UMS "Agram" : Making a Sci-Fi Drone < Articles < Hobby

Making a Sci-Fi Drone

Ana Polanšćak, 10th November 2021

To make a drone, you first need the basic shape of a ball. I used a widget in this case. It is a hollow plastic ball with a diameter of 30mm that can be found in cans of certain beer brands. The widget is handy for this purpose because it is plastic, and already has a few details on the surface.

To achieve the look of a sci-fi device, we will cover the smooth surface of the ball with details that will make the look of our drone more complex and thus more visually attractive. This process is called greebling. The first details I added were paper circles - waste from an office paper drill.

The next step is rectangles cut out of hard paper and glued to the ball with PVA glue.

Nail decorations are a great source of details and parts for making models. I chose thin sheet metal shapes and attached them with superglue. They need to be bent slightly to follow the curvature of the widget.

The following details come from the world of fishing. These soft plastic tubes are used to attach the float to the flax. They come in several sizes and are easy to cut, so they are great for adding various cylindrical, circular and semicircular elements to the model.

I normally use a mosquito net to make miniature windows and wire fences, and here it is used as a material for detailing.

Back to nail decorations: colorful stones. They are attached with superglue.

Since this is a drone that scans the environment, I wanted it to be full of antennas and sensors to collect data about its environment. I got the basic shapes from the pins. For them, I drilled holes in the widget and stuck them inside + superglue. That's where I installed the wire that connects the drone to the 30mm base.

I made details on the sensors with those fishing tubes and PVA glue. PVA retains a good portion of the volume when it dries, so thickening and the like can be added with it. Eventually I covered the entire surface of the model with diluted PVA to further provide more sensitive details. That's the end, before primer and painting.

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