Jonny Quest "Dragonfly III"

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good to see on track. Primer seems a bit dark for something that will end up white. What's the weight/mass looking like? Dat's an awful long nose.

Most of the black will be sanded off. It's a primer filler and I'm using it to fill little blemishes and such. It will get a final coat of light gray later when I'm satisfied with the surface. As far as the weight goes, once the fuselage is cored out it should come in at about 10 oz. , Everything else is gonna be lite weight typical rocket stuff except for the wings. I'm still in the process of designing those but it looks like they will be foam core with ribs to get the lightest and strongest. I've also come up with another wing design with a little more span and a little less sweep. They still --look--the part and give me a little margin. The planned CG --in glide--is planned at the leading edge where it meets the fuselage. At that point the main wing should be lifting about 80% of the weight and leave the smaller canards to lift about 20% . Those are round numbers but in the range where I can tweek it.
 
I love that thing! Can't believe I either missed or forgot about your build.
 
Ya know, it's been sitting in the bedroom corner for a while and was calling to me. Over the last few nights I'd go to bed and think about the build and what I really wanted and how to do it(holy sleep aid Bat Man!). I'll change some things up a bit and bring the old girl into the new era. If they would get off their collective butts and make the movie they would do the same so I'll beat them to it. Gone will be the dreams of a glider but a big bad rocket with styling will earn some points I hope !-----THIS WILL BE A PIA BUILD,but after the 104 it should be a cake walk! More later--H
 
The Claymation version of the opening credits. This is amazing.

[video=youtube;_7Yw8qMDips]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Yw8qMDips[/video]
 
Yea, I found that the other night while doing some research, Very cool, that took some real effort to make! I don't really care for their version of the Dragonfly but it does leave a lot to the imagination so who am I to say!
 
So, Tomorrow I'll get back on track with the JQ and outline the changes I've made. There's gonna be some challenges along the way but nothing too outlandish. So, go to bed tonight and think about that intro tune---you'll be humming it all day tomorrow!! I know I will !! Later--H
 
Looking forward to seeing your Dragonfly finished.

I have just started a lightweight RC RG version. Will have a thread over in the glider area soon.
 
Looking forward to seeing your Dragonfly finished.

I have just started a lightweight RC RG version. Will have a thread over in the glider area soon.

OK, Cool! Now I don't feel so bad about not making this one a glider as originally planned.Technically it was possible and would have been cool but I could not justify the expense at this time.
 
Yea, I found that the other night while doing some research, Very cool, that took some real effort to make! I don't really care for their version of the Dragonfly but it does leave a lot to the imagination so who am I to say!

I saw a web page somewhere concerning designing and building the model of the Dragonfly shown in that video. I think the builder failed at photo interpretation and assigned too much meaning to a shadow shown in just one image. Other scenes showing the Dragonfly refute the odd looking one that was built and shown in that video.

Having said that, I will be doing some small changes as well. Faintly smaller vertical tail, faintly larger wings and less dihedral.

Your's is looking great!
 
Well, it's time to get started. First I need to size things up. I needed to sand the primer / filler down to see where I was at with the surface. All in all not too bad . There are a couple of hot spots to take care of where it looks like I didn't get good penetration of the resin through the glass. That's easy enough to take care of !!--20160816_175231.jpg20160816_175242.jpg
 
That fix can wait till a little later. It's not critical right now. I decided to go ahead and get started on the cockpit area. This is gonna take some work and a lot of sculpting to get it the way I want. Right now I'm not sure what that is. I carved out a foam core to start with. Once the shape was--CLOSE--I epoxied it in place. Later I applied sheet rock mud over it and the joint between the two parts. This worked great on the 104 project. There is a difference though. On the 104 I had a porous surface to help wick away the moisture--not so here, also It was about 90+ degrees outside to help with drying. At the moment it's in the low 80's and raining. That trend will continue for the next few days so the drying time on this could be up to a couple of days. Once this is dry I'll do the final shaping and filling and then cover it in epoxy to seal it and bond the whole thing together.-------While the original Dragonfly was Mach 2 capable, the Dragonfly III was designed for sustained flight over Mach 3. This necessitated the cockpit air screen to have a more pronounced sweep back and an overall narrower appearance . Also the intake was totally redesigned from the single geometry type of previous models to a multi-geometry wedge type------20160817_111640.jpg20160817_113359.jpg20160817_153325.jpg20160817_154311.jpg
 
While I really like the lower intake on the Dragonfly, I figured it was a bit dated so I decided to make a wedge configuration. I simply cut out the shape I wanted out of card stock. I made two parts --the intake and a splitter plate. I glued the two parts together after a trial fit.I'm not 100 % sold on this look and might well cut the existing intake at a much sharper angle which would also move it back. I'll give some thought to it overnight!--20160817_145536.jpg20160817_151650.jpg20160817_154725.jpg
 
Ah hell, I didn't make it overnight ! I chose the wedge. I like it !!--20160817_172610.jpg-20160817_172626.jpg-20160817_222114.jpg-20160817_222124.jpg--I also continued to shave on the cockpit area. In the end, I'd like it to look something like the F-108 ---20160817_222102.jpg--F-108-8x.jpg
 
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Is that scoop going to work sort of like a mini parachute?
Seems like a good bit of drag

The answer to that question is yes and no. In it's current configuration it would be a really high drag area but when I'm flying it I'll insert a foam plug. That's still draggy but not as much and should offset the huge vertical stabilizer an bit---at least that's the plan! Of course the moment on the vert is farther back and higher but it is streamlined so I'm hoping it's close to a wash.-H
 
