stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

I covered my last model with Sig Koverall and used Minwax polycrylic as a sealer. I started out using sig Stix-it as the adhesive. I did not buy a large enough can so when I went back to the LHS I bought Balsarite. The seams were a bit of a pain. When overlaying the koverall on a seam, Ihad to reapply the stix-it or balsarite at the seam. It is not impossible, just a pain.
Ihave heard of fabrics that come with adhesive allready applied and you need do nothing but iron it on. Ilooked at BalsaUSA's site and they sell Solartex. On the same page they sell an adhesive. Just a little confusing.
The question is this. Is there a color-free fabric that does not require the adhesive applied to the airframe first, and if so, what is it? Ihave never used dope. The Minwax works very well as a sealant. And accepted paint with no problems. Any suggestions?

Mode One

Solartex is a product such as you are asking about, it comes in a natural (as made) color. It has an adhesive on one side that is ironed on to the airframe and the exposed side may be painted, if desired. The adhesive, Poly-Tak is a similar product to Stix-it or Balsarite. It is used to increase the bond between the Solartex and the airframe. I have never used Solartex, but, have used Coverite's product called Super Coverite a very similar product (no longer available). The people who I've talked to that have used Solartex have held it in very high regard. They did not use any additional adhesives and the material worked flawlessly. Alternatively, my guess is you could have used Poly-Tak in place of the Stix-It or Balsarite on your Koveral covered airplane.

Hope you find this helpful and best wishes for success!

dignlivn

I used 21 century Fabric on my last build and
i'm very pleased with the results.

No painting required too.


Bob

Rodney

Another tip, if you run out of Stiksit or Balsarite or ???, just use any aliphatic glue. Just coat the area with as thin a coat as you can, let it dry, then iron down your fabric on top of it. Aliphatics make a good substitute for a heat sensitive adhesive.

da Rock

They are heat sensitive adhesive but only respond to heat once. OK, they aren't actually sold as such, but since they do the deed, they get the title.

They also work just as good after being thinned with water to brushing consistency.

Rodney, I haven't bought Balsarite in years, have you. Always have a big bottle of aliphatic in the house, right.

Steve Percifield

My Feedback: (14)

I have covered many models with Solartex, World Tex, and Coverite. Never had any covering issues with any of them nor had to apply any adhesive to the struture before I covered. I'm flying a 20 year old Robin Hood 80, that is covered in World Tex. It has held up very well over the years. I get the heat gun out every spring and shrink up the winter wrinkles and it still tightens right up. BTW, all the "tex's" are the same product sold under differing names.

I do use the paint on adhesive, Balsa Rite, Poly Tac, etc. To do repairs where I have to re=attach the covering. I also like it around the firewall attachment, it adds some extra stickability (?), and also allows you to re iron over areas that have some fuel soakage. It's also useful for apply iron covering over areas that have been glassed. It allows the covering to stick to the fiberglass area.

If you have seams that pull up after time, the brush on adhesive allows you to iron those back down.


After spending almost $200 for covering on my last 1/3 scale WW1 bird, I am looking into using the Stits covering system on my next one. It appears to be cheaper, and it requires using their applied adhesive and filler. So I will see how that works on an entire aircraft.

steve

Hey Mark,
You will like SolarTex. It is very easy to apply, and goes around wingtips like nothing else.
sp

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks fellas. Check me out in my Tiger build thread. It will still be several weeks before I start to cover. I may just have to put 3 choices of covering into a hat and see what comes out.
Oh ya. If Iuse Solartex can Iuse Minwax Poly as the filler? And will it paint to a gloss finish?

Rodney

Your SolarTex comes already painted. You can use just about anything to put a more dirt proof coat over it as the open weave does tend to attract dirt,oil etc. unless you overcoat it. However, it is fuelproof as it comes without any additional paint required. I've use just about all types of overcoat but my favorite is an epoxy paint such as Klass Cote or the old Hobby Poxy Epoxy which is no longer available in most places.

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

Icant visualize pre-painted fabric covering. If Ihave a multi-color scheme would I have tobuy aroll of a colorthat Ionly plan on using a small part of? No, my plan is to cover with a base, seal it. And then mask and paint multiple colors. Solartex sounds like it would be used the same as Monokote. And Inever was very good with that stuff.
Istill have alot of Sig Koverall left from my last model. Iguess Iwill cover thisone with the same.Iwish my clubhad a larger membership.There are never more than a dozen guys there at any time and most of those arebringing ARF's. No real opprtunity to see how someone else may do things. One of these days Imay make it to a large fly-in.

Steve Percifield

My Feedback: (14)

Solartex does come in colors, but it is also offered in "natural" which is what you use if you want to paint over it. Also, note that all the colored stuff can also be over painted, but please read the instructions on silver. It is sealed to be fuel proof, but as mentioned above , does seem to absorb exhaust residue. We call this weathering, but if you want to clean it up, use one of the Cleaning sponges, and it will come right off. Coverite was once also offered in painted colors.

ho2zoo

My Feedback: (5)

I covered my Spitfire with white 21st Century Fabric and then primed and painted over it. It turned out great and lasted for years. I can't remember the primer, but it was what 21st Century recommended. The paint was fuel-proof polyurethane from Chevron. I don't think you can get Chevron paint anymore, but there should be several kinds that will work.

