LOST FOAM CARBON FIBRE |
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[N.B. The parcel tape, I'm told, can be coated in a release agent or release agent and a thin layer of epoxy resin to aid its removal.] |
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[Tip: Solar UV will fade the ink so outline with black.]
Now look here for a larger complete project by Jim Brandon... http://www.theshope.net/meteor/
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In Germany - R&G, Lange und Ritter, Bacuplast, EMC-Vega, usw. In USA - www.cstsales.com , www.acp-composites.com In UK - Cherbourg Express?, www.freeflightsupplies.co.uk |
Carve out a fuselage shape from blue
Styrofoam with a bandsaw. i.e. First draw a profile of
your fuse on a suitable piece of extruded foam.
Shape it roughly using, say, a small balsa saw or craft
knife then use 80 grade Aluminium Oxide to finish it off.
Cover the blue Styrofoam (or gray, pink,
green extruded foam) plug with 2" wide brown parcel
or packing tape. Use smaller pieces for the double curves
of the fuselage. This covering is relatively easy to do.
Pull
over your fuselage plug a length of carbon
fibre or glass fibre braiding/sock (Gewebeschläuche). You can
even use off-cuts or pieces of glass fibre, Kevlar or carbon
fibre cloth if you can't get braid. Wet it through with
epoxy resin; you cannot use polyester resin because it
will attack the polystyrene foam. Don a nitryl or thick
rubber glove for some sort of minimum protection when you
do this. 
When wetted out out, hang the fuselage
vertically, and weighted, while the epoxy resin is
curing. This should keep your fuselage straight. A more
durable fuselage will need 2 or more layers of the
bi-axial braiding. Extra, local reinforcement can be
added as required. 
When resin has cured, cut
the canopy and/or wing seat, and cut the rear end off.
Try to remove some of the foam with a pair if taper nose
pliers. Next, pour in a small amount of Acetone to dissolve the polystyrene foam and help
soften the adhesive of the parcel tape. 
Yuk!
The remains of the brown parcel/packing tape, and the
Acetone/Lost Foam residue on a piece of kitchen paper. I
did this in the open air. Remove the blue foam plug and
brown parcel tape with a long hooked piece of wire (coat
hanger?) as best you can. You need to use very little
acetone, by the way. It's all a sticky mess, I'm afraid,
although I find this a rather satisfying chore for some
reason. 
Slap on a stiff mixture of microballoons
and epoxy resin (with a little Cabosil or Aerosil thixotrope) to
fill the weave. Let it harden. (More layers and sanding will give a
better finish.) Then sand it and finally
spray with a car aerosol primer paint. This fuselage came out at less than
50g. Cut out canopy, etc. with a new scalpel blade.
My finished PANACHE with a super strong
carbon fuse. The carbon braiding creates a fuselage with
no seams, a fuselage with the carbon fibres spirally
wrapped around it. Neat eh? The wing was cut from pink 
Just a word about the V-tailplanes. These
are simply pieces of 2mm Rohacell foam sanded more or
less to some sort of airfoil profile. They were vacuum
bagged too with 50gsm glass. The yellow material is
Kevlar cloth under the glass which provides reinforcement
AND a hinge.
The Graphics? Easy. Go to
a model store and buy a sheet of tissue paper. (Remember
tissue and dope?) Fix a piece of it to a sheet of regular
printer paper with tape at the top edge only. Draw your
design with your favourite program and print it with your
inkjet on to the tissue/paper. The regular paper serves
only as a backing sheet to protect the platten of your
printer. Lay this tissue under the glass fibre when you
bag the wing.