Jonny Quest "Dragonfly III"

[BABAR]

I was looking at one of Frank’s more recent gliders, and thought if anyone could do a Jonny quest dragonfly glider it would be him, then remembered this build, did a search and found Frank’s version on this post.

Anyway, hope life is treating you and Deb better and would love to see some more of your builds!

 

[burkefj]

Interestingly I recently re-worked my RC RG kit version for a customer, I moved the wing to the bottom with some dihedral and added a belly scoop which will require grass landings to avoid damage, but it looks more original, basically I upsized the wing and moved the wing/scoop forward to give a reasonable CG location.

 

[aerostadt]

This design really looks cool and is a big improvement over the previous version!

 

[BABAR]

Slick!
Do the canards do anything functional?

 

[burkefj]

No the canards are just there because the cartoon has them BTW, I got out to fly it this morning, really nice, I had about 1/2 ounce tail weight was perfect and gave me 11 oz rtf, glide is shorter than some of my other models because the wing area is reduced, but still about a minute. On the kit for my customer I'll move the wing forward 1/2 inch and then he wont need any tail weight and be a bit lighter. Plenty of pitch control to flare for a plop down landing on grass and no issues with the intake scoop getting damaged.Here she is all finished up.

Slick!
Do the canards do anything functional?

 

[BABAR]

Finished up wonderfully. Would make a pretty cool rocket even if it DIDN’T have glider recovery!

 

[Rktman]

Beautiful panel line detailing! Sorry if I've asked this before but how do you put in those super thin lines, and is it done freehand?

 

[burkefj]

Thank you, these are done with a black fine line sharpie, I simply use a clear triangle as a guide for the straight edges, draw one side, then measure some location distances to replicate them on the other side. I may use a 3-view or just make up something that looks reasonable and not too empty or busy. For the fuselage, I used a piece of the body tube that I cut off the front and split it to be used for the panel lines around the body tube, and re-split it again to wrap around above the wing as I needed more clearance, I used a piece of angle aluminum for the longitudinal lines.
It goes surprisingly quick, maybe 45 minutes to do this, and it adds a lot and makes the model really pop.

Frank

Beautiful panel line detailing! Sorry if I've asked this before but how do you put in those super thin lines, and is it done freehand?

 

[Rktman]

Thank you, these are done with a black fine line sharpie, I simply use a clear triangle as a guide for the straight edges, draw one side, then measure some location distances to replicate them on the other side. I may use a 3-view or just make up something that looks reasonable and not too empty or busy. For the fuselage, I used a piece of the body tube that I cut off the front and split it to be used for the panel lines around the body tube, and re-split it again to wrap around above the wing as I needed more clearance, I used a piece of angle aluminum for the longitudinal lines.
It goes surprisingly quick, maybe 45 minutes to do this, and it adds a lot and makes the model really pop.

Frank

That's amazing. I can even see rivets when I zoom in! I take it the tiny circles are done with a circle guide of some kind? What really impresses me is that each panel is replicated exactly on the other side and you have a good sense of what looks purposeful and realistic.

 

[burkefj]

Yes, I also have one of those green plastic circle guides, but in this case it was just the hole in my 12" ruler I used

 

[burkefj]

Here is a flight from this evening....

 

[BABAR]

Just wonderful!
Crud, Even the camera work is outstanding.
Really like the moon shot in mid flight.

Congrats on (anUther) great project.