Originally Posted by whichwaysup

Still watching

i'll be posting up detailed picture next on how the canopy and cowling were shaped... and i made the horizontal and vertical stab to be detachable via screws too...

just underneath my bed is the spitfire... motor, spinner, esc, and servo have been attached temporarily... i'll take some photos later on how they're installed inside the bird

so i have repaired my hot wire cutter table and was able to build the wing pretty quick... here's the picture...








these wings were sanded down to smooth the rough surface produce by hot wire cutter... they were weigh down so it is balance left and right... i installed 3 pieces of cf bars at the right, left and center wing... i also put a wood at the center of the wing for LG mounting... i use epoxy instead of normal glue to attach the 2 piece wing together as normal foam safe glue is pretty weak and ca glue is pretty expensive... as you can see, i haven't dig any compartment for servos and cut the ailerons yet... i also haven't install the intakes and gun at the wing yet... was planning to install the servo in the wing intake so that they will be hidden and more scale look... but that can be done later... and of course, after the wing is completed, its sticker time...

i used 3 screws to attach the wing to the fuse... 2 screws in front is for me to adjust the alignment and symetric of the wing to fuse and rear stabs by adding washers, at the same time hold the wing to the fuse... the 1 screw at the rear is just to hold the wing in place... as you can see, i use wood to build template of airfoil... since i want this model to be easy to fly, i modify the airfoil to a lower flat surface airfoil and increase the wing dihedral just a bit from the original scale... however, i can't do much stunts in this setups cuz the spitfire will most likely fly like a low wing trainer airplane... since i'm not a stunt pilot, idc much...

idk in which area i should focus more in sharing this information, so if you need me to explain more on certain part of the building, do ask me, i'll try my best to help, and with pictures of course...

don't mind about what prop and spinner i used... the ones in the picture is a folding prop and spinner used for gliders... i plan to used that setups because... erm to safe my prop and motor from my miserable landings... hehehe

Great thread Syadiqeen!

So what it looks like you are doing is:

1.) Cut with your hot wire some thin sheets of foam from packaging material.
2.) make patterns of the fuselage profile, some fuselage sections, and a plan or waterline section. Cut these out of the sheet foam. Assemble together into what looks like a 3D profile fuselage.
3.) Cut out and fit blocks of foam, using your hot wire, to fit in between the above sections. Leave hollows for mounting gear and wiring.
4.) Using the sections as guides carve and sand down the blocks to a true fuselage shape. Add plywood for engine mount, etc.
5.) Apply printouts from a card model on printed on sticker (label) paper.
6.) Use sheet plastic to make canopy and cowl.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Do you heat-form your canopy and cowl, or do you just cut out the shapes and fold and glue them like a card model?

Thanks!

One other question,

How did you get the proper shapes for the fuselage profiles and sections, so that they would fit the card model skins?

Originally Posted by vtdiy

One other question,

How did you get the proper shapes for the fuselage profiles and sections, so that they would fit the card model skins?

Yes u r right... i dont make hot plastic forming for the canopy and cowling... i cut, fold, and stick them by staplers... didnt use glue as they dont hold together that strong... i redesign or redraw the fuse profile so that it follows the card or
Sticker model skins... lots of try n error process... as you gradually build up the model, u need to compare, trim n sand the 3d foam fuse to the sticker skins so that they match up accurately n nicely...