Hello Flite Test community! This is my first post on the Flite Test forums!
I've known for a while about Flite Test, and I regularly watch their videos. But I was inclined to join the forums with a question that continuously the internet fails to answer.
So, my Parkzone Sport Cub recently met a rather abrupt interaction with the surface of the earth. The damage wasn't too extensive. Only minor dame to the wing, a bent prop, broken engine cowling, bent landing gear rod, and a dismounted flap servo (and ripped battery compartment velcro). Nothing that can't be fixed/replaced. While that's been taken care of, there is another situation that I think all of us foam flyers have experienced at one point or another after a crash: fuselage wrinkling. Being the nature of the crash, the wrinkling was not alarmingly significant. There doesn't seem to be critical damage to the airframe. While these wrinkles can be considered "battle scars", I have the desire to restore this sport cub to it's [near] original state of beauty.
So, I turned to the internet where I found some interesting (and startling) solutions to this problems. The most prevalent solutions that I have seen are 1.) boiling the foam
, 2.) foam-ironing foam that is already laminated, and 3.) sanding down the wrinkled foam. Oh, and 4.) filling the wrinkles with some foam-filler.
Boiling the foam is out of the question. I seems to always leave a bubbly effect on the foam, and I'd rather not remove all of the electronics from the plane just to do this.
Sanding is also out of the question, due to the paint job of the plane that I can not recreate.
Filler isn't an option, either, because I don't feel like that "fixes" the wrinkles, and like I said, I can not recreate the paint job.
Ironing the foam seems like an interesting idea (RC aircraft iron). However, in EVERY video I've seen, the foam needs to be laminated or the iron needs proper protection.
Now, with ironing, I do not own a foam iron. Considering I only have one large plane that will ever need it (and hopefully then, it won't need it again), I don't think the iron is really worth the investment of money (and time).
So do you think a standard clothing iron, on low heat AND with the protection of a sock, along with the constant movement of the iron along the plane, is safe to "remove" some of these wrinkles? Or is a standard house iron a big no-no with foam. Like I said, I will put a sock in between the foam and iron.
Any other suggestions for SAFELY removing the wrinkles without doing a complete overhaul? Otherwise, I can live with them.
Thanks in advance!
Joe N.
I've known for a while about Flite Test, and I regularly watch their videos. But I was inclined to join the forums with a question that continuously the internet fails to answer.
So, my Parkzone Sport Cub recently met a rather abrupt interaction with the surface of the earth. The damage wasn't too extensive. Only minor dame to the wing, a bent prop, broken engine cowling, bent landing gear rod, and a dismounted flap servo (and ripped battery compartment velcro). Nothing that can't be fixed/replaced. While that's been taken care of, there is another situation that I think all of us foam flyers have experienced at one point or another after a crash: fuselage wrinkling. Being the nature of the crash, the wrinkling was not alarmingly significant. There doesn't seem to be critical damage to the airframe. While these wrinkles can be considered "battle scars", I have the desire to restore this sport cub to it's [near] original state of beauty.
So, I turned to the internet where I found some interesting (and startling) solutions to this problems. The most prevalent solutions that I have seen are 1.) boiling the foam
, 2.) foam-ironing foam that is already laminated, and 3.) sanding down the wrinkled foam. Oh, and 4.) filling the wrinkles with some foam-filler. Boiling the foam is out of the question. I seems to always leave a bubbly effect on the foam, and I'd rather not remove all of the electronics from the plane just to do this.
Sanding is also out of the question, due to the paint job of the plane that I can not recreate.
Filler isn't an option, either, because I don't feel like that "fixes" the wrinkles, and like I said, I can not recreate the paint job.
Ironing the foam seems like an interesting idea (RC aircraft iron). However, in EVERY video I've seen, the foam needs to be laminated or the iron needs proper protection.
Now, with ironing, I do not own a foam iron. Considering I only have one large plane that will ever need it (and hopefully then, it won't need it again), I don't think the iron is really worth the investment of money (and time).
So do you think a standard clothing iron, on low heat AND with the protection of a sock, along with the constant movement of the iron along the plane, is safe to "remove" some of these wrinkles? Or is a standard house iron a big no-no with foam. Like I said, I will put a sock in between the foam and iron.
Any other suggestions for SAFELY removing the wrinkles without doing a complete overhaul? Otherwise, I can live with them.
Thanks in advance!
Joe N.
