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Showing results for tags 'hobbycraft foam board fuz'.
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I have seen some of the excellent foam board creations in the specialist section of this forum but I was curious to investigate whether this stuff could be a viable balsa replacement in the relatively high stress environment of a Fun Flyer. I usually end up building a new model every year or so since they tend to get a bit of a pasting in practice and competition. I thought that a foam board fuselage would provide a simple prototype to test out what this material is like to use and how resistant it is to being slapped onto the deck in touch and goes etc. Since I am looking to potentially use this in a competition airframe it will also be important to assess any weight penalty. or advantage. My intention for now is to just build a fuselage and tail group and use the wooden wing of my current model to try it out. There will be the option of trying a mostly foam board wing structure later if the fuselage performs well. The design is home brew, although it is to the typical fun fly layout and dimensions, so the experiment should be representative. Some wood will still need to be used in strategic places but I hope to keep this to a minimum. The pics below show progress so far. I have used a double thickness at the front end of the fuz sides and bottom to help absorb stresses coming through from the undercarriage. Board to board and board to balsa joints are all medium cyano or Por while the high stressed areas around the firewall and undercarriage mounts used Gorilla glue (foaming PU). I think it may have been better to use something other than cyano but we'll see. The balsa framing around the tail plane and elevator was 3/16" which was a good thickness match for the 5mm board. Need to be careful when sanding as the card facings can tear and lift. I have to say that so far the pros for this material are cheapness and there is scope to speed the build process, but on the downside it isn't so nice to handle and I suspect that the exposed foam edges won't look pretty when covered, although this is going to be a workhorse application rather than concours but I do have some pride. As for weight, early impressions are that it is unlikely to be lighter than the balsa version, but hopefully any penalty won't be too high. I'll update as the build progresses.
