Eric Robson Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 I thought a mokka e was an electric Vauxhall. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 (edited) Calling my first foam board build finished 🥳, 46" span, all up weight with a tad of lead in the nose is 2lbs 5oz ready to fly on a 4s 3000 pack, it has BAGS of power and pulls 30A on WOT on a 10x5 prop. Very pleased with the out come but the proof in the pudding is flying it, i will wait a week or so before committing it to the air as i like looking at my finished planes and i can see something for the effort which might not be there once flown! This was a learning curve for me and if doing it again i would alter a few areas that i now think i could have done better and i will put that knowledge into the next foam board build, Cost of the foamboard to make the airframe and brown paper covering for the fuselage was approx £10. One area is that the elevators have drooped on their out ends, the plans don`t mention making a wood leading edge for them but that would have stopped the distortion. This is obviously going to have to be sorted before i fly it, the right hand one is not too bad but the left one needs looking at, i have considered a bamboo skewer pushed up inside along the length of the elevator or a lollipop stick/carbon added to the underside to pull it straight and stiffen it. Any suggestions from the experts on here would be greatly appreciated. Edited October 3, 2022 by martin collins 1 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 Elevator picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Absolutely brilliant job Martin. You've done us 'boarders proud! For the elevator, you could try adding a coffee stirrer into a slot cut into the underside. Adds little wight and a lot of stiffness. Good luck with the maiden, but I can't see it being any sort of problem Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 Thanks Graham, remembered i had made a tropical filter out of foam to fit and it was still on the shelf! Fitted and painted now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Great job Martin, the elevator bow was probably due to ironing the brown paper on, it happened on the fins of my Me110 I re ironed them and they went flat but later on after a lot of flying I noticed they were slightly bowed again. As they were both turned to the centre I left them and it does not affect the flight at all. I agree with Graham regarding the stirrer. Cheers Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 There is no brown paper on theflight surfaces Eric, only on the fuselage, the fin, tailplane and wings are made from the Hobbycraft board with the paper on. I will look at the stick idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 (edited) First flight on the 109 today, 3 clicks of aileron was all that was needed, brilliant flier, very smooth and predictable, given me a lot of confidence to do more foam board builds. Elevator droop was rectified as suggested with Costa coffee stirrer sticks let in on their edge in a cut groove with epoxy. Edited October 13, 2022 by martin collins 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 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... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham R Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Very nice Martin.I will get to use foam board, still getting inspiration from Richard W. I like the idea of a Cap232 Graham, it makes a change from warbirds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 When I get a minute I'll put some pics up Graham 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham R Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Thanks Graham, looking forward to your 232 pics. I think that a sports model would be quicker for me to build. I enjoy scale Was but it takes me too long to add the paint designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 14, 2022 Author Share Posted October 14, 2022 Please do Graham D, build pics a must as they help the rest of us `Boarders` got a balsa build to finish off then it is on to the next board build, will do a thread on that one once started. Adding the paint designs is a large part of the fun Graham R! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 (edited) 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 Edited October 14, 2022 by Graham Davies 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 14, 2022 Author Share Posted October 14, 2022 Someone's been a busy boy 😃 looks very impressive, have you decided on a power set up yet, what span is it? Looking forward to seeing this develop. I had started work on my part finished Aerotech BT13 but i have got something fairly ambitious in mind foam board wise (not a warbird) and mulling over the best way to get it built. I think i will be foaming again very shortly with a large aircraft............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 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! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Superb job on the Bf109 Martin - she looks the biz and sounds like you have an excellent flying model. Nice one. 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham R Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Thanks for the pictures Graham. All that without a plan👌👌 Texas Homecare ruler! Thats going back a bit. Keep up the good work. With regard to airbrushing warbirds and as Richard will confirm it, takes me ages to decide what shade of paint etc, I have a WR Spitfire I have spent ages trying to mask up but having problems working out the cameo pattern at the rear of the fus. I have a handicap in that I am always looking for perfection (even though I rarely achieve it) therefore finishing takes me forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 15, 2022 Author Share Posted October 15, 2022 I have a new foam board build just starting, a bit more ambitious than the 109, will start a new thread, i will need some suggestions and advice regarding this one so any help appreciated 🤔. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham R Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 What's it going to be Martin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted October 15, 2022 Author Share Posted October 15, 2022 New thread started in the Foam builders section Graham. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Hi Martin, Great to see your Me109 in the BMFA mag. Great piece, and will hopefully encourage others to roll their sleeves up. Well played Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted December 16, 2022 Author Share Posted December 16, 2022 Not seen it yet Graham, my mag is still in the postal system somewhere 🤔 was talking to Andy Sephton at the Buckminster Swapmeet and mentioned i was building models out of foamboard, he was genuinely interested and asked for as much info i could give as he had wanted to do an article on keeping the costs down as balsa was getting expensive to use nowadays. Hopefully it will inspire a few others to give it a go, some fantastic models being tuned out by those on this forum. If we can get some of them together for a fly in at Buckminster next summer i will try and get someone along from RCM&E and maybe they will get interested in doing a piece in their mag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 You did a great job Martin, and the reporting was accurate and hopefully inspiring. It would be great to get a follow up article following a FB get together. Think of the foam board diversity on this forum alone; I'm sure it would open some eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RICHARD WILLS Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 well done Martin , I'm still waiting for my mag but at least the wait will be worth it . Great Job ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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