Only two servos needed for the Baka Bomb, ailerons and elevator. Control surfaces are easily connected to micro servos (above left) and leave room for
going through the fuselage, between the up- per and lower spars. This is easier and stronger than cutting a hole through the pro- file fuselage for the foam wing. Any low tem- perature iron-on plastic wing covering mate- rial will work on the foam wing cores. I prefer the SLC covering sold by The Core House— it’s light and accepts about any kind of paint. Hinging the ailerons and elevator is done in the usual foamy manner with 2-inch wide clear plastic packaging tape. The leading edges of the ailerons and elevator are cut and sanded at an angle, and the tape ap- plied to the upper surfaces first. Then, with the control surfaces folded upward, the tape is applied to the bottom side, pushing it into the hinge gap and sealing it to both surfaces. This provides free movement and a strong, completely sealed hinge gap.
The servos are mounted by cutting holes in the foam so the servo is a push fit, and it is secured in place with a few dabs from a
easy adjustment. Control horns (above right) are made from plywood and glued into the sheet foam. Further adjustments are made with a Mini E/Z link.
hot glue gun. Slots are cut in the control sur- faces and the 1⁄16-inch plywood control horns epoxied in place. I use .047-inch wire for the pushrods, with a Z-bend on one end and Du- Bro’s
www.dubro.com Mini E/Z link on the other end. Hot glue short pieces of plastic tubing to the fuselage side to keep the eleva- tor pushrod from flexing.
The ESC, receiver, and Li-Po battery are mounted to the fuselage with hook and loop tape. For the battery, I cut slots through the fuselage and use a hook and loop strap for security. I didn’t bother with rudder control to keep things simple, but you could rig up a control linkage for the rudders if you think it’s worth the effort.
I paint my foamy warbirds with water based acrylic craft paint; easy to use, avail- able in lots of colors, and it’s low cost. I use a low cost, simple airbrush to spray the paint and, with a fairly large nozzle on the air- brush, thinning the paint with plain water
is easy and I don’t have clogging problems. A Sharpie marker pen is used to draw a few panel lines on the airframe, and the detail- ing really helps the scale appearance. The canopy area can be painted white or light blue, and marker pen detailing again helps the appearance. I cut the insignia from adhesive-backed vinyl I get at a local sign shop.
A brushless outrunner motor, about 120
to 150 watts, will provide good performance. I use the BP Hobbies 2212-13 motor, their 18-amp ESC, a 9–5 prop, and a 3-cell 1800 or 2000 mAh Li-Po battery pack. The plane is easily hand launched with an underhand toss at full throttle, and it will jump right out of your hand into the sky.
Well, this isn’t a detailed scale project, but it is an easily built and good flying model of a somewhat unusual WW II warbird, and it can give you a lot of flying fun for little effort and cost. Hey this airplane stuff is fun!
The twin tail BakaBombis easy to launch with just a simple underhand toss. In the air (at left), the model has a look like no other. When it’s time to land (above), simply cut the power and glide in.
FLYING MODELS 45
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