How to Make Miniature Scaled 200:1 Piper J3 Cub Model

One of the coolest things you can imagine is holding a Piper J3 Cub in your hand, which sounds cool but also feels impossible, right?....but now we can make this fantasy a reality by building our own J3 Cub airplane with this DIY, which I'll be sharing with you.

Why Miniature Piper Cub?

I personally think that piper cub is an absolute beauty and making a replica of the original version with miniature looks wins every day for me.

When done, you can use it as a keychain for your car, bike, or any other vehicle, or you can use it to decorate your workspace.

I'll be sharing the schematics, design, and my experiences while creating this beautiful; please feel free to check out my prior Instructables relating to RC models and have fun with the hobby: D

Aircraft Specs -

Wingspan: 11cm

Chord length: 1.5cm

Fuselage length: 9cm

Horizontal stabilizer length: 4cm

Vertical stabilizer length:2cm

propeller length: 2.5cm

Front Landing gear length (excluding tires): 2cm

Back Landing gear:0.5cm

Wing rods length: 5cm

Supplies

For The Supplies, we are required -

Popstick or Ice sticks ( For Wings and Propeller )
Balsa wood ( For Fuselage and other control surfaces )
Cutter & Scissors
Superglue
Sandpaper
All pins for prop
Toothpicks
Acrylic paints and brushes

Step 1: Schematics & Design

For this step, trace the plans on a sheet of paper and carefully cut them out. You can refer to the pictures above for this step, and the measurements are also given above, so please double-check them.

Step 2: Creating the Fuselage and Vertical Stab

To make the fuselage, cut all of the sections and superglue them together.
Sand all of the sections after they have been well-stickled and dried.
Cut a small piece of sandpaper and sand the fuselage's rough edges as smoothly as possible.
Make sure to sand the surface evenly from all sides for a smooth finish.

Step 3: Making the Wing

Cut an 11cm slice of pop or ice sticks to construct the wing.
After that, sand the wing's edges to give it a smooth finish, similar to ailerons from the back.
Sand the wing's right and left edges to provide clean, sharp edges.
After that, use super glue to secure the wing to the fuselage and let it dry for a few minutes.

Step 4: Assembling the Horizontal Stab

To create a horizontal stabilizer, cut the design and adhere both stab joints to the back of the body, forming the empennage.

Step 5: Forming the Landing Gear...

Refer to the design to cut the components and link them to the fuselage for the front landing gears.
Similarly, do the same with the back landing gear.

Step 6: Creating the Wing Rods and Wheels

To make the wing rods, use wooden toothpicks of the appropriate length and adhere them to the middle fuselage.
To make the wheels, cut the necessary circles and link them to the landing gear component.

Step 7: Assembling Everything Together

Before you begin coloring, make sure that everything is secure and that every surface is evenly smooth.
Finally, take sandpaper and sand all of the surfaces so that the color coating can spread equally throughout.

Step 8: The Fun Part

Now this is my favorite part as it brings our piper colors and details to real life with a miniature version.
You can color the plane with acrylic paint or, even better, spray paint, which allows the coat to spread uniformly and gives the plane a greater gloss.
We may start working on the little features like the windscreen, tires, and black lighting stripes on the fuselage once the base yellow paint is complete.
Give the prop a good dark black tone to make it seem even better with the plane.

Step 9: Assembling the Prop

To build the prop, use an all-pin or a needle to attach it to the front mount.

And there we have it !!! Our Miniature Piper J3 Cub...

Step 10: Glamour Shots

Thank you so much for checking out this build. it was an amazing experience to create the J3 Cub miniature version it was very fun indeed and I hope you also enjoyed the process.

Happy Flying : D