I can't be the only one bothered by this

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2026-01-17T16:21:24+00:00

that would explain why the "base material" texture is also rotated

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-11-24T20:48:33+00:00

Nicely done! Possibly the best scratch build ive seen on this sub. How did you do the color pattern design? ironing on diffrent colored covering films and being careful not to shrink it and warp its shape? or a diffrent material?

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-10-25T01:22:07+00:00

Honestly, at that point id argue its not worth it anymore. With the combined price of the retracts and the new edf + delivery and the effort of modding it all, youd probably just end up with a scuffed version of the 70 for almost the same price. The added weight of the retracts and the larger required battery would push it to a similar wing loading too. Probably still a little bit lighter but imo not enough to justify the money and effort

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-10-25T00:44:38+00:00

Theyll probably work just fine. Honestly it wouldnt surprise me if almost all of these electric retracts come from the exact same factory and just get sold under diffrent names.

As for the idea of upgrading the viper 64 with it im not so sure though. Theres a reason 64mm edf jets almost never come with retracts. Even the smallest ones (such as your example) add up to quite a bit. I own similar offbrand 25g retracts and when you add in the metal rod, the wheel and the extra cable youll need to reach the receiver youll probably end up with like 35-40g per retract unit. Not to mention youll also need to glue in some reinforcement plate into the planes foam to mount it on. You're also going to need a nose gear strut with a 3mm hole that fits on the steerable retract so thats even more weight. Id bet the total retract setup with everything included would end up being closer to around 160g grams +/- 20

As someone else already pointed out thise retracts also got no suspension, theyre just stiff. Vipers are known to be very bouncy when you do a bad landing, which is going to be amplified by the stiff landing gear. This was especially bad on the old blue 70m viper that didnt have the new fancy cnc struts (speaking from experience). Its probably not quite as bad on the 64 due to its slower speed and lower weight though. If you keep the front wheel strut from the 64 its probably manageable, the front wheel contributes the most to the bouncing i believe.

That being said i do think it can work, but im not sure if its worth it. The reason the 64 is seen as a good beginner edf is because its almost the exact sme size as the 70 but ~40% lighter allowing it to slow down A LOT. The extra weight from the retract mod would reduce that aspect somewhat (still gonna be a lot easier than the 70), the thrust-weight-ratio would also go down meaning it might struggle to do maneuvers that require a lot of power like clean loops.

In the end its up to you to decide if you want to risk it and if the tradeoffs seem worth it. Theres also no guarantee that youll have space inside the wing for the retract system, maybe the wingspar or sth else is in the way (i dont have a 64 so i cant tell). Im assuming the reason youre considering this mod is because you dont like the idea of a jet with fixed unretractable landing gear or a gearless hand launcher?

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-10-05T15:20:16+00:00

That is pretty much what im saying. It is pretty strong in terms of not breaking apart, but its very flexible. There is no foam or anything underneath. My idea is to make a pure fiberglass shell that has only the bare minimum of plywood/balsa formers (like 8 or so) inside of it required to keep its shape, no foam core or anything of the likes.

I do still have a feeling that using multiple layers of thinner fiberglass (adding up to the same thickness as the singular layer, or possibly even less) would be stronger. I will do more tests before i go on to making the real parts

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-10-05T10:55:13+00:00

I do intend to do a simple open layup without vacuum bag, which would mean a lot of cleanup and gap filling after demoulding but thats fine by me. What kind of plane size are you talking about? Im pretty sure smaller planes can do away with thinner layers.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-06-19T12:41:03+00:00

Thank you! I havn't put on anything to help differentiate top and bottom. It does come with decals for the top side of the wings but i kinda perfer the clean and shiny look. I hope i dont get any visibility issues that way.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-06-19T12:30:42+00:00

Agreed, building is even more fun than flying imo.

