fbpx
Epoxycraft
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • How To
    • How To
      • Amateur
      • Professional
      • All Articles
    • Videos
      • Amateur
      • Professional
      • All Videos
  • Projects
    • Marine
    • Non-Marine
  • Products
    • West System
    • PRO-SET
    • Entropy Resins
  • Contribute
  • Stockists
  • Contact

WEST SYSTEM: Repairing a radio-controlled plane with epoxy
31st October 2016

Repairing a radio-controlled plane with epoxy

What does West System International’s Richard Ross do when he isn’t out on the road with customers? He flies remote controlled planes, that’s what – and he repairs them with epoxy, too. This month, he talks us through his latest repair to a Weston Cougar 2000.

My wife likes to poke fun at my love of flying radio-controlled planes by calling it my ‘sad anorak hobby’. I’ll concede, it’s definitely a bit geeky but it’s great fun – especially considering how fast the planes can fly. You can get them going as fast as 100 miles an hour! Although that’s far too fast for me – I prefer sticking to safer speeds of around 40 miles an hour.

I fly my Weston Cougar at about that speed; I rescued it from the brink of destruction a couple of months ago. A brand new balsa and ply kit costs about £130 but my plane only cost me £5 on eBay because it was a wreck – full of dents, holes and broken bits, plus modifications that I wasn’t too fond of. My plan was to set about repairing it – with my trusty WEST SYSTEM® epoxy by my side, of course.

Cutting out the damage

After removing the plastic covering, the first thing I did was a damage repair assessment, listing all the repair and modification work I wanted to carry out. The most obvious starting point was to give everything a good clean up, which is a vital part of preparing for any work with epoxy.

model plane

My Cougar had a lot of damp and mould stains on it, which I needed to remove; without doing this, I’d just lock any wetness into the wood with the epoxy and it would warp. So I sanded out what I could and cut out any particularly bad damage.

Once the remaining wood was nicely sanded, well abraded and wiped over with acetone to ensure it was clean, I primed the areas that needed repairing. This meant using WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin® mixed with WEST SYSTEM 205 Fast Hardener® to wet out the repair area, waiting for it to go tacky before applying the filler, wood or fibreglass.

I made most of the structural repairs to the fuselage using balsa wood sheeting. Where I couldn’t use balsa (such as when repairing holes in the wood), I applied a backing patch of fibreglass before filling the holes with 105/205 mixed with WEST SYSTEM 407 Low Density Filler.

The 407 filler is a good choice, even though it’s slightly heavier than WEST SYSTEM 410 Microlight™ filler. Given the twisting forces these planes have to deal with, 407 filler offers extra strength due to the colloidal silica it contains.

Preparation, preparation, preparation

After filling in and bonding new wood where necessary, I left the whole construction to cure for 48-72 hours, before sanding it. Then I re-covered the whole thing in a heat-shrink covering film, in a smart red and yellow.

model plane

I’d say that all in all, it took me about five evenings to complete the work, with some waiting in between for curing and so forth.

“Surface preparation is king”

If I had to give advice to anyone thinking about carrying out a similar repair, I’d say that surface preparation is king. I follow the mantra that there are three stages of surface preparation when working with epoxy: 1) surface preparation, 2) surface preparation and finally 3) surface preparation… you can never do too much!

Aside from that, make sure you get everything ready well in advance and don’t mix up the epoxy until all your pieces are shaped, laid out and you’re absolutely ready to go. Be patient; if you think you haven’t got time to do it properly, then you certainly haven’t got time to do it twice!

 

Thanks very much to Richard Ross for his contribution.

If you liked this, why not read how John White built his grandson a Formula 1 racing car?

 


Share on


Back to westsystem

Subscribe to our newsletter
Our unique epoxy knowledge and experience, delivered straight to you

Events

WEST SYSTEM workshop – Hexham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 31 January 2020
RYA dinghy show London 29th February – 1st March 2020
JEC Paris 3rd - 5th March 2020

What is epoxy?

Epoxy Projects

Steve Goodchild explains how to build a wooden dinghy (Stornoway 16) 

In part one of this series of how to build a wooden dinghy Steve Goodchild takes us through choosing a design, and making a jig for his Stornoway 16.  https://youtu.be/TDaaYs5t7o8 “I’m essentially a fair-weather

art made with epoxy

SARAH CONWAY uses bio-based epoxy to make coasters and art flower blooms

From her garage in Bedfordshire, Sarah Conway has discovered that ENTROPY® RESINS products are the best epoxy for coasters and all the other stunning art creations she produces. With an online

People on WEST SYSTEM epoxy course

WEST SYSTEM workshop – Hexham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (31 Jan 2020)

Learn the basic concepts of using and handling WEST SYSTEM® epoxy in this unique, hands-on, one day workshop. Friday 31st January 2020, ECF Composites, Hexham, NE46 4DQ Gain experience in

guitar made with WEST SYSTEM epoxy

Using epoxy to glue wood – the ‘Eat a Peach’ guitar

James Macdonald created this beautiful guitar in Maine. Here he writes of the journey he’s been on to bring this project to life, and how he used epoxy to glue

George winning his mega bundle of epoxy presents for sailors

Epoxy presents for sailors

If you’re looking for presents for sailors, take inspiration from George Isted’s recent win (pictured with Hamish Cook). He’s giving some of this mega-bundle of epoxy goodies as gifts; sharing

Marine grade, high-quality epoxy for catamaran builds like Cheetah Marine

Cheetah Marine’s porotype catamaran was built in 1989 on the Isle of Wight. Founder, Sean Strevens, built her with thin marine ply and WEST SYSTEM® epoxy, the original and best

How to use colour epoxy with tints selection of blue from Entropy Resins

How to use colour tints with epoxy

If you want advice on how to use colour with epoxy, read our top tips. The tints have been specifically designed for use with crystal-clear ENTROPY RESINS® Clear Casting Epoxy,

Technical epoxy experts at composites show

Come and see us at Advanced Engineering and / or METSTRADE

This time of year is always busy with a great selection of shows and exhibitions across Europe including the flagship UK composites exhibition, which we are once again delighted to

Moulding an oil tray

The beauty of epoxy, says Jake Kavanagh, is that it makes a tough, non-shrinking connection between various angles of wood, ideal when you want to make a plug for a

Building an 18th century gajeta – Part 9

The finished 18th century Gajeta - or how to build a classic boat with epoxy. As you’ll know, we’ve run a series on the build of a Gajeta at the Betina

From barrel to board

These stunning whisky barrel surfboards were crafted with whisky barrels and made with ENTROPY RESINS®. Although they’re destined for walls they’re true advocates for the beauty of well used wood and crystal-clear

Rowing the Atlantic for charity

We’re delighted to be supporting two firefighters from St Mary’s, Southampton, in their epic quest to row across the Atlantic and raise money for charity. Billed as the premier event

  • Home
  • Projects
    • Marine
    • Non-Marine
  • Products
    • West System
    • PRO-SET
    • Entropy Resins
  • Contribute
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
West System
Pro-Set
Entropy Resins
Subscribe to our newsletter
Copyright © 2019 Epoxycraft | Website by MAA