mike109

G'day

One that has not been specifically mentioned is Sig Koverall. It is a cloth that you attach with dope or a heat sensitive adhesive like Sig's Stixit or Solafilm's Balsaloc. It is then shrunk with your iron (carefully - it can really cause warps if you go mad with the iron) doped to seal it and then painted or doped. I am building (it has been five years now) a Sig Clipped Wing Cub and it is covered in Koverall. The trick is to seal the weave with thinned dope without adding too much weight. And then add a light paint job. Koverall its self is quite light but it is easy to go mad with the paint and build a lead sled.

I generally use Solafilm's Solatex as mentioned above by Grey Beard. It is wonderful to use, does not need a lot of heat and can be stretched round quite complicated curves. It is about 50% heavier then film. I built a foam Me-163 and tried to cover it in adhesive tape as suggested by the kit manufacturer but I could not get it to go round the curves. Solatex was a breeze. It also lasts well. My old Kadet Senior is now about 8 years old and the covering it holding up really well. It also takes paint well too but you don't need to paint it.

I have just built a Stick to the original plan. I had also built a Sig Four Star 120 for a friend and I covered it in Cub Yellow Solatex. There was quite a bit left over so I covered the stick with it. Looks good and thanks to slightly more weight than the other Stick I have (Great Planes Big Stick 40) it flies really well in the wind with an Enya 53 with a 11 x 7 Graupner prop.

Oh yes, Koverall is quite cheap but Solatex is quite expensive. Well worth it though for a nice model.

Mike in Oz