How to finish your EPS/EPO FastFoam Jet: quick and easy!
(or therapy for lazy RTF toyplane lovers..)
Caution: most EPS-foam(Styrofoam/Styropor) is perfect for a glasfinish job! Perhaps you get inspired to finish your EPP /EPO model the same way but EPP/EPO is very glossy and smooth: this different material needs more aggressive PU-EPO/EPP Finish and model must be sanded with 180 paper so the glassing will get good grip to the surface
This is the basic instruction of building & finishing of EPS / EPP Models. You can learn about making elastic Flap type of rudders and much more from my free 'JePe-Leaks' open source Download !! (or our new Building blog)
download here
Before you want to start glassing the inside of your airducting you must know that shape of ducting is much more important than the surface, an unfinished (raw) airintake surface can even work better than a perfect smooth intake (same for shark skin and ice skater competition suits). I only glass inside of FastFoam Mig-29 airductings to get them stronger so they can support the wings without the need for carbon tube spar. Its normally not needed to glass inside the airductings.
Building:
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| PolyUrethane Glue to put your EPS model together. You can also use Epoxy or even simple white wood glue..(all works on EPS) | use PU glue for 'balsa to foam' or for 'foam to foam' | use only little PU-glue because it will expand! Use Scotch Tape and Needels to keep the foam parts together (best do light sanding on join). Use 'Ducttape' and needles for EPO Models |
preparation:
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| Easy Foam Filler = lightweight and very easy sanding. Water based |
don't fill-up complete panel lines, leave some scale detail by pushing the flexible rubber a little |
1,5 hours later you can do super easy sanding with 150 /180 grain sanding paper |
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| mark the middle of trailing edges | sand them a little sharper with a sanding block | now clean your complete model with a brush |
Glassing:
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| JePe 25 gram flexible glass cloth: its much better around sharp edge and corners! Forget 49 and 18 gram tissue: use our 25 gram! |
cut small pieces like 1/2 wing: its easier to handle. Keep tissue clean of dirt |
'I did not have sex with that woman' |
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| PU-EPS Finish for glassing : waterbased ! no mixing & easy sanding. Even after 2 paint coatings still very light. No smell. No gloves, just wash hands with water..you need 1/2Liter for big model if you want to give it a second paint for fine finish | HT-2 Epoxy specially for glassing. Hardest surface but less easy for sanding. Use only for fragile parts like airducting of 'belly landing' mig-29 or very thin wings on F-18 and F-16 | I use Epoxy only for some fragile parts of some Jets. PU-Finish saves much time and weight on a big models like the Hawk or MIG-15 |
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| Don't be afraid to use some PU-finish: a great deal of water will evaporate. Later as model is finished you can bring on a second coating of PU with a paintbrush. | cut tissue off at some 2 cm from edge | and pull it around the corner |
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| use clean pair of scissors to cut the glass. This to get it around the more difficult shapes. |
folding glass to inside |
Pay special attention to canopy opening! it stil has to fit afterwards (also possible to remove some foam before glassing but normally there is no problem if you keep air out) |
Finish:
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| Waterbased Acrylic primer! RAL7040 grey on stock in Jepe-shop (also white and black) |
sofar I did almost no sanding, now I use a small textile roller to bring on this acrylic grounding paint. waterbased!! |
a 20 minutes job (but you are not finished yet!) |
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| after drying you will find errors like this (pinholes in dry tissue) |
No worry: here comes waterbased Easy Filler again! (better use the flexible rubber) |
Just rub it into the cosmetic problems, it will go right thru the pinholes and fill-up the problem. |
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| 15 minutes later your model looks messy like this, but thanks to easy filler it is now sealed completely! |
1 hour later you can do sanding again (now with fine 180 grain paper) This is first sanding since you covered your model in glass tissue! |
Now your model is ready for final paint: waterbased with a roller or airbrush (even possible with thin layers from spraycan!) |
From our Shop:
besides the PU-Finish and Easy-FoamFiller we have the flexible JePe 25gram/m2 Glass tissue, HT-2 Epoxy, PU Glue, Sandingpaper , paintbrushes, and complete Finishing Kits for EPO and EPS
Finishing EPO/EPP/Elapor etc models: (the Foam that does not melt by CA Glue)
It is pretty much the same to do glassing of EPO/EPP Foam Models but you need more aggressive PU-EPO/EPP for it (not the waterbased that you use for EPS/Styrofoam), it is more smelly and you need to sand(180 paper) complete surface of your glossy model so it does not shine anymore : only on matte surface the PU-EPO will have good grip. This PU-EPO Finish works much lighter and more smooth surface than if you use Epoxy on EPO model (I can NOT recomment Epoxy for EPO glassing!)
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| also sanding paper from our shop: | complete glas kits for EPO and EPS |
| 120 grain for shaping foam | |
| 150 grain for sanding glass and fine shaping of foam | |
| 180 grain for sanding primer & Easy FoamFiller (also good for sanding fine foam of L-39 and LX models) |
Caution: What you can do wrong
-trying to use 10 gram Carbon fleece under your 25 gram glass on curved parts and get much air.. (please forget carbon!)
-fast 30 minutes or thicker laminating Epoxy gets heavy 'wobbly ' surface and heavy result
-50 gram glass tissue is another big misstake you can make! (better use 2x25 gram on certain weak areas like nosecone)
-cheap HK 16 gram tissue: much too open structure, you get only pinholes..
-cheap HK 25 glass tissue: there are many types of 25 gram tissue, use only the best to enjoy finishing!
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