Hello friends...

I am a 16 year old veteren combat pilot currently flying a Ki 61 "tony"...I was wandering around this site and was wondering if anyone knew a good and efficient way of transforming hellcat plans for balsa into Corroplast... thank you

Josh "wizard" Pegg

You will have better luck transforming them to blue foam .Trace out the out line of the fuse to foam and carve away the extra.The same with the wing make a temp of the root and the tip lay it out on foam and cut out the wing using a hot wire cutter. Use 4mil coro for control surface.JKaeroteck builds their planes like that,and they take a lot of abuse.

I built this Hellcat using pink insulation foam:


We used a simple, home-made hot-wire cutter to cut the fuselage in sections using aluminum flashing templates:


The fuselage was left solid (NOT hollowed) and constructed using JK Aerotech techniques (2mm coroplast wrapped around the forward half of the fuse and strapping tape reinforcement).

There is a lot of construction info in the RCCA forum threads. Just type "Hellcat" into the search engine here:
http://www.rccombat.com/forum_2000/search.asp

And, check out the on-line instructions at http://www.jkaerotech.com

HTH,
D

hey wiz kid

you may have to slit all the sides and make up allot of formers...
but it may take down some of the strength....of the coro

but on the other hand you can make it out of foam... the only problem is you have to get all that special wire and you have to make a bow and a table wire cutter.... and you don't have to worry about the strength... foam is strong!!!

and i no you have balsa plans for the hellcat... and if those two other ways of doing it don't work i would go with the balsa...its week but looks good...lol

oh ya and if you decide to do it in foam i can probilly bring out some of that wire to the field if i have any left..lol

hey josh

i actually on second thought think coro would be the best for doing it....
i would just keep modifying Ted's planes for the tony until it looks like a hellcat ... thats my plan on how to make a ww1 Fokker d 7 and i think you should make the wings out of foam.. ( easyer)

But you don't really need a hot wire. Just get a block of foam large enough and attack with some 60 grit sandpaper. When everything that doesn't look like a Hellcat is gone, you're done!

JESTER

Hey, check out the Dave West Mig 7 plans for some ideas on making a Hellcat from Coroplast.

The formers are easy: Simply use the formers on the balsa plan.

The difficult part will be lofting a surface over the formers to get the shape of the Coroplast. Watching American Chopper, though, I think I might have a way.... Yet another use for duct tape.

You need to position a set of formers on a stiff central "crutch" in their intended final positions. Glue 'em on, maybe adding some of the stringers on the plan. This will be a throw-away part once you have the shape of the skin. "Sheet" the structure with the duct tape. As on the Mig 7, make the turtledeck, and perhaps the bottom, separate pieces as you cut the tape and remove it from the frame.

Get yourself a big piece of Kraft paper (brown paper on rolls, about 36" wide) and smooth the pieces out on this paper. Alternatively, you could stick the tape down directly on some coroplast, cut it out, and use it as your pattern.

Please note that I haven't tried this technique yet, but it does reflect what I watched Paul Jr. do on American Chopper, and it seems like it would work.

The Dave West Mig 7 is the toughest plane I have ever seen. Mine has not yet seen a midair, but I've pancaked it at full speed, and lawn-darted it at full speed, and both times, the plane had little or no damage.