S-l-o-w flying KF delta build – engine mount
Add a layer of thin ply to the upright foam and I have a mount. The motor mounts are 31mm apart and the area is about 40mm x 40mm excluding the tabs. Add a couple of triangle support tabs behind the mount will add support.
In the background you can see the 19mm (0.75") wedge that gives shape the the wing. I'm not sure if this wedge is supposed to be shaped or a straight line from the middle of the wing to the leading edge. So for version one, it's a straight line from 19mm down to 0.
Before I start hot-gluing things together, the motor and servos need to be tacked in place to get the CoG right.
S-l-o-w flying KF delta build
After an hour or so of cutting, the basic form is taking shape. A couple of the photos show how to get a nice clean cut 45°. measure the thickness of the foam (in this case 5mm) back from the leading edge, plus a bit to allow for the height of the metal ruler.
S-l-o-w flying KF delta build
The objective is to build a foamy that I can literally throw in the car without worrying about breaking a prop or rudder, and that can be built from el cheapo materials and spares I have lying around.
For the material I'm using a combination of foam core art board and 3mm depron. I was surprised that I couldn't find something suitable at Bunnings after reading all the rcgroups.com posts from the US about the materials available from the local hardware giant.
Here's step 1. Outline on the 5mm foamcore artboard. This stuff is a layer of foam sandwiched by two layers of cardboard. Looks quite strong and light so it should do the trick.
SC Models – Foamy Profile EDGE 540 build
With a model this simple, it's hard to find much to talk about for the build. Everything has gone together quite easily until tonight. Looking at the role of hinging tape that came with the kit I thought it looked a bit light on. I haven't wasted any but I gues I've used too much on the spars that run the length of the wing. Tonight I got to hinging the horizontal stab and I only got one quarter of it hinged before I ran out of tape. Easy, I thought with all this other tape I've got lying around I'll just make do but I don't have any suitable tape thats clear. I can't bring myself to use some ugly brown tape on my new foamy!
On the topic of foamies, check out this video of an indestructo foamy, the SupaFly...
SC Models – Foamy Profile EDGE 540 build
This kit is from SC Models and can be seen on the web here http://www.scmodels.com.au/electric-planes/sc-e540/index.html
First impressions. Well for $43 delivered I guess my expectations are enough bits of foam, wood and bits to put together a little foam Edge 540. I'll need to supply prop, motor, ESC, servos, battery and receiver (all of which I have leftover from a previous model).
On removing the contents from the box, one of the wheel pants was broken in half. A bit of glue should quickly fix that. Also when I compare the parts in the box to that shown on the photo on the outside of the box, I seem to be missing one carbon fibre spar. There are two in the box (one round and one flat) but there are three in the photo. *****UPDATE - I'm not missing a spar. The photo on the box shows a dark leading edge on the wing that I had mistaken for a carbon spar***** I've left the instruction manual at work over the weekend so I can't check with the manual till Monday. This is one of the reasons I reckon all suppliers of kits should supply manuals in PDF format on the web which can be edited with software as sodapdf online. Another foam model I bought second hand almost came to grief because the CoG was way out until I downloaded the manual from the net and moved the balance further forward. I'd always wondered what it'd be like to fly a model with the CoG way back behind the recommended and let's just say it was.... difficult.
Other than that, the kit looks good. I don't imagine the build process will be very long or complicated and the flying side of things will be much more interesting to discuss. So, check back when I've found the manual and started the build for more details.
