Warbirds from paper plane plans

[smiling albert]

Not much to show yet buthave learnt a lot this Summer about how to bend foam and hopefully make the right size formers.
Stay tuned
This is my efforts so far pretty rubbish but I now know that foam has a grain and you need to bend with the grain and I think I may have a solution to the dodgy joints you see.
It’s all to do with the size of the formers and bearing in mind the ones I am using are for paper planes which have no thickness I had real trouble with this .
I don’t think its just a case of reducing their circumference by 6 mm,the foam is thicker where it’s bent less and thinner where it’s bent more,eg in “corners”.
My next attempt will be to place the full size paper former on a piece of thick cardboard and cut out the outline.
Then place this template on a piece of paper,cut a thin strip of foamboard and bend it to fit inside the cardboard template and then draw the reduced shape on the inside.
Pins may help to hold it in place.
The main thing is it should be symmetrical so may make 2 one for each side .
Then cut them out of cardboard first and see which one fits the premade fuselage section best
It’s a bit of a faff but if it makes the right size formers it’ll be worth it.
Any easier suggestions welcome!

 

[smiling albert]

Ok
Building an 800 mm me 109 at present using these wings
https://www.flitetest.com/articles/800mm-swappable-warbirds-that-actually-fly

,not sure what size sevos to use in the wings,FDS was very helpful with this advice

'Larger servos just pull bigger control surfaces. Anything under 800mm wingspan with moderately scale control surfaces is going to be fine on 5g. Ailerons are not usually huge except on 3d planes.
Digital servos are faster acting than analogue, so are handy on twitchy things like wings or acro planes.
You could use the 9g on the 1000mm or bigger ones. It’s not much all up weight difference .'

Although its less than 1m I am tempted to put 9g ones in ,just worried about the weight?
Am only planning to run it at scale speed so maybe a 5 g one is better and certainly lighter?
Any thoughts anyone

 

[FDS]

5g will work fine. Those control surfaces are small and light. Use the Emax digital 5g if you want super snappy ailerons.
Awaiting maiden footage!

 

[smiling albert]

Ok
Thanks,pictures soon ,maiden a long way off.
Still haven't maidened the Hellcat,weather appalling,maybe this weekend.
Would these be ok
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-4pcs...hash=item51ffb5ff25:m:mVvGXbG3PJ9RtSrKdLjNgOg
From China though,import duty?

 

[FDS]

Those would work if you don’t mind waiting two weeks or more and having a very cheap servo in there.
The Emax ones, analogue and digital are available from HobbyRC from UK stock with fast ship.

 

[smiling albert]

Thanks,only I don't think they're 5 g ones and I can't find any when I search.
HK don't seem to have any either,so might have to go Chinese!

 

[FDS]

I linked the 5g Emax. I just bought two for my Dart. Here it is.
It fitted exactly in the slot on the Dart wing for a 5g. They have plenty of power for elevons so should manage the ailerons on your build fine. 9051 is what’s supplied in the Graupner/FT power pack as 5g.
I have 3.7g ones in my TT that have been ragged to death, never had any slip or issue with them

 

[smiling albert]

Yes I was thinking of using the 3.7 g ones as well I want this thing to fly at scale speed so not putting too much pressure on them ,might go for these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Micro-3-7g...-Flight-Direction/2164855351?iid=323692878811

 

[FDS]

Why don’t you want to buy a superior, faster acting, digital servo that you can get faster than the eBay ones? I have a few of the 3.7g ones but if you were leaning towards 9g to begin with you might find they are not powerful enough for this build, hence I suggested slightly bigger.

 

[JakeTheSloth]

Hello there. This thread made me curious as I was making paper models for years before I discovered flitetest and before I was able to afford to have RC planes. Most of the plans you're using are Polish (my motherland) and I've made some of them. This spitfire is more than imperfect, some parts fit terribly, especially wing fairings. The red parts are the "skeleton" of plane. Foamboard keeps its shape, paper doesn't, that's why you need cardboard formers. For wings I would just put alu spar to keep dihedral and let the wing form itself. If you still want to add it remember you have to subtract thickness of foamboard 2x. For planes when I glue segments of fuse together I'm using thin paper ribbons and put former inside, dunno how to make it with foamboard. I don't have time to contribute in this project, but when I do I'm surely going to give it a try, yet I'm sceptic about it because those models aren't meant to survive acceleration like real or RC planes. Here's some cardboard models I made and spitfire you guys are making. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[smiling albert]

Hi Jake
Thanks for your input/encouragement-I need it
Abandoned the Spitfire for the moment as I need one with a wingspan of 90 cm and haven't yet figured out how to scale up /down nerdnics spitfire plans on a computer-any help would be appreciated!
My current plan is starting with an 80 cm w/s me 109.
I have wing plans already
https://www.flitetest.com/articles/800mm-swappable-warbirds-that-actually-fly

Then using the me 109 paper plans from here
http://glidersusa.free.fr/
scaled up to make a foam fuselage
Then marry the wings and fuselage to hopefully get a scale look that flies!!
When building the wings I am using nerdnics technique to create a thin wing at the back

10 min into the video he shows you how
When building the fuselage the biggest headache has been getting formers the right size -see above but I think I'm getting better-
I don’t think its just a case of reducing their circumference by 6 mm,the foam is thicker where it’s bent less and thinner where it’s bent more,eg in “corners”.
My next attempt will be to place the full size paper former on a piece of thick cardboard and cut out the outline.
Then place this template on a piece of paper,cut a thin strip of foamboard and bend it to fit inside the cardboard template and then draw the reduced shape on the inside.
Pins may help to hold it in place.
The main thing is it should be symmetrical so may make 2 one for each side .
Then cut them out of cardboard first and see which one fits the premade fuselage section best.
Or simply put pins round a cutout of the full size former and place the foam section of fuselage inside and draw inside the new size former
It’s a bit of a faff but if it makes the right size formers it’ll be worth it.
Any easier suggestions welcome!
Am using the latest flite test corsair build ideas for bending foam and building the fuselage

