Graham Davies 3

There is about to be a discussion/phone in on Radio 2. It's on Jeremy Vine's show, so don't hold your breath for a balanced, even representation without ridicule or judgement. It's still good to get national exposure though

What's great is that we are all finding different techniques, methods and structures. Sure there are some limitations, but there are also a lot of advantages over conventional materials. As Martin said, the door to the foamboard room is now open!

Thanks Peter. Slow progress this weekend due to a nasty stomach bug. Managed a few little jobs that don't look like much, but take time: Fitted and set up the ESC Fitted the cowel Closed the lower fuselage Bent up the undercarriage legs Separated and shaped the ailerons. I intended to cover the exposed foam edges of wing and ailerons, but ran out of steam... Graham

Great work James, watching with interest!

Cheers Eric, Ron. Still to be trialled; we'll see how it works out. As with everything foam, if it doesn't work, it's cost virtually nothing. Graham

More gentle progress... I have covered the exposed foam edges on the fuselage and tail. That meant I could hinge the rear end. I use mylar strip for pretty much everything. I joined the elevators with a piece of 1/4" pine (from B&Q, and also used for the spars) with a couple of cocktail sticks fitted into it to stiffen the join to the foam. Not too much to do now; the ailerons need separating and then the exposed foam covering, and then a lick of paint. Graham

Still looks great Peter! Good luck next week Graham

Hi Martin, One method I was pondering for the CAP232, and will do next time is to cover with BP/ PVA, spray with emulsion and then cover the lot with laminating film. That will protect the paint and give a gloss finish... Graham

Small amount of non-exciting progress today. Applied some copier paper to the exposed foam edges of the elevators and some of the fuselage. I bored myself, so still have a bit more to do. I have to say though, I have tried to keep the paper on the foamboard this time, but probably will revert to brown paper next time. It's really easy to strip the surface from the foamboard paper and I think the finish will be a bit worse than the Brown paper/ PVA. We'll see though. I also applied a strip of light glass cloth with PVA to the centre section of the wing as a bit of insurance. Next job is to separate the ailerons; you can see the broken line of cuts I made before I fitted the top skin. Hopefully it will be a really easy separation. Final job I did was to fit the pushrods, an internal support and the fuselage lower skin.

Definitely Martin. The weight penalty is tiny compared to the advantages. Great project!

Thanks Peter!

I've not tried the Range board, but as with others have experience of both hobbycraft and Flitetest. I would expect it to be similar to the Hobbycraft board as the original intended purpose was as a photographic backing board, so the paper skin is strongly bonded to the foam. The flitetest board is easier to strip the paper. Both have their uses. My latest build, a CAP232, uses Hobbycraft board with the paper removed from one side using an iron. It works really well as a modelling material, and there are a few of us on here who are experimenting with techniques and structures. For me, I love it. It allows subjects to be modelled quickly, cheaply and with some thought, accurately. The models tend to come out lighter than traditional materials too. Here's a selection of confectionary, all using minimal (or in the case of the CAP, zero) balsa... Graham

It get's better though Eric; POR or hot melt glue doesn't have the drying time of aliphatic resin! LOADS can be done in half an hour!!

I forget who said this, but it was great advice. If you stick one piece of wood on a day, it will get done. I rarely spend more than half and hour at a time in the 'shop, and things seem to move on quite quickly. I do think about what I'm going to do in that half an hour though, so I guess I'm quite focussed by the time I get there...

Just to clarify, the pushrods will be supported! They're just laying in to get the lengths...

Tiny bit more this evening. Fitted the servos and made the pushrods. OLD SCHOOL! Normal sized servos and dowel pushrods. I felt that those control surfaces are huge, and a bit of grunt won't hurt at the expense of a couple of ounces. At this wing area, that isn't here nor there. I like dowel pushrods; nice and direct and slop free at the expense of a bit of temperature trim change. Balances OK, so all should be well. I'll be able to close up the fuselage next session...

