Vintage airframe coverings.

[PatMc]

Posted by GONZO on 03/04/2019 10:15:16:

Have read this thread with interest. Tissue over laminating film I am aware of. But, the use of dope as the adhesive between the two coverings seems universal. Has any one used water based floor/wood varnish/coating instead of dope?

Both as in links in previous post. Wilco's WBV on the Amigo fuselage & Rustins floor coating tested on a spare glider tailplane.

[GONZO]

PatMc, thanks. Yes I realised I 'speed read' and missed some details. So, looks like WB floor/wood varnish is OK for the LF and tissue combination. What about sealing and stiffening synthetic tissue like Solarfilm Airspan? Any experience/info?

[PatMc]

Gonzo, I've never tried it on any synthetic tissue. I've been using up old stashed Modelspan tissue also bought Esaki some from Freeflight Supplies.
The disadvantage of WB varnish over dope is that the only tautening is down to water shrinking. I cut the tissue panels oversize, lightly spray water on allow the excess to drip of for couple of minutes. Then drape the tissue in place, smooth out any bubbles with my fingers & brush the varnish on.

[Former Member]

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[MikeQ]

Hello

haven't read whole thread so sure tissue over Mylar will already have been mentioned. If you can cover is solarfilm, and you can cover in tissue, you can easily do both together. It's way easier than it sounds.

https://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa_forum/index.php?topic=22378.0

https://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa_forum/index.php?topic=16809.50

https://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa_forum/index.php?topic=17529.25

Cheers

Mike

Edited By MikeQ on 29/04/2019 07:23:43

Edited By MikeQ on 29/04/2019 07:29:57

[Former Member]

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[Don Fry]

Search laminating film on E Bay. I've got 150 meters of 450 mm wide satin Matt. It cost me 25 quid. You can have some at cost, but it's in France.

[Former Member]

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[GrahamWh]

Guys for comparison with the usual model films, what weight is something like 30 micron LF per square meter?

And rather harder - what would be the weight of painted LF?

I am building a BE2e and want to keep the rear nice and light but strong. I was going to use solartex but that's about 100g/m^2.

[PatMc]

My Amigo wings are 37.2dm^2, total weight of LM used was 26g so that's about 35g/m^2. That's unpainted.

[GrahamWh]

Thanks PatMc. So much lighter than solartex!

[Ian McTaggart]

Like you David, I grew up with nylon and dope, especially for C/L, it was very strong.

Here's a little story about nylon and silk.

My daughter got married a couple of years ago and one of her friends offered her her own wedding dress. It was the right size, had been custom made and cost thousands of pounds. Only problem was that it had a stain on the front from a mishap at the reception!

We all love a bargain, so we took the challenge. Unfortunately, no-one thought they could clean it effectively so it ended up sculling around until Dad got fed up with it and growled. It turned out there was no emotional attachment, so dad 'recycled' the dress.

I now have bin-bags full of pure white silk and bin-bags full of white nylon - from the inner layers.

Keep your eyes open Chaps.

[Geoff Parkes]

I cover a lot of my models using tissue and dope ,the tissue is obtained from Ben Buckle models the sheet size is 18" wide by 6.0 metres long for an amazing price of £7.50 per sheet , its called wet strength medium weight .On scale models on the sheeted surfaces a coat of sanding sealer then tissue applied with non shrinking dope, then coats of dope ,sanding and re-doping produces a very strong and smooth surface for painting. For painting I go to a local car refinishing supplier who mix any colour that I want in a polyester finish, matt , semi or glass paint for about £10 pounds for a quarter litre , which is enough to finish a say 70 inch model, you need a compressor and gun but these are available at reasonable cost and once you have them they can be used over and over again