For this year’s Vintage Combat plane Festival I intended to build a half dozen or so Voodoo’s with LA 25’s for the general group to fly in matches.  Prior to the event I had a discussion with Phil Cartier and he mentioned building foam VooDoo’s as they would be a lot less work and more durable. At first, I wasn’t all that excited about the idea. After sleeping on it I thought it was a great idea! So I drew something up using Phil’s speed limit plane as a guide. I then reached out to Phil for suggestions and we incorporated those into the build. Phil quickly cut 4 cores and got them to me. I was able to have a prototype done for this year’s Vintage day. Attached is a photo of the plane and a kit built version from the 70’s.
  In reading Riley’s memoirs of the VooDoo, he mentioned his originals had a full 36” leading edge plus tips. The kit version had a 33” leading edge for cost efficient packaging. Phil’s cores reflect the original 36” version.
I figured I would share with you my way of assembling a quick and very durable foam VooDoo. It takes just a few evenings to assemble one and I will walk through my build up coming. I did some prep work that I’ll share with you now.

Motor mount and foam cut off to shape center rib

  Tom, I sent ya' a P/M..

Center rib above is poplar as suggested previously. I just tap the fuselage with a 6-32 tap then harden with CA.

  When laminating the engine block, I do put some fiberglass on it to prevent separation or splitting in a crash. The best method I found to laying down fiberglass is to mist it with spray 77 and lay it down and card it off. You can then use  finish resin, epoxy or the fastest way is thin CA. Small areas I'll use thin CA, larger I'll use Finishing Resin. see photos. last one is my Super Satan, the whole nose and fuel nacelle is done with 3/4oz. fiberglass and finishing resin. Almost undetectable.

Did a little work yesterday. Bored the leadout holes in the inboard wing. I just use a piece of 5/16" aluminum tube sharpened. I also put a piece of tape with a reference line to make sure im heading in the right direction.. At the bellcrank side I oblong the hole around 3/4" for bellcrank travel.

Vampire had only one spar about 10" long and housed the bell crank platform. Its strength came from a poster board covering that was glued to the foam. Remember, we didn't have plastic covering in those days. The airplane was basically a foam Voodoo as far as dimensions.  I flew them often back in the late 60's. Riley won the 68 Nats with a Vampire. That was in Olathe Kansas. That was my only Navy Nats I ever attended.

Well, I've tried to attach a pic but it's just too much trouble. I just built a Vampire for nostalgia. Fox 36X. flies really well. Pretty too. Shame you cant see it.

finally got pics to work

Thanks Bob and Andre!
 Okay so now we know its the same plane. I think the VooDoo name has a special place in our hearts and was one of the best selling kits of all time. Other 2 being the Ringmaster and Nobler. In Riley's post he said they sold 150,000 kits a year!

  My hope to sharing this build with the community is to, give guys a bit of nostalgia and access to, a durable VooDoo that they can have and expand on their flying capabilities. A VooDoo with a Tigre, 36x or any other Combat motor of the day is maybe a bit fast for the retread. Start with an LA 25 and then you can graduate to a hotter engine. I believe the prototype flew around 75-80 mph. and performed quite well. Also, If Nostalgia events keep growing guys can slap a bunch of these together in a hurry and quite cheap too. I think the cores are like 13 bucks and the remaining wood is another 5. I covered the yellow one with econokote. I'm thinking I can get 3 planes out of a roll. SLC even cheaper if you have it.

Thanks Guys!
I'll get back at ASAP. Trying to wrap up honey do's before I fully go into building mode.

Tom