Add some graphics to your Flitetest FT Duster!

by InTheFade | October 18, 2013 | (20) Posted in Just Fun

 

    I have been flying and scratch building planes for years but using foam board and hot glue is completely new to me. After watching the FT Duster Review and Build i really wanted to try building one for myself. after picking up a stack of foamboard, I was able to get the building done in two short evenings. Once all the pieces were cut out, the assembly with the glue gun(aside from the burns) was actually pretty easy and fun. 

 

    I proceeded to spend the next few days covering the plane with orange and white covering tape. I opted for tape because i figured it would help keep the paper covered foam from becoming a soggy mess on wet grass. I just happened to have some left over tape from building a foam wing a couple years back but you can buy various colors from TapeBrothers.com 

 

 The orange and white tape looked awesome by itself but I wanted the plane to more closely resemble the Disney version.

 

I sketched up some graphics using a couple side views I found of the plane from the cartoon. The black, silver and white graphics were cut out of adhesive backed vinyl using a vinyl cutter.

The eyes were photoshopped out from a picture of Dusty I found online.

 

I originally hadn't planned on adding the exhaust pipes but after adding the black graphics; I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with not having them. Using Solidworks I modeled up some simple exhaust pipes and printed them out on a 3D printer.

 

 

The 3D printed parts were sanded and painted silver. They were attached to the plane using a screw from the inside of the fuselage and a dab of hot glue.


I finished off the plane with a FliteTest Gremlin Decal. Had to give props to a great and well thought out design.

 

I wil l post a video of the maiden soon!  I really enjoyed my first foamboard build. Im going to have to try building an FT Racer next!

Here you can download the files that i used to detail Dusty including the vinyl graphics plotter file and the 3D .STL file used to print the exhaust pipes.

Dusty's Eye Graphics

Dusty Graphics.DXF

Dusty Graphics.DWG

Dusty's Exhaust pipe 3D printer file

COMMENTS

steadfast4life on October 22, 2013
Great job! Just finishing my Husker Duster (livin in corn country). Looks good!
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Thanks! hope to see yours posted soon.
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Jghanson25 on October 21, 2013
awesome! can't wait to have enough money to get a big enough power set up for this plane! haha I know it's fairly cheap but man I just can't afford it yet. Great job on the plane man! Love it!

-jono
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Thanks!
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LordVader on October 21, 2013
Really cool. Like your rendition and the tape is cool. I think I may try some tape instead of painting.
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Yeah, tape is pretty quick and easy. And If you dont like it, you can usually peel it off and start over.
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Hell2Go on October 21, 2013
i'm waiting on servos to finish building my dusty, my computer can't open your files, maybe you could post them as jpg? thx

I bought a t-shirt transfer kit @ walmart for $9.97 for 7 sheets of 8 1/2 x11 that i can print out in reverse image then just iron them on!.... I'll let you know how it works. - Ed
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Here is a .PDF of the graphics. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90243227/Dusty%20Graphics%20-%20Model.pdf Hopefully this will work for you. If not you can download a .DWG file viewer online for free that will allow you to print out the graphics from the files above. Thanks. -Ed
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fferm on November 12, 2013
Hi

Any chance we can have a pdf with the various parts of the graphics on separate pages. Printing with different paper formats doesn¨t work that great for me...

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ABQBannerman on December 31, 2017
Ed, I am putting together a Dusty for my grandson. Is there any way I could get your graphics files?
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Bur_Lion on October 22, 2013
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for!
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Cool, glad you can use it!
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jetpackninja on October 21, 2013
Awesome!
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InTheFade on October 22, 2013
Thanks!
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Buk on October 25, 2013
Great job on the graphics, very nice.

-Buk
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brucejohnson on November 10, 2013
Great job!

How do I get to the free plans for FT Duster?
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dhaakinson221 on October 31, 2016
How did you do the wing tips and make them look so clean??
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JDog619Ca on September 18, 2019
I'm hoping someone has the the graphics files the links above? The links no longer work. I never considered making an ft duster and tell my grandson wanted one.

Dusty's Eye Graphics

Dusty Graphics.DXF

Dusty Graphics.DWG

Dusty's Exhaust pipe 3D printer file
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charles.connor@fsst.tas.gov.au on March 16, 2021
Could you please please please send me a copy of the exhaust pipe stl file. I'm new to 3d printing and don't yet know how to design.
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Add some graphics to your Flitetest FT Duster!