im jumping in here way late but im sure there will be many resaders here. the silver is to protect the covering frum being eatin by the sun over the years. it has nuthuing to do with see thru for the cub yellow. i use buterate dope on all my planes. i give all the leading/trailig edges 3 coats antd let it dry. then glob on the dope sew it goes right thru and when it drys the stits is on there forever. as far as the ad on brasing in the tailo parts,,,the originasl j-3s had light formed sheet metal brasses added to reinfoce them. be careful shrinking the stits,,,,it can easily crush your wings. i saw a beautiful waco cabin bipe iat wurtsboro airport that had near total wings repaced because in the [past it had about 100 coats of buterate dope applyed and it warped the traailing and leading edges. to do the tail /fuselage covering,,,fasten by what ever systm you are using along the leading edge of the fin and the center upper longeron and then the lower fuselage longeron. mess around with clothes pins to hold the fabric andsnug it slowely and it will kind of flow into plasde. if you look ast the real thing you will see the neat flow of the fabris transition between the fuse and fin.