LonnieMcc

I, like others, have been watching this post. I am currently building a BUSA 1/4 DVII. I had planned on using Solartex on it and paint it. BUT Not anymore. I am sold on the Stits method.

How many yards did it take you to cover the Cub??

stevegauth30

Thanks for the info Anthony.

WacoNut

Hi Guys,
The family is all gone and the house is somewhat back to normal. They are calling for a nice 52 deg sunny day tomorrow. I am going to sneak down to the basement and get all the Robart hinges epoxied in. Tomorrow morning I will cut the new windows and get them glued in and hook up all the controls and get the plane outside for some pics. That is the plan anyways.
Later!!
Anthony

WacoNut

Lonnie,
I am not sure how many yds. I had ordered a lot of fabric a couple years ago and had this on hand. I think I used 4 yds on my 1/4 DRI I built a few years ago.I would say 5 yds should do it. If you order from aircraftspruce.com is about $8.80 a yd. and comes 72" wide.

Be very careful shrinking this stuff as I distorted the trailing edge of my DRI slightly by over shrinking the fabric, it is strong stuff.
Later!!
Anthony

John_M_

That's the only problem I have with that stits poly lite fabric, but I don't think its just with that particular fabric, as polyester is polyester... joanns sells "bridal dress lining"... its 100% lightweight polyester $4.19 a yrd... I think I'll try a test with that and see how that works before I invest in a complete stits system.




John M,

WacoNut

John,
I know guys who use that with great success. One thing with the dress lining is that although it is a very high thread count it can actually take more product to fill the weave. Poly Fiber Lite is a little heavier fabric that Sig Koverall but the weave fills easier in the Poly Fiber Lite. I have not used the dress lining but my assumption is that it would be even more difficult to fill the weave than Koverall. I have only used the Koverall and Poly Fiber Lite so that is all I can really base my opinion on.

The control surfaces are now hinged. The epoxy will be cured in the morning and I will see if I can't get it all together outside for pictures before the sun goes down.
Later!!
Anthony

flyingagin

Hi John M.
I done that exact same thing. The bird in my avatar is covered with !00% polyester dress lining fabric like what you just proposed. It has limited heat shrink ability. The ladies would not want the dress linings to shrink on them much, but is usable. The fabric is available from Joanns and Hancocks. I found a little better shrink in the latter.
I did a build thread on the plane Here and starting on post 48 Is the point I started covering. It was shrunk down with nitrate dope the rattled canned.
I assure you I ran into challenges useing dress linning, but I did manage to overcome them.

In the future I intend to use Poly-Fiber lite uncertified fabric for my GL T2A, and likely silk on a couple of other projects for the period effects I want.

The cost of fabric does not really drive the finale finishing cost very much imho. The paints have the most effect on cost.

So you can see it better here is my avatar plane. I hope you don't mind Anthony.



Ken

WacoNut

Don't mind at all,
The covering job looks nice.


I decided to go ahead and cut the new windows out for the Cub. I was able to remove all the old windows intact but there was way too much glue and paint residue to deal with. The new windows are a little thinner but should be just fine. The new windows are glued into the upper door half and they look fine.
Later!!
Anthony

flyingagin

Thanks Anthony

John_M_

Thanks for the info flyingagin... one of our club members told me the same thing regarding the shrink rate... it wasn't so much the cost of the fabric, but the fact it doesn't easily distort the airframe when shrunk... he stated; as long as you keep it tight with minimal sagging when applied, it shrinks well with an iron... its something for me to look into and compare with the poly lite fabric... I haven't yet decided which way to go... since I've never tried natural solartex. I may go that route on this particular project, and use the stits poly lite fabric and paint system on my next project, which will be a larger model, 1/3 scale of something, haven't yet decided, lol, something to put a moki 150 radial in... maybe

How would you compare the weight of the dress lining, to the poly lite fabric, i.e. dress lining thicker / heavier than the poly lite fabric?... That avatar came out quite nice!


John M,

WacoNut

John,
The dress lining fabric is much thinner and lighter with a totally different weave than the poly fiber lite. The difference will be in the shrink rate and the amount of product it will take to get a nice finish. With the Stits products I do not know how much it would take with the dress lining.

