Bloody Baron Nose

thingiverse

I'm generally thrilled with the various Flite Test airplanes I've built so far. However, many of them, especially those with the engine mounted other than in the nose, are problematic structurally or visually or both. I just finished my first Bloody Baron and like all of my other DTFB planes, I performed some modifications. For one thing, I used an arrow shaft for a spar with 1” wide, bare foam spacer pads, one below and one above the arrow shaft. I stripped the paper from both sides of the foam and glued on skins which I printed myself on 11x17 bond paper. Then I put clear packing tape over that before I folded the wing. The solid color areas use colored packing tape over bare foam. Most of the interior surfaces are bare foam. The most obvious change is the 3D printed plastic nose. My goal was to make the nose a little bit like the Fokker DVIII and less like a 1950’s model plane. Making a cowl similar to a Newport or an SE-5 would be easy enough. To fit the nose, I simply cut off the standard fuselage just ahead of the wing leading edge and attached the 3D printed component with hot glue. It has 2 degrees of down thrust. If you print your own cowling design, don’t forget to allow for the non-vertical firewall. I haven’t tried to retrofit it to an existing Bloody Baron, but I tried to follow the standard dimensions so I imagine it would work. Of course, this nose will NOT work with the normal Flite Test power pod. But I have never built a power pod anyway; much preferring to have permanently installed equipment in my foam airplanes. The nose includes a firewall with mounting holes for a motor mount using a 34mm diameter. Use a 3mm tap to prepare the holes for 3mm mounting bolts. I find that works better than 3D printing the threads. You could use nuts on the back side of the firewall, but it would be difficult to perform a motor change. Print the nose in the firewall-down position without support. There are longitudinal stringers extending aft from the nose. They glue to the inside of the fuselage and form a mounting point for a foam “shelf”. My ESC is mounted above the shelf. My 1800mah 3S battery is mounted on the bottom surface using a small piece of Velcro and a battery strap which passes through slots in the shelf. An alternative mounting strap could go through the slots in the nose. My Bloody Baron balances with the tail servos just ahead of the horizontal stabilizer, the receiver just ahead of the aileron hinge line, and the battery tucked half-way into the 3D printed nose. In other words, the middle of the battery is in line with the wing leading edge. The cowling should be printed nose-up with support even if you don’t like support. Otherwise, the surface will not be smooth. I also made some belly skids to protect the raw foam edges of the fuselage. I’ve only included one STL file because it’s symmetrical enough to be used on either side. Or, if you prefer, you can print a mirror image. Enjoy. Don’t bother to tip me. If you build my nose modification, then next time you’re belly-up at the bar, raise your beer, turn to the person sitting next to you, and say “Cheers to Bob”.