radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

You can get some very nice looking planes for reasonable prices at Nitroplanes. For instance this P-47 for $99 ... http://www.nitroplanes.com/93a47-140...er-kit-v2.html

How do you think this kit would do for a glow .40 engine conversion. I imagine some glass cloth/epoxy reinforcement of the nose would be in order?

Twin_Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

I have a feeling the fuel would melt the foam as soon as it touched it.

Personally, I would use an arf made out of balsa...

Bill S.

KnifeEdge540

I had the same question reguarding what it would take to convert foamies to glow. Flyzone has a beautiful DHC-2 Beaver that I'd really like to convert to glow, but I wouldn't want the unavoidable spray of glow fuel from the muffler onto fuselage to damage the plane.

optech

My Feedback: (9)

The foam is EPO. Its highly tolerant of alcohol fuels. NOT ALL FOAMS ARE THE SAME.

The paint used on them however might not make it. You would have to use a fuel proof clear coat like Lusterkote.

I'm actually surprised more people haven't converted these to glow. They really are nice looking planes. I'm bouncing this idea around myself but I already have too many "projects". But if its something you have time and desire for I say go for it. The foam is an ideal vibration dampener. One problem with EPO is that really good glues don't "really" stick to it. Epoxy, gorilla glue and CA do okay for electric but for gas it might not be the case. I've used goop which works great but it slowly attacks the foam. RTV and maybe hot glue stick well but aren't actually structural type glues. What I'm getting at is adding things like a firewall may be troublesome to get it to stay on. I've heard canopy glue might work but it doesn't dry hard like epoxy, more like goop or other semi hard glues. Now that I've written that, semi-hard might be perfect. Hard enough to hold the firewall on and flexible enough to move with the foam......hmmmmm.

The other thing to do would be very diligent in making sure you seal openings and all possible routes that fuel goo can enter. It WILL go there. It might not attack the foam but it could compromise glue joints. Use weather stripping tape and such to seal the wing gap most of these foamies have. Once built you could permanently glue the battery hatch on and seal the gaps. Places like the tail where the surfaces mount would have to be sealed up. The things that manufacturers got away with for electric wont do so well with gas.

With that in mind you could have real nice plane with flaps and retracts that would take forever to build otherwise and still have an "engine" sounds when it flys by.

Hope this helps,
Mike

AeroGasRC

My Feedback: (5)

I have a airfield P-51 D that Im going to remove the electric motor ESC and replace it with a Rossi 45 from preliminary weight checks. I think it will balance on the money with out having to add weight to the model. I tested the foam and Nitro fuel did not hurt the foam or attack the paint which I was surprised. I will open a build forum when I start the project in a few weeks.

opjose

I'm not quite sure of the Airfield planes ( I have several ), but at least with the Dynam's the paint comes off VERY easily.

The foam was not properly prepared for paint. It appears that the paint was applied right after the foam came out of the mold, with the release agent still on.

As a result if you use even low tack painters tape, the paint comes right off!

Deluxe Materials sells stuff that you can use to harden the foam and fix painting issues, but you still need to sand the existing surfaces.

Their coating materials will then make the planes quite suitable for glow conversion.