Blunt Nose Baby Kraken

So as soon as I saw the well wisher Kickstarter pack for Flite Fest I couldn't help but pledge and secure a Kraken SBK. I, like everyone else here I'm sure, have been wanting one ever since the very first video FT released with it. When the blunt nose versa came out I saw a few comments that mirrored a fleeting thought I had; what about a blunt nose kraken? I dismissed it because I figure just shy of six feet is enough wingspan, but then I had another idea. I decided I wanted a trainer version of the kraken so I don't end up destroying mine when I get it. I had 2 HXT 24 gram motors lying around from FT flyers and my Viggen and decided to build a twin motor versa, then later decided to do the blunt nose mod to try to get a little more lift to compensate for the extra weight and complexity of twin motors in case I ever decide to carry a GoPro or a larger battery, or both when I start venturing into FPV. This isn't gonna really be the most helpful article if anybody else wants to go about this project and there aren't too many pictures, since when I start building I get into it and usually don't stop until I'm done with it, but I still wanted to share my little idea since I haven't seen another one yet.


Lately I've gone a little LED crazy so I had to fill up my baby kraken with some, and I made sure to leave a couple open JST plugs in case this ever gets any FPV treatment. Motor nacelles were a bit of an issue since I had no real plans to go off of when I was installing them, I pretty much just lined them up one at a time as best I could and they're probably off by a little bit but, eh, either it flies or it doesn't. At any rate, here's some pictures I did actually manage to take of it, let me know what you guys think.

Testing out the lights in the first wing section before going any further

Dry fit of the two halves of the basic versa to see how things are coming along

Now with the blunt nose center, hoping the different front and rear colors might help a little with night flying orientation

Onto the fun stuff, motor layout and checking servo direction before working on and mounting the nacelles

So apparently I took no pictures between no nacelles and nacelles. On a side note, after they were mounted I kind of wish I had mounted the servos on the bottom since the nacelles would have protected it all and I'd have a much cleaner wing top

Working on the motor layout and making sure my harness was gonna work

Both motors mounted, all of the wiring done at this point and it's only a few stages away. Took me about four tries to get a landing gear I was somewhat satisfied and I still don't know if I'm keeping the current set. Didn't finish the landing gear until all of the rest of the plane was finished.

Made my battery tray and mounted it same as on the kraken, on the bottom of the plane and realized what I made looked a bit like a spider. I may end up adding a piece further towards the back for balancing a 2200 with a GoPro up front. The battery I balanced it with is a 1500.

Linkages, motors, lights, all up and running. All that's left is landing gear and vertical stabilizers.

Marked out some custom stabilizers. I wanted to print plans for the Versa in as little paper as I could so I only printed the first page of the untiled plans so I'd have the spars.

I used the nacelles from the kraken plans and I have no idea if the thrust angle will be right. This was pretty much just an experiment and tomorrow I'll get to try it out if weather permits. I'll update after the maiden, thanks for looking!

Update: So I made several flights before I realized I never even glued in my control horns. Overall it seems to do okay, but it's definitely a handful and seems to like doing bad things. Once I get back from vacation and get a workbench built I'll start trying to get a flight video so maybe somebody can offer me some advice on how to fix some of its tendencies. I'm only just barely experienced enough to keep it reigned in on flights, I can't really tell from how it behaves in the air what the problems are and how to fix them. But it glides for days and for something I slapped together with no planning or anything else, I'm very happy with it. Can't wait to get a GoPro onboard.