Hey there! Like so many others, I was having trouble getting my hands on a Nano Goblin, so I decided to design something to fit the mission. Along came the Gremlin. The Gremlin is designed to the bleeding edge of 3D printable weight savings, with ease of assembly and printing in mind. It is a ground-up aerodynamic design with its own tailored airfoil set, and wing planform. It features slightly more wingspan and wing area than the famed Nano Goblin to put up with the extra weight. On average, wing loading should be very similar, as should performance. It can be printed anywhere between 110-170g depending on filament, and it can be printed on ANY 200Β³ printer. In fact, it is designed to be printable in a single print, sharing a common slicer setting.
I personally use Polymaker's passively foamed LW-PLA, for a roughly 30-40% weight savings over standard PLA.
There are various options for multiple parts. Make sure you plan your build and print accordingly! Nose and leading edges are designed such that you can print them in TPU if you desire, for a bit more crash survivability. If you do so, I suggest the leading edges are printed in 10% infill.
Included in the files are options for;
- Wings with the leading edge built in (for weight savings)
- Wings with a stand alone leading edge (for those who want to do TPU)
- New Four different nose cones with openings for the Caddx Nano, Nebula Nano Pro as well as Nebula Pro plus a blank slate with only NACA ducts.
- New Two Camera/Vtx mounts (14mm and 19mm) for HD Zero Race. These can run Vista w/t same bolt pattern - they just push the Vtx further back because the HD Zero doesnt fit.
- New Three Camera mounts, Caddx Nebula/Nano/Nano Pro (19mm/14mm)
- Two different "Forward Sections" one with Antenna fairing, one without.
- Two different motor mounts for internal and external mounting options.
- The option to print the tails attached to the center body (requires 255mm+ build height < Now 248mm!)
Added new Long Range wing tips, for 18% improvement on airframe efficiency. These definitely reduce the sportiness of the design. It is still just about as fast, but the roll rate is much slower. Use significantly less aileron differential - or none at all.
Here is my recommended equipment list, your set up will vary and should be planned accordingly:
Motor; Brotherhobby 15074150 KV (for 2s). Any motor with equivalent stator volume and 3800+ kv should do.
Prop; Gemfan 3052 3-Blade, 4052 3-Blade, or HQ 4x4.3x3
Servo's; Most 5-9g servo's should work. I personally chose
Corona SB6033 as they are light weight, strong, and precise digital servos.
ESC should be no less than 20a, as light as you can get it.
Flight controller (if you choose to fly with one) should be smaller (~10g or less)
Other equipment:
- 1x 6mm carbon fiber tube available on Amazon or your favorite RC store. You should have no less than 350mm and a max of 420mm
- 2x 3mm carbon rod 205mm long for Elevon hinges
- Your choice of Z-bend wire or wire/clevis for Elevon control. I like These
- 4x M2x16-20mm to mount Caddx Vista
- 2x M2 to fit the depth of your camera This Box works great for all required bolts
- CA for joining parts, preferably medium.
Build Tips
The build is pretty straight forward. There are only left wing parts and tail parts, and they should be mirrored in your slicer. Most parts are self aligning, and those that aren't I have provided some alignment tabs to assist (you glue it on one side first then join parts together). Motor mount should be glued in by applying glue on the flanged form-fit pieces that contour to the inner fuselage, ARROW up! It is helpful to glue it in place WITH your motor bolted onto it, this helps you properly align it as the glue dries. Elevon hinge rods do not need to be glued into place, but if you feel the need you can glue the rod to the elevon, DO NOT glue it into the wingtip or center body. There should be approximately 5mm of carbon rod protruding from each end of the elevon, measured from the long side (IE, the elevon cut line is not perpendicular to the rod, therefore the rod will have a short and long side along the chord line. The long side should be ~5mm.) Lastly, the Leading Edge at the root can be confusing, the small end butts up to the fuselage, not the longer end. Ensure the Root Leading edge glues to both the center body AND the forward fuselage section, as this adds rigidity. New, The wingtip now has a L/R marking. It still requires mirroring, but the L will be readable and the R backwards if its the LEFT wingtip, and the R will be readable and the L backwards if its the RIGHT wingtip.
I will update this page with any future iterations or version changes, as well as when I finish the manual in about a week or so (fingers crossed). There are also flight videos and assembly videos coming!
I only charge a minimum amount for this model to ensure that it does not negatively impact Nano Goblin sales. It was never intended to compete with the NG in any way. That said, a model like this takes months of design work, and a lot of time to upkeep and update. If you would like to support the project more, you can donate to the Paypal Link here
Additional information on RCGroups!
Lastly, I want to thank all my Beta testers for the invaluable information they provided along the way. These designs are iteration based and they helped knock weeks or months off of the project timeline. Special shoutout to NoTamed Closed for his amazing flying videos and build tips!:
https://youtu.be/inOarMLKKQI
https://youtu.be/sB8vaTQxVEk
https://youtu.be/iNJJY9I6yV8