My other problem at the moment is building the tail -particularly elevator/rudder which is different for the me 109 as the elevator doesn't fit throught the fuselage but is higher up .
Was looking at nerdnics plans but can't figure out for the life of me how to get the elevator through the slot of the rudder without cutting it which I don't really want to as I think it needs to be 1 piece for strength

https://www.nerdnic.com/nnbf-109.html
Any help appreciated
thanks

 

[FDS]

@nerdnic Any advice?

 

[JakeTheSloth]

Ok, from the beginning - this paper model is very old if you're speaking of MM me-109, it comes from time when designers used rulers and pencils to make models. I suggest using bf-109 by modelcardboard publisher, it fits good together (look at my pics in prev reply). I know how the speedwing works, I made mini airacobra, 800mm MiG-3 & Ki-61 with it but I've been using basic ft powerpacks and without enough speed it was likely to stall. About scaling - I'm scaling my plans directly before printing, set tiled in printing window and change scale from 100% to whatever you desire. Formers - my idea that you should glue a piece of fuse into "tube" shape, glue a former on foamboard and then reduce its size until it fits in the piece of fuse. Try to keep its orginal shape. You can use sandpaper for it, it's normal procedure for paper planes. And using the fact that foam is 5mm thick don't push former fully inside piece of fuse but let it sit a bit above, so you can glue another piece on it. Oh and you can help yourself form pieces by heating them up with hairdryer. Bf-109 stabs - don't cut elevator, cut rudder. I strongly suggest putting cf spar in it as well

 

[JakeTheSloth]

I'm gonna share some better models if I manage to find them on my PC

 

[smiling albert]

Have already emailed him to death but will try

I'm gonna share some better models if I manage to find them on my PC

ok Thanks for this-have already built the me 109 fuselage pictures to follow

 

[smiling albert]

Here are some pictures of the me109
I know it doesn't look much better than the Spitfire but the joints are much closer and I think with a bit of trimming (and they are slightly pliable) it'll work .
I think the method outlined above for making formers is good,though I agree that the plans I'm using are older than the Spitfire ones I used
http://from-paper.com/en/news/aviat...-british-fighter-of-the-second-world-war.html
and probably explain the gaps.
Thanks Jake for the offer of better plans,I did look around for others ,did find one at 1:100 scale but had trouble enlarging it,without it becoming pixelated

 

[nerdnic]

@nerdnic Any advice?

I am late to this thread, but tell me what can I help with?

 

[smiling albert]

Hi nerdnic, Thanks for your offer of help -you have been most helpful already -I have been e mailing you in various disguises for months and you always reply promptly and helpfully.
I would like to scale down your me 109 wing to 800 mm(then I can build a spitfire wingspan 900 mm ,Hurricane 1000mm and Stuka 1010 mm and they should be all about scale to one another and I can use Unrauv's hurricane/Stuka wings with your speed wing ideas )- if you think it's possible with the FT foamboard but
a)I only have access to a computer (and adobe illustrator) at the college where I work and then only for short amounts of time
b)my IT skills are somewhat limited
I would like to have a go myself -have tried watching your videos but don't I only need to scale down the spars and move the score lines/servo around -is that relatively easy?
Thanks for any help

 

[JakeTheSloth]

I've found the Bf-109 from my pics, it's vectorized so it won't be pixelated when scaled up. Unfortunately all models on my PC got deleted when formatting :c I'm pretty sure I'll find something else, most of usual warbirds like hellcat, mustang, shoki, hurricane, spitfire, wuerger (Fw-190) etc. I recommend using models by ModelArt or model cardboard. ModelArt planes are better but more complex - when making them from paper it's no big deal but adapting them to foam may be difficult.

 

[nerdnic]

Hi nerdnic, Thanks for your offer of help -you have been most helpful already -I have been e mailing you in various disguises for months and you always reply promptly and helpfully.
I would like to scale down your me 109 wing to 800 mm(then I can build a spitfire wingspan 900 mm ,Hurricane 1000mm and Stuka 1010 mm and they should be all about scale to one another and I can use Unrauv's hurricane/Stuka wings with your speed wing ideas )- if you think it's possible with the FT foamboard but
a)I only have access to a computer (and adobe illustrator) at the college where I work and then only for short amounts of time
b)my IT skills are somewhat limited
I would like to have a go myself -have tried watching your videos but don't I only need to scale down the spars and move the score lines/servo around -is that relatively easy?
Thanks for any help

I think you can scale it down to 800mm no problem. It should still fly great. There is no straightforward way to properly scale down plans, though. There is the 'proper' way where you basically modify the plans digitally to create a set of plans that need no alterations. The other option is to just scale the plans as they are using Adobe Reader. What this gives you is a set of plans that will need to be tweaked as you build. For example, all the A/B/C folds, slots, tabs,etc will all be 20% smaller than the thickness of DTF. Additionally, servo cutouts will be smaller.

This is the route I would suggest you take. As you build you will see where the small tweaks need to be made, but they are rather minor changes.

When you print the plans in Adobe Reader, there is a simple 'Tile Scale' value you can change from 100% to 80%. After that, just print the plans you always would and you're all set.