for this project i’m going to show you howto raise a squadron of 3d fighter jet puzzles, and assemble an elite fleet, of foam fighterjets, that’ll fly straight as an arrow, and cruise over 40 ft away. to start this project, you’ll just needa piece of foam-board from the dollar store. it doesn’t matter whether it’s a blackor white board, because we’re just after
3d printed gun blueprints download, the foam on the inside. pick one of the corners, and use a fingernailto carefully peel the top layer off the board. then flip it over, and peel the paper offthe other side as well. this should leave you with a nice large sheet,of medium density styrofoam.
now the next thing you’ll need are thesestyrofoam cutting templates i made, for building a su-27 fighter jet. and i’ve put a linkin the description, to where you can get those. print off the templates, and use a sharp pairof scissors, to carefully cut around the outlines of the puzzle pieces, as neatly as you can,and take time to do a good job, because the finished product, will only be as straight,as your cuts. now if you printed your templates on fullpage label paper, you can simply peel off the backing, and stick the pieces directlyto the foam. otherwise, just use some glue to slap themon, instead. i cut and pasted all my pieces to the foamboard, so let’s get ready to slice and dice, with electricity.
the quickest, cleanest, and easiest way tocut these styrofoam shapes, is with the “styro-slicerâ€, i showed you how to make in a previous project. this homemade “wire foam cutterâ€, useselectricity, to heat up a very thin wire, and melt through styrofoam, like butter. flip the red switch to the “normal†powersetting, then press the control knob, to get the electricity buzzing, and turn up the dial. it should only take about 2 seconds, for thesystem to heat up. and you can see the instant the wire touches the foam, it glides rightthrough it, without any trouble at all. now i find the best approach, to precisionstyrofoam slicing, is simply to rough out
the individual pieces first, then focus ontracing the templates themselves, once they’re smaller and easier to handle. you can see the wire slices through the foamwith ease, but notice how it doesn’t actually cut through the paper. that means, that anything you can make outof paper, you can now, make into foam. when you finish tracing the edges, you shouldbe able to pop the templates right out of the foam, leaving you with clean, and professionallooking, puzzle pieces. alright our 3d puzzle’s, nearly ready forassembly. there’s just one thing we need to do first. the little white slots on the paper stillneed to be cut out, so find a sharp knife with a pointy tip, and carefully begin carving,along the edges.
i put a piece of scrap foam on the bottom,to help protect my work surface, and you can see it gives the blade a little better penetration,through the foam, as well. now when all 4 sides are cut, simply pressit with the tip of the knife, and the piece should fall right out, leaving a clean, blankhole in its place. go ahead and cut the other slots the exactsame way, and your 3d puzzle, is ready for assembly. now do a quick check, to make sure you have29 puzzle pieces, that look like these. and it’s ok to leave the paper glued to thefoam, because i designed it, so that you could. now rather than spoiling the fun and showingyou how the puzzle goes together, i’m going to let you try and figure it out by yourself.
but the pieces are made to inter-lock, andhold themselves together without glue. these finished 3d fighter jets make an awesomeaddition to your desktop or dresser, and can make really fun gifts as well. the aircraft is modeled after an su-27 fighterjet, and if you give it a gentle tug upward, it’ll separate, right off the base. you can see how the missiles, and each ofthe other components, interlock with each other, making the jet surprisingly robust,and durable, considering it’s made of foam. now when you’re done admiring your handy-work,just look on the underside, directly in the center, and you’ll find a hook for connectingit back to the base.
simply push the stand into place, and yourfoam fighter stands proudly on its own, until you need it, for the next mission. now just for fun i tried peeling the paperoff the templates, and made a couple versions, in plain white foam. which actually look prettycool, in-and-of themselves. in fact, i made a whole squadron of differentshapes, sizes, and models, which are all really awesome. but would be even cooler, if theycould fly. now with a few modifications, i just createda “fling fighter jet†version, that’s powered by rubber bands, and will easily cruiseover 40 ft away. the design’s similar to the 3d puzzle, butit’s different enough, that i gave it it’s own template.
the “fling fighter jet†only has 4 piecesto cut out, which can be done quickly and easily, the same way you made the others. and similar to the puzzle, the pieces aredesigned to interlock, and hold themselves tightly together, as well. now you will need a way to balance your “foamfighter†so it flies straight, and i recommend using a small wire nail, like the kind youuse for hanging pictures. carefully push one down into the nose, andit’ll shift the center of gravity, forward. now the weight of the nail you need, willbe different depending on the type of foam you use, the elevation you’re at, and thetemperature, so you’ll need to experiment with which nails work best for you, in yourarea.
but in my experimenting, #16 wire nails between1-1/4†- 1-1/2â€, worked best for me. when you’ve got your jet perfectly balanced,it’ll shoot as straight as an arrow. load your “fling fighter", by looping anelastic band around the hook under the cockpit, then grab the tab, at the end of the jet. pull back, to power it up, then simply aim,and release. these “fling fighters†can be launchedover and over, and they fly impressive distances. especially indoors. well now you know how to convert pieces ofdollar store foam-board, into interactive “fling fightersâ€. or raise a micro air-force,of 3d fighter jet puzzles, you made yourself.
by the way. with the “styro-slicerâ€, you’renot just limited to making airplanes either.
in fact, you can make anything you can thinkof. well that’s it for now. if you liked thisproject, perhaps you’ll like some of my others. check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com
