I baked some salt-flour dough ornaments yesterday, and need to paint/finish them.
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Havenāt painted the ornaments yet. I did however make chocolate caramel truffles for a Superbowl party. And I have a request for more catnip toys from the shelter.
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I confused this with the āPet and Animal Picsā thread I had open in another tab, and I was very alarmed.
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Building my first foamboard RC plane:
I already know a bit about aerodynamics, but Iām clueless with electronics. So, Iām now about to start soldering for the first time ever as I hook up the motor/battery/ESC/receiver.
Got to do a bit of micro-blacksmithing, too: the scraps of piano wire Iām using for control rods needed straightening, so I pulled out the cobblerās anvil and banged on 'em for a while.
Much of fun. 
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I could say Iām working on a short story which is a spinoff from two previous short stories but Iāve been stuck for weeks with second act problems.
I just went to Michaelās to pick up some foam board myself. Flying wings are best suited for a first go in this format, so you are taking a bigger first bite. Good on ya. Tip: If you have any control rods that end up long - typically for the tail surfaces with keeping servo weight up at the wing for CG - send the rods through a drinking straw. Keeps 'em from bending.
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Facehuggers coupled with the term āhole fillingā squick me out a bit.
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HAHA! āFillā
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Routed through Chupa-Chup sticks, actually; stiffer and narrower than straws. 
Iāll probably do a Mini Arrow for my next one, but I wanted something a bit slower for a flight trainer.
Just had my first LiPo incident, BTW. Iād hooked up my new 2S/850mAh battery to the charger to see if it was charged. There was problem with the charger rebooting itself every time I tried to start it charging, so I unplugged the power and the charging leads from the charger to make everything āsafeā.
Unfortunately, the charging leads were still plugged into the battery, and that lead has half a dozen different connectors on it (two plugs that go to the charger plus a bunch of plugs for various battery types).
One of the unoccupied battery plugs touched one of the charger plugs, which made some sort of circuit with the power in the battery, andā¦boom. Instant flash fire, cable totally destroyed, unsure if the battery took damage from the rapid discharge.
New charger and battery now on order from HobbyKingā¦
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I run a 250 racer with the CC3D controller (with Open Pilot firmware) and a FlySky9 so I havenāt used the Naze myself, but there is a uTube channel called Flite Test that has a complete buildup walkthrough on the Naze (specific link) along with a bunch of other flight stuff.
Regarding ordering electronics from China, it is hit/miss, but more so with the explosion of quads - as everyone noticed with this years hot xmas gift trying to kill them and theirs.
hobbyking.com is pretty good, Iāve sent them a lot of my money. Just be sure to set your region as that will impact shipping (both in terms of cost and time to ship). Iāve also had good experiences with helipal.com, bananahobby.com, banggood.com and motionrc.com (thatās all I have in my bookmarks that I recall for sure),
HTH.
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I learned to fly fixed wing with the Super Cub and now mostly fly warbirds and use a Twin Star as my ādaily driverā, quads are my new on again/off again RC hobby.
I picked up the foamboard to build a Super Cub, just to see how well it comes out. Thatās the fun for me anyway, I do enjoy flying but I enjoy the A&C side of design and build every bit as much. Though I have to admit that it is nowhere near as painful to crash a foamie or a foamboard flyer like it was back in the day when you spent a year working on Bulsa only to have it explode on takeoff 
(edit: that note was for myself)
(edit: Iām clumsy, I didnāt notice that Iād clipped part of my reply)
LiPo fires can be pretty dangerous as Iām sure youāre well aware. I use a military ammo box to hold the batteries during charging, though you can buy charging bags that are fire resistant. Just never leave something to charge unattended.
If you havenāt placed your order, perhaps grab a battery status tester thatās independent from your charger - youāll want to check those cells before you apply power to it again. There is no hard/fast rule for when a short damages a LiPo. Portable testers are handy for multiple reasons and quite reasonably priced. these are great for basic voltage checks, have a very loud alarm and can be left attached to the battery during flight so youāll hear a chirp once you reach your pre-selected low voltage. I use one of those pretty much every time I fly, even on my 250 quad when practicing. Helps avoid low voltage incidents. I canāt find the other tester I have because I cantā find it, but it has more detail for each cell.
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The ādodgy Chinese websitesā comment was a little tongue in cheek. I usually use Hobby King, BangGood and AliExpress and to be fair havenāt yet reached anywhere near the 10% component failure rate that would make it less economical than buying in NZ, despite the often high shipping costs. They are dodgy only in that you have little hold over them if anything does go wrong. For the most part you do get what you pay for. Iāll check out the other links, thank you.
The pictured quad died very spectacularly when I got over confident and did a low pass over a small ridge. A gust of wind tipped it in and it did a beautiful 30m cartwheel tumble across the field, snapping an arm in the process. Only the frame broke though, everything else was salvageable. Next one will be a Hex ā¦
The current project is a Shapeoko 3 CNC mill like this one:
Edit: How odd, my own preview of this post has a photo of the mill on it, yet when I save the page I canāt see it ā¦
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May I inquire as to what software you use for creating/editing your 3D files? Iāve been fiddling around with SketchUp, as Iād like to achieve some proficiency in the software before I consider buying a 3D printer/remover but itās not as easy to use as I recall apps like Bryce or Poser to be - it may just be me thoā¦
I donāt know yet!
My Shapeokoās mechanical build is complete and everything is square and runs free, but itās still awaiting the Stepoko electronics fit, a spindle and some end mills before I can experiment.
The recommended tool chain for the Sparkfun Stepoko board is here so thatās what Iām planning on using to start.
Carbide 3D are planning to support the Stepoko with their own Carbide Motion software later in the year. That should streamline the tool chain considerably as the driver software will be incorporated into the CAD program.
Iām also slowly chipping away at learning Eagle for PCB design, as there is a GRBL plugin for it that adds the tool paths and auto levelling corrections to the Eagle CAD file ready for upload to the CNC mill. That tool chain should then allow me to mill my own boards ā¦
An alternative tool chain for PCBs is here.
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So, I got these todayā¦
Thanks to a co-worker picking them up from Ukraine.
Now I need a high voltage psu.
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Depending on how complex/accurate you plan on making your models there are plenty of options. Sketchup is about as easy as it comes, but does have some minor annoyances for advanced users of other 3D packages. Right now I use Blender 3D as a traditional 3D modler, Sketchup for some quick somewhat accurate designs, and started messing around with openscad for S&Gās.
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Nice! 
How much did they set you back, may I ask? And what are the driver ICs?
All done; just waiting for the new charger to arrive.
I think Iāll paint it red to kill time while I wait, and add a little canopy just forward of the wings. Maybe some taildragger landing gear as well.
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