Royal Naboo Cruiser Project
April 6, 2005 – Howdy folks. Here’s the pictorial progress of my radio controlled
(RC) airplane that I’m building from scratch. I was totally inspired by the Royal Naboo Cruiser in Star Wars: Episode II. As a result, I took on building one! This particular Naboo Cruiser is very sleek in it’s design, yet retains a grandiose, if not commanding presence, due in part to its large wing span. I was truely heartbroken to see it blow up, but the show must go on! In any event, the aircraft/spacecraft is something that I aspire to recreate – the Royal Naboo Cruiser will fly again! For more story and background on this project, please
visit my blog.
Click the thumbnails for a larger picture!
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All the junk on the plane. Just so that I can have an idea of where things are going to go. |
Same idea, different view. I’ve added the scissors and pen to give you a sense of scale. The ducted fans are 3.5 inches in diameter. I will be purchasing two more with my next paycheck. (a total of four!) | |
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| From the other side. The tail hasn’t been made yet. Beer coolers too. | From the front, above. Kind of hard to do when you’re not looking through the viewfinder. | |
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| Don’t take beer from a Velociraptor! |
Yet another top view. Trying to fit the whole wingspan in one shot is rather difficult. |
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| Hot knife for cutting the foam. Purchased at Hobbytown USA for about $30. | Homemade hot knife. Alligator clips, momentary push button switch, large gauge wire, 9.6V battery pack, and hot knife wire. Oh, and electrical tape. | |
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| Bare. This is the aircraft at the moment. As you can see, it’s missing some major components. | Another bare shot. You can see that the Right wing still needs additional smoothing. | |
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| Fuselage top and part of the false cockpit. | Underside. I’ll peel the blue plastic film off before applying it to the aircraft. | |
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| Tail/spine section. | Same thing, from the side. | |
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| Same thing, but from the bottom! | Just the wings. And a piece of duct tape. | |
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The underside of the leading edge of the wings.
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The leading edge. It’s a rather slim plane when it’s just the wings. (about 1.5") | |
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| Commander! Battle droid is engaging us! Send reinforcements! |
