11 June 2021
Wheels
Now if the wheels are represented by rings, then there is nothing more to do unless I want to include the hub or to colour the tyres.
However, if the wheels are made from 1.5mm foam sheet sanded around a 10 cent coin, I could colour the tyres by making a tool to hold the pen at a distance from a guiding surface and use the tool to draw in the tyre ID. Then, I thought again that that is simply too much work when I could have just used a circle template!
7 June 2021
Farman Moustique
Engine block: a hexagon cylinder measuring 12mm across, so that makes it 6mm each side, 10mm depth made from 120gm/m2 green coloured construction paper. I originally thought of making it from 1.5mm foam strip, taped on the inside, scored on the outside, roll up and then cover with silver tissue on outside. This idea was not taken up because paper is strong enough. A tip is to use a circle template so the hexagon can be set central and not skewed.
Cylinders: A 6mm diameter, 10mm long. Flatten a transparent drinking straw, cut the 'slots' and tend roll back to cylinder shape 10mm high. Two loops to represent the cylinder and one loop on the other end to glue to the engine block. I didn't use bendy portion of drinking straw because I don't have them. I didn't use thread to simulate cylinder's fins because I remember it was time-consuming, messy and not visually impactful.
Wheels: 3mm wide x A4 length green construction paper rolled around an inside former. Failed attempts include: 1) tapering the 3mm wide strip on both ends, hoping to get a round cross-section; 2) using circle template (18mm diameter) as an outside former. An idea was to use circle template (18mm diameter) as an outside former but use two 3mm strips of flexible foam, one inside the other which seems messy again and difficult to get them round. I also tried to double side a 10cent coin on a 3mm foam piece, sand round (too button-like). Maybe can try again with the 10 cent coin idea but with thinner 1.5mm foam sheet but the result would be foam discs.
These parts are small, they are difficult to make accurately and any little deviation is obvious.
They are time consuming, it took me hours because they are such fiddly little things for my fingers.
28 May 2021
On the peanut size Farman Moustique capacitor free flight :
- Drinking bendy straws for cylinders with paper hexagon crankcase.
- Joss-sticks for leading and trailing edges for wings.
- Foam strips for ribs.
- Drinking straw strips snaps back when bent. Can use it to make frames for landing gear, stabilisers, cabanes and perhaps tail skid (simple stick type, not the sheet type shown on plan). Can also be used to bind to motor?
- Thin wire mount can be bound to motor so that thrust-line can be adjusted..
- Circle template to make wheel laminate.
- Coin template to sand wheel discs.
- Foam fuselage can be slit so that the dihedral can be set.
- Paper propeller blades for static display (with double side tape to stick temporary to actual propeller).
7 May 2021
As a first OD FF, maybe I should focus on getting maximum flying ability instead. It won't look good, but it should be light and easily adjustable.
Here's some ideas on basic adjustability for a free flying model.
- Motor on a 180 degrees wire bend. Side-thrust, down thrust.
- Wing posts on "H" carrier. CG, incidence, decalage, wing tilt.
- Rudder on a wire.
5 April 2021
Farman Moustique!
Found the charger of the supercapacitor free flight model from Banggood.
So it has been a year and a half. The 3 batteries are still there and it still works.
I thought about how to mount the motor. I could glue short T-sectioned foam batons to the motor to form the hexagon crankcase. Then I thought that I could just have a small hexagon foam section with a center hole to receive the motor. I looked back through my postings and rediscovered I had thought about this before, "The motor can be directly glued to a hole in a foam block, ..."
Look at the date, it's quite some time ago!
11 December 2019
I am going to use the electric components from a supercapacitor free flight model from Banggood and graft them to a model of fancy. I will then not need to understand how the electrical/electronic components work, and not need to source the component parts and soldering them together. Seems easy enough and I can focus my limited time to making cute-sy models!
I think the size of the model will be around the Peanut scale. There are definite advantages of using supercapacitor over rubber for that size.
The structural requirements are simpler; there is no compression and torque from the rubber motor and there is no need to build around the rubber motor (no cavity needed for the rubber motor).
The model can be made from lighter material such as sliced foam, paper and tissue which are conveniently available and much cheaper too!
Another convenient feature is that the model is charged in seconds, instead of winding it up.
And I think that the rubber motor and propeller assembly is as heavy as the complete supercapacitor setup, if not heavier.
And because of its compactness, it is a breezy affair to have the CG forward; it really opens up short-nosed choices and those that would otherwise require a protruding motor stick for the rubber motor!
The motor can be directly glued to a hole in a foam block, or indirectly to a flat piece which acts as a motor mount and which is then subsequently spot-glued to 'engine beams'. The idea of a motor mount is to have adjustable thrust angle.
The charging point will need to be conveniently and securely located. However, it is so small and light and so would not be an issue. Actually, I think dangling it from the model is fine too.
Now, the propeller will be disproportionately small, relative to the size of the model. A rubber powered propeller is disproportionately large. View this as a bonus, the landing gear can retain its scale. If a scale sized propeller is desperately required, there are at least two options: 1) geared motor, or 2) affix scale sized blades for 'static' display using double-sided tape at the back of each blade. Unless there is too much spinner/cowl area for he smallish propeller, I am sticking to option 2 for it is so much simpler.
2 December 2019
Which best represents?
Wouldn't one like to get maximal effect out of minimal effort? I know I would. But in order to do that, let's understand that we should not insist on perfection. A model is only a shallow representation and it will never amount to the real thing; there will always something imperfect if you look deeper. Since they will never be literally perfect, I would rather save my effort and spend them on areas that gets the maximal effect.
In order of 'importance', generally:
Fuselage and fin:
- side profile,
- cross-section,
- planview.
- planform,
- dihedral,
- airfoil.
