Turn a $30 Hubsan Q4 quadcopter into a radio controlled flying papercraft dragon! And make a couple of knights to attack with it - all you need for a seriously epic fantasy battle.

I made this because, whilst R/C quadcopters and papercraft are awesome in their own ways, I thought they would be even more awesome together. Plus I've got my own flying dragon now, who doesn't want one of those? ;)

Step 1: What You Need:

1. The Flying Dragon template available in the downloads section here. This should be printed onto normal A4 office paper (roughly 75gsm).

2. A Hubsan Q4 mini quadcopter and control.

3. A self-adhesive sticky pad.

4. A craft knife, cutting mat and glue.

You can also use scissors instead of the knife and cutting mat but it's a bit fiddlier.

Step 2: Assemble the Dragon

Cut out the dragon and his ears, fold along all of the dotted lines, glue all of the tabs in place and both sides of the ears together. Glue the ears onto the dragon's head.

Step 3: Remove the Cover From the Q4

The plastic cover on the Q4 is held in place by four tiny clips highlighted in the first image. Carefully unclip each of these from the chassis and remove it. Stick the sticky pad on top of the battery which is now exposed.

Step 4: Attach the Dragon

Carefully position the dragon onto the top of the quadcopter and stick it onto the sticky pad. The nose of the dragon should be on the same side as the white propellers. The dragon's tail should be on the same side as the red propellers and charging plug. Check to make sure the propellers can still rotate fully. If they can't the dragon isn't in its correct position.

Step 5: Add the Wing Restraint

Cut out the white rectangle (with the two corners missing) from the paper template. This prevents the dragon's wings from interfering with the propellers when it is descending. Turn the dragon over and glue the rectangle to the wings either side of the chassis as shown.

Step 6: Make the Knights

Cut out the pieces of each knight. Fold along all of the dotted lines, glue the tabs together and the two sides of the sword. Glue the sword into one of the knight's hands and the the shield onto the other. Glue the arms on using the attached tabs and your knight is done. Repeat for the other one (or as many as you want in your army if you print more templates).

Step 7: Charge Your Dragon

The dragon and knights are now finished. All you need to do before taking to the skies for some legendary skybourne attacks is to plug the dragon in to charge it.

The Q4 isn't the only toy you can improve by building a papercraft model around it. All you have to do is carefully measure the toy and design your model to fit it (watching out for moving parts like wheels and propellers).

If you make one of these please send a video or Vine to hello@thecraftyrobot.net. Thanks for reading :)

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28 Comments

george17

8 years ago on Introduction

put red led lights in its mouth for fire

WiredWebbo101

8 years ago on Introduction

Absolutely brilliant. I love it and my daughter whom is dragon mad will love it!!

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Smushles

8 years ago on Introduction

Uh would this work with the Syma X12? they are the same sort of style but idk if they would work

wavelet_spaghetti

8 years ago on Introduction

so cute! could also build an army of giant mosquitoes. as a joke to scare somebody :)

Vulpinemac

8 years ago on Introduction

When you consider that the old Bell helicopter used as the Batcopter in the '60s TV series was nearly unflyable with those bat wings, I have to ask how well the dragon flies as compared to the 'naked' quadcopter.