Advice on repairing a foam wing.

[dkalwishky]

On flight 3 of my 1600mm Spitfire I had a dumb moment and went into the corn field.

The major damage was two chunks ripped from the wing, I've Foam Tac'd them back in but as you can see in the pictures there each impact area has a piece missing. I'd like to hear from you guys how you'd fill in the void, the foam that was there is missing in the corn.

I thought I'd take a piece of the foam that the plane was packaged with and cut a few small pieces to put into the voids.

Ultimately I'm going to order a new wing because this really bugs me but I'd like to get it back in the air this weekend so I can enjoy it some more.

[dkalwishky]

[Jimbobtheflimbob]

If you can get the wing into a pan of hot water maybe try the hot water trick to make it return to its original shape. I normally heat the water to 70 degrees celsius and this makes the foam expand but not so much that it becomes bubbly. Alternatively you could use filler/spackle to fill in the hole, i normally just use the kind used ti fill cracks in walls.

[doctormike]

Elmers white wood filler. Very easy to sand and very light. Doc

[Beeg]

I'd start with cutting out a square or rectangle area, just enough to remove the area that is missing and glue in a foam block. Cut and sand that to shape. Fill, sand. primer and paint! Viola!

Put some tape around the area of the new foam so when sanding you don't do too much damage to the surrounding good stuff.

[OV10]

OMG DK........those voids aren't squat. A little time with some FoamTac Foam Filler and then some Foam Finish and then a little touch up paint and from a couple feet away you won't see it.
When a hawk attacked my SeaFury last year and was in 11 pieces 5 days before NEFI...............FoamTac to the rescue, the guys could hardly tell that it had been repaired.......just ask Gman.
Still flies strong a year later. ;) LUV FoamTac products. :Cool:

[dkalwishky]

I used Foam Tac to glue everything back together, love that stuff! I'll look at their filler product.

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/finish-and-coatings/products/beacon-foam-filler-8oz

[RC Oldy]

I Had same damage to my spit I formed a peice of balsa to the shape needed glued in place with foamtack and spackled area sanded and airbrushed cant even tell it was damaged

[Tom603]

A very wet rag over the area and hit it briefly with a clothes iron set on cotton, don't try to fix it one attempt, patience.....

[Beeg]

I used Foam Tac to glue everything back together, love that stuff! I'll look at their filler product.

https://www.motionrc.com/collections/finish-and-coatings/products/beacon-foam-filler-8oz

Hobbico filler is my prefered filler for "large" non structural areas that need filling. Very easy to sand and light weight. Stuffs been around for ages and is still one the best products out there.

http://www.hobbico.com/shop/accys/hcar3400.php

For what it's worth..

BB

[dkalwishky]

The Hobbico stuff is what I used (my local hobby shop had it and I wanted to get this repair done). It worked really well. Wanting to get the plane back in the air I didn't bother to smooth out the foam that I reused or do any sanding, it looks like a franken-wing. :) The paint we put on it isn't matched very well either.

That said the plane is back in the air and flying really nice. This winter I will cut out the part closest to the wingtip and shape a new piece of foam and get properly color matched paint. If I dork it up I'll just buy a new wing, this plane is nice because all of the servo leads are in channels inside the wing, none of that foam channel cuts on the bottom of the wing.

Thanks to everyone else that chimed in.