The plan for my Adventure Team Airborne Surveillance playset includes two remote drones, launched from an ATV, with a control system attached at the back to control and view the output of the aerial drones.

As you can see from the link above, and from these photos here, the 3D model is nearly complete.

Since that post, I did a lot of updating on the drone itself, making it more robust, the parts now fit better, and the camera head rotates. The legs drop down in a better cut body and it all works rather nicely. I still have one or two very tiny changes to make.

Now comes the part of the set which attaches the drones to the back of the ATV (or Trouble Shooter) and allows for launching by the Joe team.

My first attempt was made by taking the shell of the bottom of the drone body and extruding it, adding three tabs on the sides to clip to the drone where the black side stripes are. The tray itself had a ridge near the center that clipped nicely to the underbody of the drone.

However, this arrangement made it hard to remove the drone because choosing any one clip as the trigger clip and the other two being used only for holding, those two were too far apart to allow the drone to be lifted out easily. And the rim in the center was grabbing onto the body too tightly to let the drone loose without some effort.

So version two (orange) fixes one of the problems. By putting the two holding clips closer together, they would now attach just to either side of the white area at the body’s middle equator. This allows for one clip to release the drone for a much easier release.

However, that central rim still held onto the drone too tightly, even though I had lowered it a bit.

Version 3 (day-glo yellow) removes that inner rim entirely, and allows for a very tight grip, but an easy release.

Here the drone is sitting in the tray, quite snugly:

Now that this is more or less finalized (there is still some work to be done thinning the trigger tab because it’s too think to open easily) I had to figure out how to get this thing onto the ATV easily.

Here are initial plans I drew up (rough) showing the first ideas for the drone, and near the bottom, how two would be carried by an ATV:

Using the same basic platform model from the GI Joe Adventure Team Action Pack Jetpack carriage:

I started with the platform, removing the struts and mounting pieces that grip the jetpack. I added some bolts both for embellishment, and to hide the cones underneath that allow a clean print for holes that the pins and legs would insert into. There is a diamond-shaped hole to allow for the hinge post to be glued in place.

Since the platform is angled, and I want them to be symmetrical, and I wanted the launching trays to be flat, I modeled the posts on a 5.4 degree angle, separately, so they can be glued to the platform in one direction on the left and in the opposite direction on the right.

Then I add the pins and legs:

Then the hinge post:

The hinge post has a bar at the bottom, and the tray itself has an equivalent bar. This allows for a free rotation, but also a stop point for the tray to stop at 180 degree angles perfect for storage and launch positions.

Then the tray itself. The tray had some alterations made from the photos above. I angled the base circle, combining it with a post that fits into the hinge post hole.

Then the tray can swing out for launch position, or drone maintenance.

Once I get this all printed, I will show photos. But for now, this will have to do.