Anycubic Kobra: Printing Your Plane!

We recently featured a review of the new Anycubic Kobra 3D printer. To really put it through its paces, I am going to be printing a series of RC airplanes and FPV wings in a range of filaments to see just how well it can do.

To kick it off, I went for Eclipson’s Model S motor glider. This beast has a wingspan of almost 2 metres as well as a v tail and folding 10-inch propellor making it ideal for FPV.

The model was printed entirely out of PolyMaker’s PolyTerra PLA, which is an eco-friendly recycled filament with a lovely matte finish.

RC airplanes can be difficult to print as they require a thin wall and little internal structure to keep weight to a minimum while maintaining strength which can be a real test of a printer – particularly one aimed at the beginners market.

The Kobra handled the thin walls of the model with ease and had no issues printing from the presliced gcode files. The finish was clean and smooth with little to no warping or other issues.

Because of the direct drive extruder and automatic bed levelling, the process was sped up too.

Once all the parts were printed (which would have taken around 72 hours if done continuously), all the parts need to be assembled into the finished airframe.

The model went together with just CA glue and accelerator as well as some 8mm carbon fibre tubes for strength. With electronics in the form of Emax servos, a Sunnysky motor 2212 motor and a BetaFPV ExpressLRS receiver.

The only parts I struggled with printing were the small hinge pins, so for ease I printed these out of resin.

The finished model is really impressive and I can’t wait for a break in the Scottish weather to take it up the hills and give it a proper workout!

I have a host of exciting 3D printed builds planned using the Anycubic Kobra which you can follow here and on my dedicated Instagram page @theprintedpilot.

The Anycubic Kobra is available now from https://bit.ly/3Ne1fbT priced at $299 and will be available from local resellers globally in the coming weeks while the files for the Model S and all other Eclipson models can be purchased from www.eclipson-airplanes.com.