Heavy planes

[SteveH]

A few lessons this newbie has learnt:

* Having built 5 planes and being in the UK where foam board is made heavy. It’s best to weigh your plane fully loaded and compare it to specs. My result so far have not been great:
Charlie 237% overweight - lesson learnt don’t use duct tape as a covering; maiden was less then 1 second before nose dive
Millennium Flerken 131% overweight - going to try modifying the tail fins to accommodate a bigger prop; test flight tomorrow
Spitfire 171% overweight - both recommend props have been acquired but thinks she may need a landing gear before test flight, will see what my instructor think tomorrow

* When ordering foam board, read the darn specs and don’t get too excited that it says Flite Test FB cos it might be the thick stuff

* Have found foam-board.co.uk does 3mm and 5mm FB that I’ve read is about as close as we get in the UK. A purchase will be made after payday

Went to redfinmodels.com, they have a large supply of scratch build material. Was looking for a prop and spinner for the Spitfire but they had one Master Series Spitfire in stock and I had to buy that, a pair of wheels and wheel stops but no props. Guess I’m going to have to step up my build skills, which I’m looking forward too. The guys in Redfin are super helpful and understanding, will be going back ther a lot in the future I reckon

 

[Merv]

...don’t use duct tape as a covering; ...
...The guys in Redfin are super helpful and understanding, will be going back ther a lot in the future I reckon

Yes duct tape is far too heavy. I use colored packing tape, it's much lighter. I only know of two sources, carton sealing tape at Tape Planet and wing tape at Hobby King. Both work equally well for me, both have a good choice of colors and are reasonably priced. Shipping can be an issue.

 

[swampxxl]

When it comes to finding the right foamboard I have the same problem in the Netherlands. I haven't found anything that comes close to the weight of FT-foamboard. On some forms people suggested Kapa-line. Turns out it's twice as havey. Luckily I have a good epp source. I tired building a couple of Ft-models out of epp. The only problem is you can't make folds with epp.

 

[SteveH]

Yes duct tape is far too heavy. I use colored packing tape, it's much lighter. I only know of two sources, carton sealing tape at Tape Planet and wing tape at Hobby King. Both work equally well for me, both have a good choice of colors and are reasonably priced. Shipping can be an issue.

Charlie 1 has had her electronics removed and will become wall hanger to remind me on what not to do lol
Redfin has many different plane covering films in stock so will going back in the near future

 

[Merv]

...Redfin has many different plane covering films in stock so will going back in the near future

Pay attention to the working temperature on films. The low temp stuff works better on foam, 200F or so. The high temp film, 400F or so, may be too hot & melt the foam.

 

[Bricks]

On your UK foam can you remove the paper on one side? Should lighten it up a bunch with out to much sacrifice of strength. Might be time to build a foamcutter and use pink insulation foam.

 

[Merv]

Before I stumbled onto FT I built a lot of planes from cardboard & pink or blue flat fold foam. There were entire websites devoted to building planes with these materials. Those planes flew just as good as a FB plane. FB planes are much easier to get a good looking finish.

 

[SteveH]

On your UK foam can you remove the paper on one side? Should lighten it up a bunch with out to much sacrifice of strength. Might be time to build a foamcutter and use pink insulation foam.

The stuff I found on Amazon was damn near impossible to peel. The stuff form Hobbycraft was easier.
Then I saw the trick for removing hot glue with denatured alcohol (uk white spirit work too). Spray or wipe with a damp kitchen towel over the paper and it just lifts off. Was thinking of removing the paper from outside of chunky Spitfire to loose a few grams

 

[Merv]

... Was thinking of removing the paper from outside of chunky Spitfire to loose a few grams

You might save more than a few grams. With DTFB, about half of the weight is in the paper.

 

[quorneng]

SteveH
In the UK it is possible to get Depron or a subsritute in 3 & 6 mm. Unless you can collect delivery is the problem.
It is much lighter than foam board and of course more flexible. With approriate adjustments to the construction it can produce a light yet strong result.
The Antonov AN2 in my avatar is made from 3 mm Depron. There is no paper on it anywhere!

 

[The Fopster]

Insulation foam works well - although you need to build slightly differently designed planes. This stuff from B&Q works well:

Diall Polystyrene Insulation board (L)0.8m (W)0.6m (T)6mm, Pack of 8 | DIY at B&Q

Introducing Diall Insulation Board, the perfect base for wallpapers, tiles, paints & coatings without solvent. This white polystyrene board has a thickness of 6mm and covers an area of 0.48m². It has a BRE green guide rating of A+ and a U-value (thermal insulation) of 5.83 W/m²K.

www.diy.com

Try designing something like this:

Plans for Easy to Build Foam RC Plane Horwood Hotrod Simple RC - Etsy UK

This Patterns & Blueprints item by SimpleRC has 20 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from United States. Listed on 08 Mar, 2024

www.etsy.com

With a little imagination you can build all sorts of designs that will be very lightweight and fly well.
Good luck!

 

[Piotrsko]

Hmmm blue and orange store USA both have this, but fanfolded AND not cheap

 

[L Edge]

As time passes, there are less options to find a cheap foam that is strong and light. So what it leads to is that you have to find designs of planes that can match your type of foam.
For instance, ran out of blue fan folded foam and now Adam's Redi-board is one of the cheap foams. So, you need to find designs that will end up light and still fly well. Sponz's "wonder series" modified for Adam's gives an excellent example. Even a flying wing.
As you gain experience building, models like an F-117, Dark Star can be built strong enough and end up quite rugged to handle every day flying.

Spend sometime watching some of the build videos. You can pick up lots of info on the tricks of the trade to keeping it light.