Also the shrink of the Poly Fiber is a good thing. It only becomes an issue if you over do it. You can start shrinking at about 200 deg and step up from there. When it shrinks enough just stop. The cost of the fabric is the cheap part. The finishing chemicals is where all the expense lies.

WacoNut

All the windows are in and the control surfaces hinged.
Tomorrow morning I just have to re-install the control horns and hook up the linkages. That should be a quick job as well as mounting the struts. Everything has been together on this plane before so it all should go back together.

Hard to tell from the pics that the windows are in they are just very clean.
Later!!
Anthony

flyingagin

I can't give you a weight comparison John. I don't have a scale so hence no weights.
But I'll bet it is the finnish chems that are applied that truly drive wight. Dress lining is pretty light. I used Rustoleum over nitrate dope. Rustoleum is heavy. If I had used butyrate color dope I am sure It would have been decently lighter.

Ken

WacoNut

Just when you think you are finished.

The day started out bad and just got worse as I went. I brought the plane up from the basement and went to install the top half of the door and the solder joint on the door latch mechanism in the bottom half of the door broke with the door latched. After a bit of work I was able to open the door and the only solution I could come up with for a fix was to JB Weld the mechanism, will see if that holds.

Them when moving the fuselage outside I knocked over a wing panel which landed on a sharp corner putting a 1" tear in the top of the wing.

Robert told me how easy it is to apply a repair patch with this system so I guess I get to try that out. (&*%#$)

Anyhow here are a few pics including the nice tear in the top of the wing.

Bill Lowen

I have read this thread a few times and I am truly inspired now. I absolutely hate how plastic covering looks, especially on scale aircraft.. This is a very nice alternative as I am in the midst of building a Sig 4 star 40 and I believe I am going to give fabric covering a try. I had an uncle whose AMA number was 3 digits and he was a true master of dope and silkspan.. His airplanes were a thing of beauty and he always scoffed at the idea of ARF's and plastic covering. Sadly he passed away a few years ago.. I suppose I owe it to him to keep the craft alive.

Thank you for the inspiration Anthony!

WacoNut

Thanks Bill,

Building is a part of this hobby that I think every model flyer should at least try to experience. To me it is the best part of the hobby.

stevegauth30

+1. Flying is just a bonus to me.

Super08

My Feedback: (2)

Too bad about the tear, that sucks.

WacoNut

Yes it does, I guess I get to post how to patch a tear

WacoNut

I masked off an area round the tear in the fabric and sanded the area to the silver coat and just started to see some of the pink poly brush. I made sure I had an area larger than the patch down to the silver. I have applied the patch and gave it a coat of the silver poly spray. I will let this dry thoroughly then give it a sanding and another coat of silver and keep repeating the process until the patch blends smoothly with the surrounding fabric.

Here is a pic of how it looks now, should have taken one before adding the patch.

Bill Lowen

Please do! I am absolutely amazed at how quickly you were able to complete this project, and how great it looks in such a short amount of time..Not too bad for a Bengals fan!

Corsair2013

My Feedback: (2)

Anthony - you have set the bar very high............. I can only hope I can build my 1/4 Scale and get close to your quality........

Keith

WacoNut

Thanks Guys,
I am having difficulties with the patch. It is mostly due to the fact that it is so close to the rib stitch tape. Putting a larger patch and blending across a bigger are would be easier. I am going to try a coupe more coats and sanding to try and get it leveled out but a nice smooth patch may not be possible In this area. We shall see.

Anthony

John_M_

Thanks guys, I'll look into getting a yard of the dress lining, just to see how it compares... I've seen the stits paint prices Anthony, its like painting the full size aircraft, but at scale prices lol, its not cheap, nor is it cheap to paint the full size aircraft, but the product is very good quality... when they charge you $45 for a instructional video, especially after buying their system, seems a bit of a gouge, but we'll leave it at that... I have some KlassKote epoxy paints here, enough to paint the model, it wasn't cheap either, but its nice stuff to work with... my intentions were to use it over natural solartex, but I like the finished look of that Stits system... I'll make some sort of decision, just need to beat myself up a bit more over it .


John M,

acerc

Anthony, being a patch, you can sand the silver back down to the fabric fuzzies until it blends. Then do a final light coat for the color to go over.