How to fix my wing

[Glenn Shepherd]

Hi everyone. I crashed my park zone spitfire today on landing and snapped the wing tip off. How should I fix it? Cheers

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

First have you got all the bits and do they fit perfectly together - no crushing damage etc? If you do have crushing its often possible to get the foam to "recover" by immersing it in some hot water.

Assuming you have all the parts and they fit together with no gaps. Most folks seems to use foam safe CA - like Pink Zap - for these repairs. Personally I don't like this as the glue grabs to quickly for me. I prefer something I have time to work with, adjusting the parts until the fit is as good as I can possibly get it.

I've had a lot of sucess with epoxy. Use the slow stuff then just apply very sparsely - work it right into the nooks and crannies of the fracture. You want to lock the parts together. I use a shapened piece of wood to get the glue into all the reenterant parts of the foam (actually a sharpened wooden coffee stirrer!). As I say don't use too much glue, you don't want it ousing out when you join the bits.Then assemble the parts, interlocking them, and temporarily tape together with masking tape. Works for me and its kept my Parkzone Extra 300 on the active list for ages and through more repairs than I would like to own up to!

One thing to watch with this repair - go real easy with the epoxy if you do try it this way or you'll end up with one wing heavier than the other!

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 26/05/2013 23:30:04

[WolstonFlyer]

I would probably use a 15-30 min epoxy for that repair, just a small amount so not to add too much weight. Clean any extra off the joint with a cotton ear bud and hold in place with masking tape

[SmarTmartY]

Multiplex Zacky (or Zacki) has worked well on my PZ foamies, it's quite thick, gets in all the nooks and crannies, and holds well. If I'm in a rush I spray one surface with an activator (I think mine is a Zap one) and coat the other with Zacky, then hold together for a short while. Try not to use too much, and wipe off any excess asap. It's never let me down so far.

[Piers Bowlan]

EPO has a 'greasy' surface that does not adhere too well to epoxy which is why Multiplex recommend their Zacky (thick CA) on all of their models. An epoxy/foam joint may look strong but may fail after a firm 'arrival'.

I second what SmarTmartY says. As a technique I have also just held the broken pieces of foam firmly together whilst wicking thin CA glue along the join line. With your third hand (!) spray the area of the join with activator. Voila! You may want to wear disposable plastic gloves as it can be messy!

I managed to break off about three inches from the wing tip of my 2.6m HK Fox in my workshop. Doh! I just glued it on again with CA but reinforced the join by cutting six inch slots span-wise across the join. I then cut some thin carbon strips (10cm wide and .5 thick) which I pushed into the slots. Then some more thin CA was wicked along the carbon strips and sprayed with activator. That wing tip is now the strongest part of the model and has survived numerous less-than-perfect landings.

Incidently the HK Fox is a great model too, once you sort out a couple of quality issues with it.

[john melia 1]

No one mentioned UHU POR ??

[Piers Bowlan]

Not if you want the wingtip to stay on.