Let’s face it! Accidents happen and when it comes to flying RC airplanes, the chances are that, sooner or later you’re going to damage your airplane. There’s no reason to trash your crash. With today’s beautifully molded and great flying foam flyers, you can get back into the air with very little effort. You also can save some bucks by repairing your bent bird instead of buying a new one.
(Above) if you fly, sooner or later you’ll be faced with a repair. Easy fixes are better than buying a new wing.
Dent Removal
The leading edge of the wing can really take a beating but dents are really only cosmetic issues and you can quickly cut away a section of the damaged leading edge and glue in some new foam. (Note: we tried the “hot water trick” to bring the foam back to its original shape, but no dice.)
Use a razor saw and cut the damage out. Cut some new foam to length and insert it into place. Mark the ends of the foam block to match then use your saw and a sanding block to remove most of the unwanted material.
Glue the new foam into place and after the glue cures, Cut and sand the replacement foam flush with the surface of the wing. Apply a little hobby filler around the edges to fill in any gaps and when it dries, use fine sandpaper to smooth the repair.
Use a foam safe paint and apply some matching paint to complete the leading edge wing repair. The hardest part of this repair really is finding matching paint. Usually, the instructions that come with your airplane will call out the colors used. If not, go to the hobby shop and check out the Master Modeler and Tamiya brands of acrylic foam safe paints. You’ll be able to match the color chips and then lighten or darken the colors slightly to match. In real life, warbird repairs seldom matched the rest of the airframe! That’s scale weathering!
Back at the flightline, no one will even know you bashed your favorite warbird. This repair technique is almost invisible and it saves you some coin in the process.
Great tip. Thank you.