Silver Solartex vs Silver Oracover

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

Now that silver Solartex has gone and my stock of it is insufficient to completely cover my next model, it looks as if I'll have to use silver Oratex.

Has anyone used both? If so, can they tell me if there's a big difference in the actual colours and appearance, or are they a decent enough match so that, say, I could cover the undersides with my old Solartex, and use Oratex on the topsides? It's only for a sport-scale model anyway.

Apart from markings, lettering and an anti-glare panel, I don't want to paint the model if I can help it as it'll be electric powered so won't need fuel proofing. I have unpainted silver Solatex on the wings and tail of my 19-year-old 6ft span Tiger Moth and that's aged satisfactorily with no overpainting.

Please note that I'm not querying the relative merits of these materials for covering a models, just the closeness of the colours.

TIA

Gordon

[Alan Hilton]

Hi Gordon

They are quite different ,oratex is more like conventional solatex rather than the almost glostex of silver solatex . I have found oratex doesn’t stick well to sheeted surfaces ,it bubbles badly in the sun so a balsa loc eqivelent is required .Not sure re colour without looking ,I will go up to my workshop later and do so.

Alan

[Alan Hilton]

Hi Gordon

The colour isn’t miles different but the look is ,you can see the weave on oratex you can’t on solatex.

Alan

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

Thanks Alan,

I guess that the Oratex weave won't show at standoff scale distance, and certainly not in the air. Otherwise, a blow over with a light coat of silver dope might roughly equalise both colour and surface texture. I still have some balsaloc, but that probably wants re-activating with a drop of water!

The model I'm wondering about designing is a 1/5th scale Siskin IIIA, so the small area of sheeted surface could be litho-plated or done in doped tissue as appropriate.

Gordon

[Alan Hilton]

Nice subjet I have never seen one modelled

I may have some silver solatex kicking around I used it on my Leopard moth and I bought 10 meters .I forgot I had it and bought oratex to cover my Chilton .How much would you need

Alan

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

I haven't seen a flying model of the Siskin either, though PE Norman flew one free flight, the plans being on Outerzone, as are his Gamecock plans. I made and flew PE's Gamecock on single channel rudder only back in the late 1960s. I still have to start designing my Siskin, but at present am drawing up templates for the covering fabric in CAD, positioning them on the computer screen on a 10m x 27in rectangle for minimum waste. The same exercise for a possible 1/5th Gamecock indicated a need for about 8m and the Siskin will need most of a 10m roll too. I'd save yours for possible further use, Alan! I drew covering templates for my Tiger Moth and ended up with 3m remaining from the 10m roll.

It is a nice subject, but the 14-cyl Jaguar radial will need some thought to keep it simple to make yet worth looking at. One neat feature is that the cabane struts are devoid of transverse cross-bracing, unlike most bipes, so the fuselage top beneath the wing centre section can form a big access hatch for the lipo, and the model won't need inverting or any other antics for battery changes. it also looks as if it can be made quite light as there's not a lot of structure.

[Alan Hilton]

I don’t know how much I have I will dig it out tomorrow and measure up and let you know .It will be afternoon I’m going flying tomorrow morning

Alan

[Alan Hilton]

Hi Gordon

I have found it how much do you need .I need to keep some if I need to repair my Leopard moth At some point .I have also found some pinked rib tape to match

Alan

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

Hi Alan

I hope that your flying went well this morning and the conditions were favourable.

Thank you very much for looking for your Solartex and your offer of a piece of it. In fact a clubmate saw this thread and offered me a full roll of it, so I'm going for that. I've drawn up the templates needed for covering the airframe and it'll need about 9m of the roll, so having it in one piece will minimise waste.

What I need to do now is to start the design properly. It's a plane I've wanted to do for many years and recently got hold of Alf Granger's Datafile on the plane which has decent drawings and that, along with an Ebay-sourced Matchbox plastic kit is what is now spurring me on.

Thanks again for your kind offer of help Alan, and following your comments I'm glad that I'm not having to use Oratex, with another reason being that as it's an inch narrower than Solartex it would need a longer length to fit everything in. The Siskin's upper wing is so huge.

Kind regards,

Gordon

Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 05/06/2019 15:55:20

Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 05/06/2019 15:55:42

[Alan Hilton]

Hi Gordon

Glad you are sorted ,will you be doing a build thred on the Siskin ?I for one would be very interested

Alan

[Gordon Whitehead 1]

Hi Alan

I am planning on a build thread once I get started on the actual construction. At present I'm thinking mostly about how to build it light, and make it as quick and easy as possible to assemble and dismantle for transport. I'm flying my electrics on 5S lipos at present, but I think that I will have to make provision for a 6S pack in case it needs more oomph.

Gordon