Fokker DVII in wall foam and printed tissue

[Squirrelnet]

I've made a couple of models in wallfoam using marker pens to colour the foam but last year I was really taken by fellow Trinity flyer Lee Bates'wonderful tissue skinned foam models. Lee makes his own skins in PS and very kindly gave me one of his SE5a designs which I used on a new build of the Peanut SE5A design I did for Aeromodeller. I came out very nicely and we even managed some fomation flying with Lee's other tissue skinned Se5as so I was spurred onto make a stablemate for it. In the past Lee  has adapted the artwork from paper model kits in the past so I thought that would be good way to try myself. A paper models kit for a DVII skin was bought for a few dollars and downloaded then re sized to fit a peanut sized model. The construction pretty much followed the same design ideas I had with the SE5A with minimal formers.Wall foam can be a bit tricky to form into curves but I did find that with tissue skin added it is much more user friendly and behaves more like a proper building material   

[Squirrelnet]

Construction was fairly basic with a simple box fuselage with the top and sides formed from one peice and the wings a single sheet with a balsa spar .
The paper kits come with a lot details some of which are very useful to aeromodellers, the guns and things like engine's I have used in the past on other scale models. These models go together very quickly , I spent more time thinking about it than actually doing it ...maybe two days to actually build once you know where you're going

[Squirrelnet]

I couldn't resist doing a dummy engine in scrap balsa to finish it off. Trimming proved tricky and it needs a lot more power than the SE5a. For a while had the same flight pattern of a wind into the ground despite so drastic changes in different directions the lightbuld moment came when I realised the UC fairing angle is critical.  It seems like it to be less than the wing incidence an then it flys nicely. Lee had similar issues with his Fokker DVII as well 

[Squirrelnet]

I have some video which I'll post in a bit with the formation flying and Fokker doing its stuff

[Squirrelnet]

There's a video here of the SE5a formation flying at Trinity..

[Squirrelnet]

..and the Fokker DVIII flying at about 7 mins in this one followed by a foam and printed tissue melee with mine and Lee Bate's models

[gravitywell]

Out of curiosity, what is wall foam?  Love your builds.

[Squirrelnet]

Thanks Glen.

Wall foam is 2mm sheet foam sold in the uk as a thermal liner for wall paper .

https://amzn.eu/d/4uK7NAB

[dputt7]

Hi Chris, the DVII really looks the part. the printed tissue nicely finishes off the foam model a treat.
                                                Dave

[pedwards2932]

Is wall foam available in the US?

[Steve79]

Yes, here= 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/19-7-in-x-16-4-ft-Thermal-Insulation-Wallpaper-For-Bedroom-Living-Room-White/18747712066?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=15065&adid=2222222222718747712066_15065_14069003552_202077872&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=42423897272&wl4=aud-2230653093054:pla-2449037643288&wl5=9016094&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=118770270&wl11=online&wl12=18747712066_15065&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=202077872&gbraid=0AAAAADmfBIqcJC-fn5CIfWHk3vJOYRWOE&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwYrNBhDcARIsAGo3u31mRYZlUdEqX4B4nifRbICcu6BQm1U6PBJ8jE89Yuvs0qnjZagywzUaAr9REALw_wcB

At least I think it's the same stuff...   essentially.

[Mr Speedy]

Looks very impressive! My mother brought me some back from the UK about 20 years ago... I didn't think of putting paper on it.. that would have reduced the " bendyness... sadly I don't have it anymore...

[bcarter1234]

Would you mind sharing more information about your techniques? What adhesive do you use to adhere the tissue? Do you shrink it and/or coat the tissue with anything to stabilize it?

Thanks for your time and for posting this. It looks great and seems like a nice platform for supercap powered flight. 

[Squirrelnet]

The stuff Steve found is similar but the wall foam here is smoother and doesn't have the foil backing

The wallfoam has little strength so larger structures like cap power may need some balsa reinforcement. I built a Supermarine Walrus a while ago for Telco CO2 power and although it looked great the lack of structural integrity meant it didn't survive the first indoor session. I would like to try again with the Walrus but it will have 1/32" sheet to form the structure of the hull with wall foam on top


Once covered in tissue the wallfoam behaves much better and is easier to handle 
 To print onto tissue I use a standard Canon injet printer so the ink is not waterfast, indoor use only. I use 3M Repositionable Spraymount to attach the tissue to the foam. The propellent in the spray will eat the foam so lightly spray the tissue, let it gas off and go tacky then apply it to the foam . I cover the foam with the tissue then build the model form the tissue covered foam. I use wet strength tissue from Carnival papers , largely because it's cheap and i have loads of it. I've not tried printing on domestic tissue. No prep to the tissue other than a misted spray of spraymount onto a sheet of A4 to lightly tack the tissue to the paper so it goes through printer. Using an epsom pigment ink printer to print would make it waterproof

Best glue is UHU POR which is made for polystyrene though I have use copydex in the past . UHU is by far the superior way to stick the stuff. You'll find nothing blunts scalpel quite like foam and you can't cut foam without a very sharp blade without tearing it

The tissue skins are rescaled from card models and that is a good way to think about constructing the models using card modelling techniques. The fuselage for the Fokker DVII is formed from one piece for the sides and top

Thanks to Andy B for Pic 2 Walrus in flight

[bcarter1234]

This is perfect, thank you. I'll also test the 3M Repositionable Spray Mount with tissue on some blue and pink foam to see how it sticks. Slightly heavier but it might have better structural qualities.