I got the final shape of the cockpit/canopy area done. I went with a high Mach wedge type windscreen much like the SR and 106. In fact the whole area is reminiscent of the X-15 ,just larger. This is just a rough out. Tomorrow I'll get a coat or two of resin on it and the intake area. After that I'll sand it smooth and take care of any little fine tweaks I need to make. Just a reminder to all, This is not an exact replica of the original but an updated version. That said I'll try my best to stay with the "spirit" of the Dragonfly. It will more closely resemble the one shown in the end credits.--20160818_215032.jpg20160818_215042.jpg20160818_215111.jpg
 
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This is not an exact replica of the original but an updated version. That said I'll try my best to stay with the "spirit" of the Dragonfly. It will more closely resemble the one shown in the end credits.--View attachment 299270View attachment 299271View attachment 299272

Seems like it would be hard to criticize a model based on cartoon aircraft for being "out of scale."
I am still hoping you or der Micromeister or DaddyisaBarwill do a flying rocket model of Snoopy's doghouse Sopwith Camel
 
Seems like it would be hard to criticize a model based on cartoon aircraft for being "out of scale."
I am still hoping you or der Micromeister or DaddyisaBarwill do a flying rocket model of Snoopy's doghouse Sopwith Camel

I hear ya ! The thing is, there seems to be certain preconceived idea of --EXACTLY--what it's supposed to look like. If you do enough research on the Quest SST--not the "Dragonfly" as it's called--And no one seems to know where that name came from but we'll go with it--There are a ton of variations in the art. So, in my infinite wisdom , I chose to do my own Dragonfly III to put to bed all the experts. So in the end this will be a really cool looking rocket that looks something like the Quest SST might look 30 or 40 years later. Oh !!!!. and by the way, I found this in some old photos from the day when I was in the service. -- I think I was somewhere that I should not have been????Z7-SEAVIEW-undergoing-overhaul-at-EB-Graving-Dock-Platform-1.jpg
 
I did manage to get the cockpit area and intake area coated tonight with resin. I'll give it a couple days to cure and then proceed. I guess the next process will be to cut off part of the rear and go ahead and core out the shell. After that it's gonna get a little tricky. I'll have to build up the center bt and wing structure and insert that whole mess into the shell---of course I'll have to cut the damn nose off as well as a few inches of the rear and get that whole mess aligned. OOOOOOOH, This could go bad fast--jonny.jpg
 
The Skydart was introduced in 1971, so it was not a direct and immediate result of the show, which ran originally from 1964-1965.

I would bet it had a minor design influence, at most. Wing shape is much different, inlet design much different.

I'd have to agree. About the only thing I see similar is the shape of the tail.
 
Getting back to work on it today. The resin has set on the nose section. This thing is so big , I'll be prepping it in 12 to 14 inch sections just so it's not quite so overwhelming. First coated with resin--20160821_153828.jpg----next a good coating of 2X primer. I let this sit for 2 days--20160821_154159.jpg20160821_154214.jpg---after a quick scuff off I applied glazing putty to the area around the cockpit--20160823_104133.jpg---I'll let this sit outside in the 90+ temps for a couple hours while I run some errands. This afternoon I'll block it down and get some grey primer on it--Picks to come---H
 
More sanding done . I'll keep this short since it can get a bit boring. I blocked the glazing putty down--20160823_142425.jpg--I was pretty happy with that and applied a coat of grey primer--20160823_142618.jpg---there were still a few little pin holes, so I put a bit of putty on each one.---20160823_162010.jpg A couple hours later I wet blocked the nose section down. With the exception of a couple tiny spots it's slick as a baby's butt--20160823_163505.jpg20160823_163512.jpg20160823_163522.jpg---I'll be moving on to the center section next---H
 
So I got the intake area filled and sanded to shape. When that was done I coated everything with a layer of FG resin. That soaks in nicely to the filler and really helps bond everything. I mixed the resin hot but the thinner stuff has not set yet after several hours--I left it outside in 90+ temps but it's still a bit tacky--hmmm---well I'll let it go for another day--no rush! Once I start sanding that area and priming , I'll get pics out. I'm going to revisit the wing design tonight. Since it's no longer a BG, there's no need to move it forward as much as I did but I'll let aesthetics play a role as well as some degree of realism. The tail should remain about the same although I've decided to change the area around the exhaust nozzle to something that approximates my 104. It's just a more sculpted look . I did watch a documentary of the show last night and it answered a lot of questions concerning the artwork. It seems there were huge budget constraints on the cartoon , so that answers some of the questions regarding the various differences in ship throughout the series. I'm sure a comic book version would have been more consistent and detailed--- I'll post a link later to it, it's about an hour and a half long---Later--H
 
Yea, I guess it's about time. Anyway, got to work on the mid section. This is gonna take a little effort. Frankly at the beginning of this project I did a sloppy job of glassing this area--now I'm paying for it! Add to that the change in the intake design and--well, you get the picture. After the new intake area was sanded I put down a layer of resin over the entire area. This soaked into the filler and the paper/card stock intake.---20160823_193943.jpg---after that a couple of coats of primer filler and I let that sit for a couple days---20160826_184536.jpg---tonight I wet sanded the area over the sink.----20160827_195840.jpg Most--not all- of the hot spots came out. The intake splitter will take some detail sanding and the sides where the intake meets the fuselage is gonna take some messaging. All in all it went better than expected. I figure in a couple of days I should have it ready for final priming. I honestly don't have that much time in it. I'll re-prime tonight and let it sit outside tomorrow in the heat. I'll sand tomorrow night while watching the race. With any luck at all, I'll be out of the "sand your brains out" part by next weekend and start the rockety parts of the build. Later--H
 
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