ORIGINAL: acdii
Doing my first fabric job on a Chipmunk and I used store bought fabric, very light and sheer. Using Stix-it and Rustoleum, and it is starting to look very good. It takes longer but it look a lot better than iron on plastic.
Hello acdii,
You have experienced yourself that light weight but strong fabric from "store bought" (ie: Fabricland) does a nice job. This material is not all pre-shrunk. If it is pre-shrunk it is marked as such on the spool label.
Genuine aircraft dope itself does the shrinking and tighten up the covering. The only iron I have is the regular iron for ironing clothing and I do not use it on my models. I let the dope do its own tightening. Dope will keep on thightening for years and also gain lustre (shine) with time. I never wax my finish as I am happy with the natural dope appearance just like on full size airplanes.
I do not know if Rustoleum has any shrinking characteristics. I have never used it.
Quite a while ago I contacted Rustoleum and asked about resistance to glow fuel exhaust. I had to explain what glow fuel composition is and they replied that they had not tested for that.
I am glad you are satisfied with your results. This fabric is considerably stronger than shrinking plastic and wll not tear in a bad landing. It will help to keep the structure with minimum damages if your first finishing coats were such as to bind (glue) every fabric thread to the frame of the model.
Best to you from Zor.
Edited to change "bsd" to "bad"