Covering for a vintage (Dave Platt) SE5A

[john Bains]

Hi , looking for some advice on covering a vintage SE5A, its the old Dave Platt kit ,I have built several ww1bipes in the past mostly topflite kits and have always used solatex iron on covering. The build manual for this kit recommends only using silk and dope as anything else will cause warping of the airframe . Has anyone had experience of this? Was thinking of using a similar iron on fabric s solatex is no more ,or should I just stick to silk and dope? Any advice gratefully received

John

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I have only used silk once on a control line Peacemaker and although I got a good finish on the silk I found it irritating to use as dope would seep between the silk fibres . Eventually the silk fractured and I replaced it with nylon. As Solatex is no longer available I would use Oratex instead. I have used it to cover a refurbished Junior 60 and had no warping issues on the tailplane which I covered originally with heavy weight tissue to avoid warping. I have also used Oracover on at least four planes so far but this has acted very much the same as Solarfilm but still very usable. I have an SE5A that was built by someone else but is nicely covered with Solartex.

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 12/08/2019 16:45:52

[Tomtom39]

Hello John,

Mike is quite correct . I have used silk and nylon in the past as well for covering ,however I switched over to Solartex as the wife complained rather a lot about the smell of dope .

In light of the running down of Solarfilm/Solartex . I have started to use Oratex and have found this a lot easier to use . The colour range for Oratex is not as large as those produced by Solarfilm ltd , however in your case Olive drab is available as well as Antique (not quite the same shade as Solartex Linen ) . I did experiment using various types of spray paints with excellent results last year. (Don't forget to fuel proof - if the paint is not fuel resistant) .

Best of luck

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Covered numerous wings with tex, bit of care and it'll be fine, last was a Nieuport wing 1/4 scale.

[Chris Freeman 3]

The Topflite SE5A / Dave Platt kit was made before the tex coverings were made so that is why the silk covering is recommended.The airframe is quite small by todays standard so any weight savings would result in a better flying aircraft. Tex covering would be fine but could be heavier than a silk finish, it all depends on how the colour will be done as paint is heavy. These are very nice kits and quite a lot of work, please post some pictures of the airframe as I would love to see it. I have one of these kits stuck away for one day.

[David Davis]

I have heard that the real professionals use silk over tissue paper or silk over document laminating film. That way the dope fills the weave of the silk more easily and you use less of it. This means covering the model twice of course, and I've never done it myself, but it's a thought.

[john Bains]

Thanks for all the advice gents, have just begun the build got as far as the fuselage crutch ! Am planning on electric power with an ess air sound system ( like the bendini but a fraction of the price) it's my first proper kit build since a db tiger moth in 1991,so I'm taking my time aim to maiden in the summer if it stops raining here in Cornwall!