ErikMB

Please forgive the naivete of this question. Iam just building my first tissue-paper covered kit (rubberband powered Guillow's bf109) to practice for more expensive RCkits.

When Icover the fusilage with dope and paper, are the paper panels meant to overlap on the ribs and bulkheads? Doesn't that make the edges much thicker and heavier?

Am Imeant to sand down these overlaps?

Or is the amount of weight and extra thickness simply trivial and Ishouldn't worry about this?

Thanks a bunch.

Zor

First apply a coat or two of nitrate dope on the frame.

Then glue on the paper covering with more nitrate dope.
Plan the paper layout to cover as much as possible with each piece of paper and glue the periphery.
When fully cured (minium 24 hours) apply dope all over and let cure.

A couple of coats of dope all over should be enough for a paper covered light weight model.

Overlap the joints a good 1/4" over some wood (frames, spars, stingers) . No need to sand anything.

It might be wise for you to make a little frame with scrap balsa and practice covering it with the paper.
Something like a square about 3" x 3" would be fine to check your results.

Zor

iAlex

Or you could apply the covering by another method. Here is what I do and it seems to work fairly well. First lay the tissue over the area you are going to cover and cut it about 1/2" oversize. Apply glue via a gluestick to the balsa frame and then lay the tissue covering over it. Work out any wrinkles and make sure that the tissue is bonded to the balsa frame. Then take a razor blade and trim the tissue to the correct size. When the glue has cured take a hairspray bottle filled with water and lightly mist the tissue. When the water dries the tissue will become tight. Then take a 50/50 mix of nitrate dope and thinner and paint 2 - 3 coats over the tissue. Once the dope cures you should have a nice wrinkle free surface. Sometimes I will take a 400 grit sandpaper and lightly sand the surface after each coat of dope has cured.

There are lots of different methods for applying tissue covering. I have never been able to get satisfactory results with using only dope and thinner while covering with tissue. Though I can make it work quite well when covering with Silk-span. Go figure.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Duplicate post. Thanks Dave