DB Se5-how much covering required

[Merco 61]

Hello,

Has any member built one? Mine just about ready for covering,so would like to know how much Solartex to buy.Plan is to use Linen overall,then paint for top surfaces.Wheels very expensive,so looking out for a secondhand pair. Model is the 80" one.

Cheers.

[cymaz]

 

May be just a case of length x width x2 for the wings and the same for the fus sides. Don’t forget to add a bit for mistakes and wastage.

This may help as well

Edited By cymaz on 05/01/2018 06:30:24

Edited By cymaz on 05/01/2018 06:37:48

[Don Fry]

10 metre roll. You will have a couple of metres left over, assuming no mistakes. But mistakes only happen if you are tight on materials. Sods Second Law.

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

Solartex is 26.5in wide. Your SE has a wing chord of 15in, so you'll only have a strip about 9.5in wide or less remaining after cutting for each wing panel. Both wings will consume at least 8.2m x 17in of material, leaving you with an 8.2m x 9.5in strip and a 1.8m x 26.5in piece to get the fuz and tail out of, which might be enough.

For my last 3 bipes, two of which had sunburst patterns which meant I had to be especially careful to avoid waste, I've always drawn a scale cutting plan in CAD. If you don't have CAD, you could draw a rectangle 1/12th the size of the 10m solartex sheet. Then trace a 1/48th scale SE drawing onto some sort of tracing paper, greaseproof would do, cut out some shapes for wings, fuz and tail and position them on the solartex rectangle for least waste.

If you don't feel like doing this just get one 10m roll (£80 - ish) and hack away. Then guesstimate the size of your second but shorter roll for the bits which you couldn't cover and buy that later.

Gordon

[Jon H]

i didnt get much change out of a 10m roll when i covered my 1/4 scale stampe.

[Martin Dance 1]

A friend has one at the painting stage. The simple answer is quite a lot. His is covered in Ceconite and doped. Ceconite is used on full size so is sold by the acre! He bought dope by the gallon.

[Merco 61]

Thank you all for the very useful information.Ingenious solution,Gordon and wry final words appreciated.The hubris of turning up at the field with a bigger than normal scale job comes at quite a price though,doesnt it. A 10 metre roll it is then.

I still like nylon and dope,cheap,strong but laborious.I recently used some very light close weave fabric from Boyces.Applied dry with Balsaloc,it heatshrinks beautifully and is even easier to wangle round the curves than Tex.Two light coats of dope was plenty for the Blackburn and free flighter used for the experiment and I really thought I had found the Holy Grail at last. Actually,I hadnt.It would seem,that after final heat shrinking and doping,there is no more shrink to be had.Dents from clumsy fingers cannot be removed by usual remedial heating and redoping does not work either.Pity,it looks nice and is very cheap.

Jon,I have a question about mounting a Laser V200 on ally standoffs.Should I start a new thread?

[Don Fry]

Ceconite is available from a firm at Exeter airport. Comes in two weights. Can't remember name but big outfit, suppliers of aircraft bits. I used the lighter version, designed for micro lights. I used Balsa Loc to stick it to the airframe, worked well. As above it comes much wider that solartex. Then once covered and shrunk, shrinks well, is sealed with non shrinking dope.

It's a nice option if you are happy with all the painting involved. Think nylon without hassle.

[Merco 61]

Thanks Don,sounds promising,I,ll have words at the local full size club.I watched a TV programme about a German born doctor,living in UK building his full size Fokker Triplane.He used Oratex-or whatever it is called-,mentioned the brand several times,it looked exactly like our Glosstex.No mention of the make of adhesive to stick it to steel tube framing however. I once looked very closely at a dismantled Maule and was surprised that whilst the wing was entirely of rivetted aluminium,the fus and tail surfaces were covered in what looked like extra heavy duty Solarfilm,no weave,shiny and tight as a drum.

[Don Fry]

Be aware, ceconite looks just like raw nylon. It has no adhesive, no pigments, and needs the weave to be filled. But I found by the time I filled the weave with non shrinking dope, and put colour on, the weight was about the same as Solartex. But it's very easy to put the weight on. But it's right nice to shrink, and there are good tutorials on line from the makers of the fabric for temperature settings.

In my case I was doing a quarter scale Triplane fusalage in yellow and white, so saved the weight of the yellow paint over white solartex. Every gram counts.

[Anthony Scott 2]

Try Hobbyking. 5 metre rolls of Olive Drab & Linen, £33.76 each.

[Merco 61]

Thank you,Anthony.A good solution.