Help! Foam Board?

Question: I can find 20" X 30" X 3/16" (4.8 mm) white Pacon or Elmer's foam board at my local art supply store. Is this the size of Adams? Or is Adams or DTFB 1/8th (3.2 mm)?
I'd like to know before picking some up next weekend for some "Trial and Error" building practice.o_O
Michaels-PaconFoamBoard.png
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
Adams FB is about 1/5th of an inch. Ross FB, from Walmart, is a much better choice. It is essentially equal to Adams. If I lived in the EU, I’d use depron and cover it with paper, packing tape, covering or laminate film.

Elmer’s FB is much heaver and thicker.
 

kdobson83

Well-known member
The Dollar Tree stuff and the water proof stuff you get from FT are both 5mm thick. Be careful with other brands tho as brands like Elmer's have a ton more weight. I'm pretty sure Elmer's weighs twice what the FT and DT stiff does. Makes a 300 gram plane weigh 600 grams... The Walmart stuff is also heavier but not as bad as Elmer's. Just something else to keep in mind when purchasing.
 
Thanks Kdobson83! My other choice from the art store is Pacon. My Wal-mart is... funny in what it does or doesn't carry. I've beat the racks from end to end... no 20 X 30 FB to B found. Card stock and colored crafting paper... overflowing. I even asked a senior Associate. "What kind of... foam board did you call it?" Um, yeah, thanks. I have a Micheal's about 10 minutes from me, or a stank stocked Dollar Tree in town. This DT is not as bad as WM. You might find what your looking for... if you go on the right day. (Sigh) I love the idea of the Adams waterproof... but the shipping makes me cringe. "One step at a time, one foot in front of the other... and soon you'll be flying out the door!"
 
Oh check this out. I was chatting with some old buds about our early service days... and stumbled across memories of flying in a boxy little bird called a C-23, civilian known as the Short Bros SC-7 Skyvan. I looked it up and wow! Take a peak at the designation
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on the side of this little pretty Peter! Built in 1968. And as far as I can tell, she's for sale! Any takers?
 

Chappie66

Active member
That would be a really awesome mod.... Looks like it would be a great cargo plane to experiment with :)
 

Chappie66

Active member
Started drawing up a foam board plan. It is my first go at this and I think the fuse came out about 0.3" too wide and not sure about the wing fold over but I hope it turns out ok. Any suggestions and feedback is much appreciated
 

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DUDE! Statement: What in the Wide Wide World of Sports in a goin' on here? That layout is incredible!!! Question: What program do you use to produce plans? Please, please, please let me know! And it looks like you went with the twin mini-power pod and motor set up? Or are those mini-versions that hold the larger twins?
 
Buy the way have some old buds thinking of buying G-PIGY and shipping her here to Oregon! If they do I'll let everyone know. Like to see how the Skyvan fly's compared to the Guinea Pig, eh?
 
Chappie66, I found this research pic that might help with main gear and wing strut design.
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The fuselage is mainly a square "Shoe-box" as we used to call her. Actually because of the front cabin doors my group can her "The Flying RV."
There is a central wall structure just behind the cabin that you can walk (Squeeze) around on both sides. And the actual alignment of the engine nacelles to the rudders is the rudders sit just on the outside edge of the outboard side of the nacelles.
 

Chappie66

Active member
Thanks for the kudos. I am rethinking the nose cover piece. Threw it together fast kind of based on the Guinea Pig. But the slope and angles are dissimilar top and bottom on the Skyvan.....sooooo. Trial and error

Awesome picture. I will take a look at the nacelle alignment and the gear. Still considering a way to mount the nose gear. Something like the Guine pig but maybe a little beefier. Possibly a block of XPS foam to anchor in.

Flight characteritics, I am hoping that it will be as docile as the Guniea.

The power pods are just a bit of a custom twist on something I saw for Lancaster build. I am hoping it will fly on powerpack A or B twin, or equivalent.

The program I am using is Visio then exported in PDF, only because I am comfortable with it. Looking to experiment with Inkscape or doublecadXt
 
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Was up till 3... caught up in an idea. PNG pages to print out and color before painting. The first bird I started on last night was of course the Guinea.
2.) Having flown in the real Sherpa/Skyvan... docile like the way I see the Guinea fly is about right. She's not a aerobatic plane, but with skill you can do some wild maneuvers when your in a spot.
3.) Thought reading your post. How about from the nose gear forward/tip, carve as one piece, back with the board the motor mounts are made of and glue in braces to hold the wire? With a slight 3/16th edge cut around it, should be easy to glue to rest of nose material. On the real Sherpa that section if you look at the pic again swings up for nose gear and cockpit equipment maintenance.
If you want when your done with the Sherpa/Skyvan plans, adding the distance bar, I'll try and knock out a 4 page "Coloring Book" of the bird as well. The only line drawn views I've found are a touch to detailed to print/hand draw/computer ink. And they are only of the top/starboard side/front. I hope people will print mine out and also use them to mock up mods with.
Here is the first to pages of my "FT Guinea Pig Coloring Book." The outline is done in a light grey and I hope will print well. There are four in total for this one, but had to stop and try to sleep. LOL.
PaintPatternBlankFTGP01.png

PaintPatternBlankFTGP02.png
 
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Chappie66

Active member
From the pics it appears that the inboard edge of the vertical stab is very close to center of nacelle. Looks like the nacelles are in a good place. At this placement a 6" prop is the biggest it will swing.

Yes definitely could do a carved piece, foreword of nose gear. Detachable maybe with a plywood back that could be modified to take a camera mount of some sort?

Have changed the landing gear bends to the 90° as per the page 2. Will work on the "pants" inboard of the wheels.
 

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  • Skyvan_Nacelle_alignment.pdf
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Chappie66

Active member
Updated the SPAR.

Changed main landing gear. Main gear "inboard pants" will glue to edge of landing gear plate for simplicity. Not quite scale, but could reduce and move inboard and change main gear to accommodate.

Added nose gear. Still contemplating nose construction.
 

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Hey Mike! Looking cool. Over the weekend bought some Ross foam board I dug around in the Office supply section of Wally World to find. 88c here a sheet! I don't have a hot glue gun, but will start with crafting glue for foam from Gorilla. I brought in the printer into the house office, and hope to have it set up soon and crossing fingers it will print. I want to work on a static model of the Guinea pig and the modify it.
 
Chappie66 (Mike C.), Idea storm. Build a power pod. Cut three or four slots into the motor mount plywood for three or four servo horns with the center or lowest hole aligned and drilled out to fit the landing gear wire. The plywood motor mount plate becomes the nose gear mount and holder for the nose piece, with the rest of the power pod foam acting as a stiffener for the gear mounting. Yes?
 
And this point has been poking me in the hind end. Take a look at this pic.
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if you look closely the hourglass shape is port to starboard (Left/Right) not top to bottom. It would be like building the Guinea Pig nose sideways.
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Another idea. Wing top Camel Hump... Make it part of the center of the main wing, then have it overlap the sides of the internal doubler forward and rearward of the main wing and just BBQ skewer the wing in place negating the rubber bands?
That's kind of how I thought about using the same style wing assembly mod of my second Piggy. Plus I thought about installing the receiver, light controller, top red flashing light inside the hump, with the ESC's, Motors, wing servos in the wing, and then just the needed servos, batteries, and lights in the fuselage!
 
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