After watching a brilliant video by Kyle from Builtfast I was fascinated by his 1989 Batwing edf design, it’s the most scale design to date! About 13 yrs ago I made a scratch built Batwing out of foam board and 20oz foam cup, and it flew for years on end with various upgrades added which I still fly.
When I saw this amazing 3DP design so scale and crafted to almost perfection I had to find a way to build one! I contacted Elbee on the Squawk and challenged him to this awesome mission, he accepted and we went to work. First and foremost I want to thank him for all his hard work printing and getting everything right, it was a task that took about 3 weeks. I have zero knowledge of 3DP so I was no help and when he finally sent me the parts I was floored at how cool of a project this will be!
I started the build by putting together all parts dry fit to make sure everything is correct (this is vital before glueing). Even though he has the build on YouTube you can miss a few important parts. I first sanded all the excess pla with a fine grit block and filer. The next day I prepped all parts then began using Starbond CA glue with accelerator, you must work fast and line up every piece one by one. I started with the fuselage then the starboard wing, it all came together quickly. Before I knew it in about 1.5 hours had the whole airframe complete.
Next I needed to add hinges with the material and method suggested on the video, it worked well, but need to have a hobby blade to carefully clear out notches for clearance. Next came 50mm EDF install I ordered a 5000kv 12 bladed unit with 50amp ESC, with a 3200mah 4s lipo, and 2x 9 gram servos. I thought I had servos and control rods and I didn’t have a good match so I ordered the exact metal gear servos Kyle had in his vid from Amazon along with 10inch control rod needed with horns. I should receive them today and finish the build.
Batwings fly great if you’re a good hand launcher even better, this build was meant for beginners but I don’t recommend a beginner start with an EDF, the cost alone for this project wasn’t cheap either, can get up to $200 or better if you don’t have the supplies. I attached several pics, I hope you all enjoy this awesome project! Thanks again Elbee!
When I saw this amazing 3DP design so scale and crafted to almost perfection I had to find a way to build one! I contacted Elbee on the Squawk and challenged him to this awesome mission, he accepted and we went to work. First and foremost I want to thank him for all his hard work printing and getting everything right, it was a task that took about 3 weeks. I have zero knowledge of 3DP so I was no help and when he finally sent me the parts I was floored at how cool of a project this will be!
I started the build by putting together all parts dry fit to make sure everything is correct (this is vital before glueing). Even though he has the build on YouTube you can miss a few important parts. I first sanded all the excess pla with a fine grit block and filer. The next day I prepped all parts then began using Starbond CA glue with accelerator, you must work fast and line up every piece one by one. I started with the fuselage then the starboard wing, it all came together quickly. Before I knew it in about 1.5 hours had the whole airframe complete.
Next I needed to add hinges with the material and method suggested on the video, it worked well, but need to have a hobby blade to carefully clear out notches for clearance. Next came 50mm EDF install I ordered a 5000kv 12 bladed unit with 50amp ESC, with a 3200mah 4s lipo, and 2x 9 gram servos. I thought I had servos and control rods and I didn’t have a good match so I ordered the exact metal gear servos Kyle had in his vid from Amazon along with 10inch control rod needed with horns. I should receive them today and finish the build.
Batwings fly great if you’re a good hand launcher even better, this build was meant for beginners but I don’t recommend a beginner start with an EDF, the cost alone for this project wasn’t cheap either, can get up to $200 or better if you don’t have the supplies. I attached several pics, I hope you all enjoy this awesome project! Thanks again Elbee!
Comment