Part 6 - How to Design DTFB Planes

by nerdnic | October 2, 2014 | (10) Posted in How To

Get your plans print ready.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

How to select the best reference image and how to establish the proper scale of your plane.

Using the line tool, layers, and starting on designing your fuselage, horizontal, and vertical stabilizer.

Designing your wing.

Fuselage, formers, and control surfaces.

Joining tail feathers, poster board, and misc details.

Getting your plans print ready.

Beta 1 build tips - coming soon

COMMENTS

suvansh on October 2, 2014

Great work!!! I got one question.
I design my planes(scaled) on sketchup, then I have to convert it into the pdf as shown by you, but when I open the Adobe reader and start printing, it doesn't print to the size. I have calculate the percentage on which it will print to size, when printed on X%. Am I doing something wrong? How can get the plans printed to scale without doing the above steps?
Thanks again, next time I'm going with the Ps.
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nerdnic on October 2, 2014

Hi there. I'm not familiar with sketch up but it sounds like your plans are not the proper scale. This should be easy to fix and maybe someone can point you in the right direction. Good luck!
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suvansh on October 2, 2014

that could be a point!
thanks!
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spetnazer on October 5, 2014

Hi Mr. Nerdnic....whether this method can be used to draft a Boeing aircraft? I'd love to make plans the MD-80 aircraft. if you want to make a tutorial? I would be very grateful
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nerdnic on October 6, 2014

Hi there. My method would definitely work. There would be some changes in the fuselage during the plan creation to account for the round shape, though. I've only built 1 round fuselage before and I'm still working out the kinks but I plan to tackle the Corsair in the future followed by other round designs.

The MD-80 would be a really cool model and you should try to design one!
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alibopo on October 6, 2014

Great series! Thanks for taking the effort to put this out. It inspired me to look out an old version of InDesign by Adobe that I had sitting around. InDesign is a desktop publishing package, but uses much the same layering and drawing tools as Photoshop. What a revelation! I've spent a few hours getting up to speed and eventually turned out plans for a swappable pod Polikarpov PO2 biplane. There's a few 'rough' details, and I've still to sort out the cabane strut wire elements and the profiles for the turtledecks, but it's been great fun. I take my hat off to you - this is a great system for getting from 3-views to templates for foam board. Cheers!
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nerdnic on October 6, 2014

Awesome, thanks for the comment. I am glad you've benefited from the series so far. Part 7+ will have some helpful tips on how to take the next steps of physical design and then create the appropriate digital plans for them, it works well for the formers and poster board pieces, and canopy.
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spetnazer on October 7, 2014

Hi ... my main trouble until now when making design boeing and airbus aircraft is partially part is split in the fuselage to be balanced. my knowledge of this very common at all. And I think it would be helpful at all if one day you want to make a tutorial about making plans of the MD-80. thank you
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Part 6 - How to Design DTFB Planes

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