G'day

I have just built a Sig Astrohog and I covered it with Solatex (iron on cloth). It is brilliant stuff. It is very easy to iron on, far easier than Monocote as it will stretch around compound curves quite well.

I am also in the process (a very long and slow one) of building a Sig quarter scale Clipped Wing Cub. I have covered it with Sig Coverall. It too is a cloth but it needs to be held on with dope or you can use a heat sensitive glue like Sig Stixit (which I have not used) or Solafilm's Balsaloc (which I often use). Balsaloc is water based but I think Stixit is solvent based. You then tighten it with your heat iron (easy) then dope it with thinned dope to seal it then a few coats of dope followed by primer and paint. It is easy to get carried away with the paint finish and end up with a very heavy plane.

Back to Solatex. It is my favourite covering. It comes pre-painted with an epoxy paint and is very fuel proof for the glow fuels that I have thrown at it. It can be painted also as well but you do not need to paint it. I use small tins of enamel paint to paint stripes etc on top of it.

Solatex comes in two types - standard solid colour and a translucent which is called "classic". The solid colour is mostly solid but you can see really dark marks through it and good preparation is necessary for a good result. A coat of clear over the solid does help to deepen the colour. The standard paint finish is flat.

Most of my larger planes are Solatex covered. I have only completed one plane which was Coverall covered but I have seen plenty where I used to fly. Sadly, many were very pretty but also very heavy with the expected results.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

The attached picture is a Kadet Senior covered in two different Solatex colours - red and Cub yellow.