Guys here is how I'm building a Hawker Hurricane out of foam using a CNC Hotwire machine.
I wanted to make a plane completely out of foam with my 4 axis Hot Wire CNC machine. I'd built some flying wings already and decide I wanted to do the fuselage as well. The Hawker Hurricane was missing from my warbird collection and its always played second fiddle to the Spitfire, yet it shot down more German planes in the Battle of Britain. I love the Spitfire as well and already have an ARTF from Ripmax which files superbly.
The foam is cut into shapes by passing a hot wire through it at the correct temperature. If you can control the wire very accurately then you can make the fuselage and wings. To control the wire with a CNC machine you need to be able to generate g-code which moves the wire in horizontal and vertical axis. This is where the two pieces of software l use come in. Profili2 Pro and DevFus Foam generates g-code to send to the controller on the CNC machine.
You'll need a good 3 view drawing to make measurements and import the profile and top views into DevFus Foam.
I've used Profili2 Pro to generate the g-code for the wings which are made in two sections. Stephano from devcad.com has now released an updated version of the program called DevWing Foam which I have tried the demo but not purchased a license yet. It has lots more features and I will no doubt upgrade to it in the future. All the software from devcad.com can be used in demo mode with the only restriction being that you can't save the gcode.
The first video shows how to make the fuselage using DevFus Foam from www.devcad.com
Second video shows how the wing is made using Profili2 Pro, also from devcad.com.
The software creates the g-code from your design and then you send that via CAM software (Mach3) to control the path of the hot wire through the foam. The foam used for this plane is XPS. Wing span is 50 inches but still have lots to do. More detail on my website http://www.rckeith.co.uk/cnc-hot-wire-hawker-hurricane/ and also a detailed build of the HotWire CNC machine. Should you wish to build one yourself.
I've covered the wings in brown parcel paper and PVA wood glue which I've used on several planes and works well on foam.
I plan to finish her early 2017 as a Hawker Hurricane IID the tank buster variant as used in the Desert AirForce colours of the RAF.
Will post updates as build the build progresses.