Yes Martin! Some striking lines and graphics should do it. It's nice to be able to see a model too. I put the Regianne down on our strip the other day and then spent 10 minutes looking for it... Some more progress. Fitted the motor box. I secured the box into position with some foamboard wedges and then epoxied it in. There's a plywood plate that secures the rear end of the box that is then glued to the ply doublers to lock the whole ensemble. Now this is done, I can put in all the fixed heavy bits so I can balance the model by placing the servos where they best balance. I've made a battery hatch. A single piece of foamboard to back it., and then a slice of polystyrene, cut and sanded to shape. I added somef oamboard to the top of the cowl to make it easier to get a nice profile across the top, but it will take a bit of tidying at the front edge. Ted is trying out the office for size... I will make the undercarriage next so I have all the heavy bits in place, and then will fit the servos. Once these are in, I can close the bottom of the fuselage and tidy up all the edges of foamboard. Then it's just a case of covering the various foamboard edges with PVA/ copier paper, and a bit of painting.... Graham

Evening Eric, you well? I'd indeed try 3000 3S packs, if I had any! I'm OK with the timer set to 4 1/2 minutes. I usually have 30-40% left and I have an incredibly short attentio... Look! a squirrel! What were we talking about? Graham

So, a fair bit more completed today... Rear turtle deck is now done; rolled 2 pieces of foamboard to get them to curve and stuck the first down with POR. Secured the edge of the second and cut along the overhang. Then glued them together. Front deck is easier as the flat bit in the middle is easy to glue Motor mount/ battery box is made although not yet fitted. It's easy to line it up when the cowl is in place, then I can tack it in with wedges of scrap before epoxying it up. If you haven't done this before, it's a great way to line up your spinner gap. Tail feathers are now done. 2 laminations of board with the inside tapered at the trailing edge before they are glued together. Leading edges chamfered and will be covered in copier paper (LE only) with thinned PVA to tidy it up. Just the top deck/ battery hatch and lower nose area to finish, then fit the radio. I'll do this once I have the motor in so I can shuffle the servos around to get it to balance without ballast. So far, looking good. Cockpit floor to add so Ted can be fitted (long suffering pilot/ bear), and undercarriage to bend up. Then a splash of paint and we're ready to go! Graham

Copied over from Martin's ME109 thread... A few pics and a bit of explanation... Graham R made a point about finishing warbirds. I must admit for many years I also saw them as out of my reach, and I think this is shared by many club members. Richard Wills has opened my eyes to the fact that a warbird finish is really no harder than a sports model, and some of the skills are really satisfying and 'in front of the telly' accessible. However, I thought I would try a sports model this time for the very reason Graham R stated; many people 'get' sports planes... Why the CAP? I like them, and Peter Miller told me his favourite design was the CAP21 he built. I bought the cowl and canopy from Vortex, but then went to the 232 as I like the wing platform. I simply scaled the design from a 3 view, and applied the shapes directly to the foam board. It's very much semi-scale. I have made the fuselage a bit taller to give my immature self knife edge performance, and the canopy line is not right, but hey... Wings are made by using around 7 ribs and curling the skins by dragging over a table edge. Spars are 1/4" sq pine from B&G. Foamboard is Hobbycraft board with the inner paper skin removed by applying a bit of heat with an iron. Takes a bit of time, but save a lot of weight. The out skin is retained and I will paint directly onto this. Fuselage is quite conventional with 1/32" ply doublers, 1/8" ply F1 and F2, and liteply F3. F2 is set back so the wing dowels are in the dihedral brace. You'll see the step in the wing. This means I can mount the undercarriage blocks to the fuselage rather than the wing. Far tougher and simpler. The motor will mount on a battery box 'coffin' that will fit through the square hole in F1. That makes it easy to line the motor up with the centre of the cowl. The fuselage is built onto a 'crutch' of foamboard. This keeps it all straight, and most is cut away once the sides are on. You can see a big chunk still in place around the cockpit. This will also go as it's no longer needed once the formers are in place. Tailplane and fin, rudder and elevators are all double thickness foamboard with only the outer skins remaining. Tough, stiff and light. There will be minimal covering; just any exposed foam will be covered with copier paper applied with thinned PVA and ironed on. I will then paint with thinned emulsion, sprayed on. Any bits of the colour scheme that are white, I get for free! I am still considering covering the whole thing with laminating film after paint to give it a nice gloss finish and make it really robust, but I also want to minimise the build hours so I'm not scared of crashing it (I find less fear of crashing tends to lead to less crashes!).