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

Thats the thing about RCU.  All you have to do is say "Hmmm, how do you do that?"  and then your answer pops up.  Cool.  Well since I am making that 1.5 hr trip to my LHS tomorrow, I may have to pick up a roll of 21st century fabric and do some experimenting.  Thanks guys.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

I have used the Stits system on a few birds. You will like it. It is a bit more work than the Tex's but it never losens up after the heat is applied and shrunk to size. Have a 30 year old Cub in the rafters that has remained so tight it is almost unbeliveable. Cost is about the same as any other covering. I covered a 33% Stearman and a 33% Waco YMF5, both are still tight and strong as far as the covering goes.

KitBuilder

There is a STITS System - Lite
http://www.stits.com/instructions.html
that says for .25 to .40 powered models to ultralights (odd way to say that) as opposed to the full scale covering system?

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

Ihear the Stits System is very good. Since I had so much Koverall left over from my last model, and since I am so impatient,Iwent ahead and started using the Koverall. Ihave to get my tail feathers covered and sealed (MinwaxPolycrylic) before Ican install the vert stab andrudder. The elevator hasto be permenantly installed first. Iwill load pics tonight of the parts I have covered so far. Ihave even brushed on 3-4 coats of Poly allready. I canstart to sand it now.
Last night I started gathering the materiel for the nose cowl build. I know its not a sound method, but I had the engine installed and the main gear. Tilting the model up on thewheels, Itried to see how much it would balance on the tires. It appears to be mucho tail heavy. Of course, the wing was noton and none of the radio gear is installed yet either.
I ordered the Airtronics RDS8000 from Hobby People Saturday. I recievedan email that says its onback order. Their order site said it was in stock. Go figure, It will be Saturday before Icanmake that 1.5 hr run to my LHS and get the rest of my servos.
As Isaid earlier, pics to come this evening.

As far as the Stits system goes, Iwant to order the smallest quantity of that Ican buy and do some experimenting on scrape. Along with 21st century fabric.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

For those of you who might be considering the "Stits" system. F&M enterprizes out of Texas has everything you might need to do the job. I have worked with these folks for years...never a problem!!! When they were based in California I used to just call them and odser what I needed, they sent it out quick and never even asked how I intended to pay for the order.......... after a couple of days I just got a billing notice for the amount and sent it to them however I wanted to pay for it.
These people are real good to work with and have everything in stock always. You can order the fabric by the yard or even smaller amounts if you need it. The weave is just right for R.C. aircraft. Same stuff they sell for full scale but in a smaller weave for R.C.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

I was just going to say since you are already using polycrylic as a filler you might want to try applying the fabric with it.
When prepped correctly you can iron down and work polyc coated fabric around corners like the pre-glued fabrics.

What I do is put down 1 coat on areas that the fabric has to be wrapped or worked around.
On wings & stabs that would the the LE, TE and tips.. Corners and so on..
let that coat dry

Apply the fabric to open areas by brushing it on around the perimeter with the poly..
sheeted ares I just start at the center and work out to the edges.
Look for areas that will need to be trimmed or will need to be ironed down.
Wet the fabric out with polyc about an inch past the point you will need to trim it off or iron it down.

The trick here is the polyc binds the fabric together so when you trim it off it cuts cleanly with no fraying.

After that application coat dries. get your iron out and work the curves ,edges and tips that need to be pulled around.
Use your heat gun to shrink up the open areas.
You'll find the poyc coated fabric irons down really well to polyc coated wood.. the heat melts the poly and it binds together.
You can iron down coated fabric to un-coated wood but the bond is weak..
After you have everything stretched & pulled where you want it trim the edges and iron them down.
Get a full coat of poly on being sure to cover all your ironed down seams..

From there follow your normal finishing process.

One last thing.. DO NOT take an iron or heat gun to wet poly.. It will boil the water out of it causing bubbles under the fabric that are hard to deal with or boils the surface resulting in a foamy crust. Just let it dry before putting heat to it.

A few more details on it in this old kit build thread.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_62..._3/key_/tm.htm

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

Sounds intersting. Iwill try that on some scrap this evening.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Have a nice supply of new sharp blades handy.. The fabric dulls them quickly.. I use 10-15 #11 blades covering a 40 size plane.

Don't get me started on using 100% polyester dress liner for covering Good stuff.. It's nice being able to cover a wing top and bottom in a single piece of fabric..

chuckstarck

My Feedback: (1)

I"d really like you to expand on your "dress fabric" context. I purchased some 100% and can't get it to shrink
Makes sense it would, those old polyester pants sure did in the dryer and they needed no coaxing.
Tell me what temps work best for you. Much cooler I'm guessing. Need to make another test piece I guess

huck1199

Was this pre-shrunk dress lining? If so it would not shrink much more.

chuckstarck

My Feedback: (1)

The bolt simply said that it was 100% Polyester, white, no more. NOthing about shrunk. My guess it wasn't. From China probably, HobbyLobby (not Hobby-Lobby)