Adding engine cowl to my FT Versa

 I decided to build a RC plane for the first time since I was 9 years old, for the record im 34 now.  After watching many of the videos on here I picked the FT versa with the blunt nose conversion as my first victim in many years. It was selected because I have always loved flying wings, also looked like it did really well as a FPV plane. FPV is something me and my son both think looks like fun. So I downloaded the plans and went to my local Walmart to get the foam board then started buiding. Along the way I noticed a few things that I wanted to change.  The stock versa layout left the motor sitting outside of the aircraft. While this has no negitive effects on the performance of the aircraft I really wanted a more finished look for my FT Versa. 

    I started looking for items laying around the house that had interesting shapes that might make a interesting cowling for the motor and wires on my versa. After finishing a Dr Pepper and looking at the bottle I had a urge to turn the bottle on its side, and that is when I seen it, the shape that I was looking for. I quickly looked for a couple of extras and the first attempt at any project goes as planned and this was not exception to this rule as I melted the first bottle.
 

To the left you can see the section of the bottle that I removed. I cut it a little big so that I had material left to trim it down to get the fit that I wanted.  basically I found the seems on the sides then cut below them. this left enough material that I could later trim the sides to fit the profile of the top of the wing. I trimmed that back protion closest to the last light curve just after the ribs on the side of the bottle. Then I cut the neck just before the thicker plastic, 
 

The foam board that I am using came with a really nice graphic covering on it. I liked the look of it and wanted to transfer that same look to the cowling. I removed a section of the paper that had the graphic skin on it to be used as a covering for the new plastic cowling, This was done by cutting the paper just deep enough to separate the paper that i wanted from the rest of the sheet then gently peeling it back off the foamboard

The skin was attached to the bottle with drops of CA. I used Popsicle sticks to even out the pressure across the entire piece. This does take a bit of time as for whatever reason the glue took longer to set then it normally does. Eventually I was able to get the entire surface glued down. When I had the skin attached to the outside I trimmed the skin leaving about a half inch around the edges. The extra material will be used to wrap the skin around the edge and keep it from peeling back off in flight. When I had it trimmed out to the half inch mark I cut slits into the front and back edges so that the paper could be folded over and keep the curve of the bottle. Again the skin was attached to the bottle using CA and a wood stick. once I had it glued down I then applied packing tape to the inside to help ensure that the skin would stay where I wanted it.

I attached the new cowling to the plane using hot glue and smoothing the seam with a Popsicle stick. The hot glue helped to fill some of the gap that was left. in the head on picture you can see the back of the motor so it appears that it will still get good airflow and should not overheat, At this point the plane felt more complete then it had before.

Here is the completed cowling with a bit of black tape to hide the glue a little better. The tape kinda reminds me of non skid or something.