Great project Martin, and great back story. That's what brings these projects alive. I'd go for 4 motors, and if it were me, slightly larger. I think I'd use one width of foamboard as a centre section with a width for each wing panel, giving me around 80" span. A set of 4 smallish motors would fly it really well. However, at 55" span (I work on foamboard widths!) or thereabouts, it will still be impressive. And you already have a plan drawn up so makes sense to start here. My Ki45 is 60" with the wingtips and uses a single 3S 2200 pack. I get 4 1/2 minutes and it flies really well. Also hand launch and no flaps. The reason I'd go bigger is so I could make the centre section one piece and add retracts, just because! I have an idea how to fit retracts on twin/ four engined 'boarders, as yet unproven, so drop me a line! Given how you finished the Emil, this is going to be brilliant. Watching with great interest. Graham

About 55" span Martin. If I get it on or around 4lb it will have a 3541 750kv motor on 4S. If it's a bit porky it will get a 4250. My Regianne is 4lb 2Oz or thereabouts and flies on a 3536, so this should be enough to be fun! I have various ambitious Foam Board plans brewing up!

A few pics and a bit of explanation... Graham R made a point about finishing warbirds. I must admit for many years I also saw them as out of my reach, and I think this is shared by many club members. Richard Wills has opened my eyes to the fact that a warbird finish is really no harder than a sports model, and some of the skills are really satisfying and 'in front of the telly' accessible. However, I thought I would try a sports model this time for the very reason Graham R stated; many people 'get' sports planes... Why the CAP? I like them, and Peter Miller told me his favourite design was the CAP21 he built. I bought the cowl and canopy from Vortex, but then went to the 232 as I like the wing platform. I simply scaled the design from a 3 view, and applied the shapes directly to the foam board. It's very much semi-scale. I have made the fuselage a bit taller to give my immature self knife edge performance, and the canopy line is not right, but hey... Wings are made by using around 7 ribs and curling the skins by dragging over a table edge. Spars are 1/4" sq pine from B&G. Foamboard is Hobbycraft board with the inner paper skin removed by applying a bit of heat with an iron. Takes a bit of time, but save a lot of weight. The out skin is retained and I will paint directly onto this. Fuselage is quite conventional with 1/32" ply doublers, 1/8" ply F1 and F2, and liteply F3. F2 is set back so the wing dowels are in the dihedral brace. You'll see the step in the wing. This means I can mount the undercarriage blocks to the fuselage rather than the wing. Far tougher and simpler. The motor will mount on a battery box 'coffin' that will fit through the square hole in F1. That makes it easy to line the motor up with the centre of the cowl. The fuselage is built onto a 'crutch' of foamboard. This keeps it all straight, and most is cut away once the sides are on. You can see a big chunk still in place around the cockpit. This will also go as it's no longer needed once the formers are in place. Tailplane and fin, rudder and elevators are all double thickness foamboard with only the outer skins remaining. Tough, stiff and light. There will be minimal covering; just any exposed foam will be covered with copier paper applied with thinned PVA and ironed on. I will then paint with thinned emulsion, sprayed on. Any bits of the colour scheme that are white, I get for free! I am still considering covering the whole thing with laminating film after paint to give it a nice gloss finish and make it really robust, but I also want to minimise the build hours so I'm not scared of crashing it (I find less fear of crashing tends to lead to less crashes!). I'll post a few more when it's a bit closer, which won't take long from here... Graham

When I get a minute I'll put some pics up Graham

Great news Martin. FYI, I am well underway with a foamboard CAP232. Decided to do a more conventional sports model to see how my clubmates react to a model that is closer to those that most of us fly. I'll keep you posted...