Just re-tuned to this thread and read about your encounter with a snow blower, Critter.
Darn bad news - I know what thatls like, having lost the top half inch off my left hand ring finger. Painful, and they bleed like all get-out. Hope you get full recovery and use out of it (mine went a bit lame).
Aaaanyhoo, as you may recall a couple of years ago, I came across this thread and mentioned wanting to build an off-topic twin-turbine 1:10 F-111 out of glass tub rather than foam.
To cut a loooong story short, that fell by the wayside until recently, when I got stuck back into it and decided to peg it back to a glass 1:16 and go for a pair of 90mm fans or thereabouts. I've now cut all my formers (bulkheads) ready for balsa sheeting and then got the idea of testing a few sections by inserting a slab of foam between two adjacent formers, and hot wiring around them to get an idea of how the thing is going to hang together.
To my surprise, the two test sections I cut came out surprisingly well. And I'm sure I could improve the cut with a bit more practice and fine-tuning my wire temp, tension etc.
So now I'm thinking of hot-wiring all sections and joining them together to make a 'foamie fuse'. The foam I'm using is just white building-grade polystyrene I scored from a skip at a building site. But it seems to cut quite well and is nice and light but quite strong too.
I would, of course, have to sand all the wire dings out of the places where the hot-wire went in a bit deep etc, but I reckon I could end up with a reasonable scratch-built fuse.
The question I would like to ask here is what would be a good way to finish/seal the fuse? Paint, finishing epoxy (potentially heavy), or some sort of plastic film? I've heard 'Doculam' mentioned as a plastic film skinning material, and I'm trying to find out more info on it.
Are there any techniques/materials you guys gould perhaps suggest?
BJ