Cardboard C/L

Although it is not Stunt, it is C/L and darn nice work. If any of you all aren't arware of G. Macri's website, you should visit- everything C/L, the photo gallery alone is worth the trip. On the cardboard, go to the link:

http://digilander.libero.it/ucontrol2000/U-Control-2000/

Click the "new materials for aeromodelling" bit. Hard to believe these are just cardboard with a little balsa and ply. Just shows what a guy with a lot of artistic talent can do with even simple materials.

J

>
>Click the "new materials for aeromodelling" bit.

I can't find this, and I've clicked through the major link buttons on the home page. The cardstock miniatures are really cool though. I love cardstock models, and models of models are really neat. I had the Nobler, but he's added others, including the Voodoo. Thanks for reminding me about this site, which is a lot of fun generally.

Look under the "News" bit.

Jake

>Look under the "News" bit.
>
>
>Jake

Ooooohh, NICE! You have of course seen the cardboard CL semi scale models in the recent magazines (Flying Models, IIRC)? He is indeed printing his graphics on paper and applying them to the cardboard to provide detail and color. Really cool. Cardstock models regularly win static scale competitions, beating out even resin cast models. It's all in the artistic presentation of printed surface detail...

Same site has an interesting section on paper models.

Print a PDF file onto heavy card stock, get out the sissors and white glue and a couple hours later you have a nicely appointed model of a Nobler or Voodoo you can hold in the palm of your hand.

Here's a concept!

Print card model style designs on that new kind of plastic cardboard (coroplast ?). Laser cut most of the parts, leaving uncut part holders like they did in the die cut days. Ship the model to the customer as a package of flat sheets. Customer gets out the knife and separates the parts. A bunch of folds over a straight edge later the parts are ready for CA gluing.

When they are glued in place the airplane is completed, paint scheme having been applied when the parts were printed.

Fuel proofing might be an issue. I have heard that CA does not stand up to Nitro.

But you might make some fun mass produced fliers if a few details are solved.

Thoughts, guys?

Cy.

>Print card model style designs on that new kind of plastic
>cardboard (coroplast ?).

>But you might make some fun mass produced fliers if a few
>details are solved.
>
>Thoughts, guys?
>

Coroplast is heavy for CL (good for 1/2 A profiles though), but how about the thin foam sheets that are becoming popular for 3D RC models? And cardstock can be made to fly too. I'll bet just cardstock skins with some wood internals (wing spars for example) would produce some cute 1/2As. How about cardstock reproductions of the Scientific "hollow logs"? Easy way to get the full fuselage. For fuel proofing you can go cheesy and use spray urethane varnish that will yellow, or go first class and use Klasskote clear epoxy.

I somehow have a feeling that none of these ideas are really new. Easy-to-build models consisting of nice graphics on some sort of thin material go back a long way. Like to cereal boxes in the 40's and '50s.

The answer is yes, there a lot of cool things you could do this way. Cardstock scale models can be made to fly FF with CO2 motors. And some of the RC ARF war birds are "folded" out of pre-printed foam sheets...

Just saw your comments about cardboard airplanes. I have been building them for over 30 years. To see photos and construction, visit http://home.earthlink.net/~charlesfelton My 60" wingspan Yak9 C/L model is a good example of what can be achieved using cardboard. The website shows how it is constructed. Let me know what you think.

The above photo is obviously my P51 model. Here is my Yak9.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-28-04 AT 08:31 PM (CDT)
 
I thought that plane looked familiar. The plane featured on the Italian web page is, in fact, Chuck Felton's Dewoitine D.520, as published in a 1997 Flying Models issue. There's also a Macchi Mc202. And there's a link to Chuck's web site at the bottom. A friend of mine built the Dewoitine a few years back (didn't look as nice as this one, though).

Yup, I remember coming across Chuck's articles in magazines 20 years ago. The most recent one came out two or three months ago, can't remember exactly what it was. Nice technique! I've been thinking of building something like this, with the slight modification of using a symmetrical wing (so it flies inverted easier).

Incidentally, 4mm coroplast is heavy. The 3mm stuff isn't nearly and is a lot easier to work with. It's supposedly pretty hard to find in the States, though. It's available in bookstores here. The problem is finding nice, flat sheets.

I think you have Coroplast confused with something else. It is very common here.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-28-04 AT 11:51 PM (CDT)
 
I have been doing "alternate material construction" for some time, but my planes don't look anything like the above models. I call this one the "Bamboo Bomber". It flys like a brick, but it is only supposed to be a trainer.
[photo not recovered: bamboobomber.jpg]

And then there is this one with a TD .049

[photo not recovered: long049.jpg]

>I think you have Coroplast confused with something else. It
>is very common here.
>
>Tom

The 4mm coroplast is very common in the US. Try finding the 3mm, let me know if you find some, because no one I've talked to in the US has found any, and I am looking for a US source for a particular project. 3mm is a lot lighter than 4mm. 2mm can be had in the US, also, that's what a lot of the SPAD fliers use, but it usually needs to be special-ordered.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-29-04 AT 11:14 AM (CDT)
 
Last time I bought some I didn't ask for three mm I asked for and got 1/8 inch. I needed it in a light blue shade to make a small sign for a service station. I just measured a small piece of white I had left over from something and it measures slightly less than 1/8 inch. Since 1mm = approx. .0393700787 and multiplied by 3 = .1181102361, I thought it was close enough for me.

Here is a link to a supplier in Pennsylvania. It is advertised as 3mm. When I ordered 1/8th inch they figured the 3mm was close enough also.

http://www.jlscreen.com/coroplast.html

When I saw your original post I thought you might have been thinking of Depron or Zepron.

The Coroplast should be available from any sign supply shop. I used to buy from a local wholesaler here in Norfolk, VA. He was list under the yellow pages as Vinyl Sign Supplies

I forgot to add in my last that there are several suppliers for depron in the US now. Zepron is more common here. If you want a smaller sample of Depron go buy a BIG Mac thats what the box it comes in is made from.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-29-04 AT 11:00 PM (CDT)
 
Thanks for the 3mm Coroplast source. I've got a design that uses it, if anyone else wants to build one now in the States, I can tell them where to buy the 3mm!

Supposedly the only real "Depron" in the US comes from www.depronusa.com - they buy the stuff in Europe (it's used as a carpet underlayment) and then flatten it (it comes in rolls) and sell it to RC fliers. I suppose there isn't anything to prevent others from doing likewise, though. I've never actually had any, so I don't know what it's like, but some claim it's better than the other extruded foam out there (Zepron, DOW fanfold styrofoam, etc.). The local fliers here get something similar from grpahic arts stores, which sells it for sign making.

I have built and flown two of Chuck Felton's designs, the Hurricane (published in Model Bulder) and the Spad (the WWII biplane, not the RC combat "drainpipe" designs, although I also fly an RC Duraplane with a foam wing and drainpipe fuse).

Both are of cardboard construction, not coroplast. They have flat bottom airfoils and I think they are intended as an easy building and flying stand-off sport scale model. These were among my first attempts at control line models larger than 1/2A and in that context served their purpose well.

They are not as nicely done as photos on this thread, but they did fly and I still have them both. I omitted the cowls and located the engines forward in an attempt to save nose weight. With a coat of thinned urethane on the bare cardboard and finished in aerogloss the cardboard has not deteriorated - they are still in good flying condition after 15 years.