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Ron Collins F86 - foam/carbon build


Mike Chantler
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A while back I received a copy of Ron Collins' original F86 plan and as he was a member of our club and this model flies well in our conditions, it has been on my build list for a while I. I felt a bit guilty not joining in the mass build but I decided I would have to build this one first. It's also much less scale and simpler to build which suits my talents better! (this is only my second PSS and the first one was pretty ropey(!).

 

The plan is basically very similar the the RCME one on Outerzone here  except that it is drawn on two A1 sheets which allows the fuselage etc. to be shown complete rather than broken into two halves.

 

At the time I was looking for materials Balsa Cabin had little balsa stock, so I decided to build it out of XPS pretty much one-for-one with the original balsa design (eek!). I have not used XPS much before so this was a steep learning curve especially where glue was concerned. For strength I've added carbon sheet in places made from cheap 6oz carbon weave (£10/m2).

 

I usually take quite a few photos to remind me of the good (and bad) decisions - so will stick some of these up to show how I have got on so far.

 

Wings are conventional veneer over EPS. 

 

Fuselage and tail will all be out of XPS - any advice on how to deal with this strange material much appreciated!

 

 

Edited by Mike Chantler
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Looking good Mike,

 

The Ron Collins Sabre flies very well, I built one back in the early 1990's. If I remember correctly my wing was skinned with mahogany veneer as that is all I had at the time.

 

Bring it along to the Orme and join in with the other Sabres - the more the merrier as far as I am concerned!

 

Martin.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Got bit distracted by a 60" plank project which is almost finished.

 

And made slow progress on the F86 fus - as I am just not used to this foam stuff. It's a very traditional design where I am trying to replace all balsa and ply with XPS and carbon sheet (don't ask me why - it seemed like a good idea at the time!!). White stuff is 6mm XPS sheet form B&Q. Orange triangle stock is hot-wired from some old XPS panels our builder gave me. Black stuff is 6oz carbon weave turned into sheet with the help of a large mirror and peel ply.

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What I forgot, was that without a building board to line things up on, it was not obvious that i had built a slight banana ?

 

Hopefully I'll sort that with the decking.

IMG-20210405-WA0002.thumb.jpg.2b069de1e95372f45d21a30831cafee0.jpg

 

And yup- looks nothing like an F86 (yet, I hope.

 

Edited by Mike Chantler
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Bagged a second pair of wings last night for a friend who is doing a traditional (balsa) build of this model.

 

In a senior moment I doubled the weight of resin and thought that'll be ok - but got thermal runaway in the pot towards the end of doing the skins.

First time this has happened to me - boy did the pot get hot!

 

Inspected layup after 4 hrs and not stuck ? ! Now back in bag ???

 

Of the 59g used probably 30-50% ended up soaked up by peel ply. Must measure before and after weight next time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished 60" alternative build plank. Flies fab ? so now back to F86.

 

Had been experimenting with 'glues' for XPS and had used universal thinners to 'weld' triangle stock to sides and 5min PU for the internal formers.  Theory was that the thinners would produce a joint that would sand without causing a hard ridge (unlike the PU).

 

Hmm.. as you'd expect mixed results. Too much thinner and you get holes (as in last photo). Too little and you have a fragile joint. 

 

Was pondering how to sand top of fus. flat (to attach top decking) without  shaking thinner 'glued' fuselage apart when it occurred to me that I could hot-wire it.

 

To my surprise the hot wire went through the PU glue (although it has to be said that it was quite thin where the wire went through).

 

Yup - and still looks pug ughly compared with some of the beautiful balsa builds you see on these forums. Hopefully it will turn into a swan of sorts lol

 

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Edited by Mike Chantler
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OK now i really need some help.  I cut the tail-plane out of XPS - looked real nice. Covered in brown paper and WBP and looked horrible!

 

So think I will go with 1oz glass. But any suggestions as to elevator hinges?

Can I just use the glass of the top surface or is this too fragile? Do I need to add 1oz kevlar at the hinge?

And do I need a bit of a spar? 

 

 

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Excellent work, interesting, informative and very different ? 

14 hours ago, Mike Chantler said:

Oh, and many thanks to Simon Chaddock for the steer about the foam glue. Works great, and sands ?

And that is please as I have always used PU and Upor and open to try a better/different solution - thanks?

Edited by Ace
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  • 2 weeks later...

Got diverted again by sun, garden things and sorting out programming a couple of my slope gliders to take up the hill. Still have not really got to grips with TX16s telemetry widgets and things.

 

However, took a bit of inspiration from a DLG build I remember from ages ago and did tailplane in similar way.

 

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Just used weights as could not be bothered with hassle of setting up bag.

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Not perfect, but good enough for now.  And very strong for the 12g per side ?

 

Edited by Mike Chantler
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