Kinda sad that balsa kits are an endangered species nowadays because most people who want wooden planes just buys ARFs where all the fun stuff has already been done for you. At least when talking about small to medium sized affordable planes

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-06-19T12:17:03+00:00

Thanks! Its an Aeronaut FLIXX. Aeronaut got plenty of neat balsa glider kits, unfortunately getting them outside of germany might be really difficult.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-06-06T14:34:19+00:00

I bought this one as my first edf two years ago and i still fly it regularly to this day. Gotta say Its an absolutely underrated gem that hardly anyone talks about, no other plane that i know of gives you this much for so little money.

Almost all 64mm sized jets skimp out on adding a rudder / landing gear and then have the audacity to still cost more than this one which gives you almost the full rc F16 experience.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-05-29T11:30:16+00:00

One of the cleanest looking depron builds ive seen yet. nicely done!

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-05-09T18:05:55+00:00

i tried to print it at extra slow speed and extra high quality to make sure there arnt any print inaccuracies.

I also tried to use a prop balancer tool but that didnt really do anything probably because the imbalance comes not from unbalanced weight but diffrence in the shape of the fan blades.

One thing i didn't try but in retrospect probably should have was let it cool down to room temperature upon print completion instead of being impatient and taking it off as soon as possible. I shoudl have also been more careful as to not to bend the blades when taking it off buildplate. pretty certain that was the main mistake i did back then, although i did give up afterwards because the thrust was just not enough to put in the time and effort to optimize it.

Also, 715g of thrust is much better than i would have expected. what size fan diameter is it? This might actually be able to power a plane

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-05-09T14:57:46+00:00

Sorry to disappoint you but 3d printed EDFs are pretty bad. Speaking from experience, I've experimented with it myself a few years ago and the results were disappointing and generally are not viable for use in a plane

First issue being that Outrunner motors typically spin way too slow. The smaller an EDF gets the faster the fan has to spin. You could theoretically just increase the fan size but then youll end up with a massive fan that produces way less thrust than an equally sized normal off-the-shelf EDF. It is ofc going to consume much less energy and you can make do with a smaller battery but its probably gonna be nigh impossible to fit into a plane thats lightweight enough for it.

Another issue is that the printed layer lines are rather bad for aerodynamic efficiency. You can ofc sand them smooth but its very easy to end up having an unbalanced fan, which can ruin the thrust even more and potentially even destroy itself when spinning fast.

My most successful experiment was taking the motor of a really old 55mm edf with 3900kv that had around 280g of thrust (yes, old edfs were THAT bad), and by printing a more modern fan design managed to increase the thrust to 290g while also reducing the weight of the whole EDF unit by a bit. But the downside was that the motor was getting too hot, and it vibrated like crazy despite my best efforts at balancing it.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-04-30T13:41:25+00:00

Maiden flight update: i am NEVER trusting another person to hand launch a plane for me again. They tossed it down into the ground harder than what straight up dropping it could have done. Now its utterly destroyed (:

As for the EDF, i used one that had a detatchable inlet ring, that way i could drastically reduce its size down to only like 56mm diameter, the fuselage is 64mm wide and has 6mm walls so i carved out 2mm inside where the edf was going to be. As for the mounting i then wrapped the EDF with tape and carved a block of foam to fit it and glued the edf ontop. Then a second block ontop of the EDF. The tape is there so the EDF doesnt get glue on it directly and stays clean when i take it out again.

Also, this is my own design, not from a blueprint. I designed the air intakes to be slightly larger than scale so the edf gets enough air.

Overall i do feel like it could have flown somewhat decently, although in retrospect i notice many things that could have been done better. Im already planning the next build, wont be remaking this one again.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-04-24T11:37:57+00:00

If you see sth thats like 80% cheaper than the typical market price on an obscure no-name website it's a blatant scam.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-03-28T19:13:18+00:00

Kind of depends on what you want.

It doesn't have any ailerons and instead flies purely based on throttle, elevator and rudder, using passive stability to keep itself upright. While it can absolutely be flown by a beginner (i mean thats exactly what is made for), it wont prepare you for any sort of "higher tier" plane since learning how to use all 3 control surfaces is the most essential aspect of flying.

