Blu Baby Control Rods

Somebody on RC Groups asked about attaching the control rods on the Blu Baby.  Here's how I did it, with the control rods on the outside.  It  doesn't look as nice as running the rods internally, but it's a lot easier.  I wanted the control rod to be as light as possible, so I used 1mm carbon fiber rod, running through plastic coffee stirrers.

 Here's the servo cutout.  Trim the foam where the servo tabs are so that the servo will sit flush.  Run the servo wire in and attach with a very small amount of hot glue under each tab.

The servo attachment is a straightened paper clip with a Z-bend.  I put both the CF rod and the paper clip into 1.5mm shrink wrap, and added a couple of drops of CA.  Heating the shrink wrap gave a very tight, even connection between the two surfaces for the glue to bond to.  Any excess CA will drip out when heating, so be careful.

Hot glue a control horn to the rudder.  It's attached with a Hobby King 1.5mm screw mount. If you save this step for last, you can find the "natural" spot where the control rod will go.

 You can see here that the control rod runs through two plastic coffee stirrers that have been taped together and trimmed to length.  I attached them to the plane with three spots of hot glue, the tiniest I could use that still held the coffee stirrers firmly in place.

Green note:  These are recycled coffee stirrers that were used to stir organic half and half into free-trade organic coffee!

 Here's the inside of the plane, showing that the servos are flush mounted against the monobody.  It also shows how tight the inside is on a Blu Baby 33 with one inch monobody, which is why this technique is so much easier than running the control rods on the inside.  Later I'll try a Blu Baby with 2 inch monoblock, where I can actually fit my fingers inside.

Attach the elevator opposite the rudder.