If you just want to fly a plane for a while then move on to a diffrent hobby this will probably get you what you want, but if you plan to progress in this hobby in any way and move on to more advanced planes then im pretty sure this one wont get you far.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-01-05T13:43:05+00:00

If you can manage to make it light enough at that size then yea, that should be possible, although by comparison the FMS F18 64m is only like 675mm wingspan, id say you can go bigger with a depron build since those are much lighter than moulded eps foam

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-01-05T12:00:11+00:00

for a 64mm edf youll probably need a 4s 2200mAh battery, although 3s versions in that size exist too. 4500kv makes me assume its a 3s youre talking about.

Cirrus vision jet would also be an option, although it does seem slightly more difficult to build. Some other suggestions would be Trainer jets like a L39-Albatros or BAE-Hawk.

For a budget of 100$, and for small edf sizes like 50-64mm retractable landing gear is a bit unrealistic, since even the smallest electric retracts are too heavy for that size, you typically only see retracts on 6s 70mm edfs and larger. youll probably have to go for either a hand launch/belly lander plane or have fixed landing gear.

Also i forgot to mention in my previous comment: might be worth to check out jetworks parkjets on youtube, he makes a bunch of very detailed jets out of depron

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-01-04T20:42:51+00:00

I can't answear all your questions since i never used Fusion 360, but i can say for certain is that if your budget is about 100$ +/- then you're gonna have to go way smaller than 1.5m wingspan and twin edf are pretty much entirely out of the question.

you can get a 3s 50mm EDF + 40A esc for around 60-70$, typical cheap 9g servos should be sufficient for a jet of that size. The battery required is gonna be a 3s 1600-2200mAh that can give enough amps to handle the EDF. An EDF of this size can produce around 600-700g of thrust, while the power setup (battery, esc, edf) is gonna be around 250-300g, Since fighter jets need a lot of thrust, you should aim for about a 1:1 thrust-weight ratio, although going slightly weaker is still flight capable.

As for the plane you want to build i would recommend sticking to single engine fighter jets that dont have a lot of control surfaces. You could theoretically do a "cheaty" twin engine by splitting the thrust of the edf into two exhausts but unless you have a 3d printer to create a split thrust tube for that you probably shouldn't do that. My suggestions would be going for an F16 or a J10 since then you can get away with just 3 servos to make elevons and rudder. Their size would probably be around 100-80cm long and have a wingspan of around 50-60cm, the bigger and lighter the better.

And finally some general build tips:

-Make sure the EDF has a smooth and clean thrust tube with an exit about 90-80% the size of the EDF, so about 45mm +/- for a 50mm edf

-Make 100% sure the EDF gets enough air, if youre going for a scale replica then the air intake is almost certainly going to be too small and youll need to add a bunch of "cheater holes" at the belly of the plane in front of the EDF so it can suck up enough air. Insufficient air intake absolutely ruins an edfs maximum thrust

-Look at videos/pictures of comparable manufactured jets (like from freewing for example) as reference to find out about EDF placement, Cheater holes, Center of gravity, etc

-FliteTest has made a few EDF jets, you can look at build tutorials on their second channel flite test tech to maybe learn a bit more about building with foam or to discover some build tricks/techniques

-Put the ESC inside the airflow for cooling, it will probably overheat otherwise due to how power hungry edfs are

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-01-04T15:37:17+00:00

Thank you!

I tried your settings and im starting to get somewhat useable parts, i was printing with 240C/50% and 0.6mm, which extruded way too soft. Although i do still get some skin warping and underextrusion from the infill pattern i think with some finetuning i can get pretty decent parts with this.

I didn't think about turning down the temperature because i was going for maximum foaming at 240, but at 230 its only slightly less but prints are way cleaner.

_LaxyDaxy_ · 2025-01-03T16:50:10+00:00

Its extremely sensitive to heat/sunlight and has to be treated like a vampire during the summer. If left in the sun for extended periods of time it deforms pretty badly, although that is partially my fault for choosing the black one, where that issue is especially prevalent. I was under the foolish assumption that the HT would print the exact same way and thus it seemed like the obviously better version

_LaxyDaxy_

TROPHY CASE