Super looking model, I love the 17R/A17F wheelpants. Do you intend to make the paint scheme to one of the actual fixed gear airplanes (I would).
As for covering, it being a scale model I'd cover it with dress lining rather than silk. Dope would be great, especially now that Sig is pouring all new material. I do use dress lining and dope on my CL Stunt models and the finishes are very light. I use two coats of unthinned clear, two coats of unthinned sanding sealer, and then sand it level. After covering, I do the same on the covering material. The reason for the unthinned material is that lots of thinned material soaks through the covering and adds weight. The unthinned material coats the coverings weave and thats all. be carefull not to sand through the dress lining, it cannot tolerate any brealing of the weave. It does however let keys bounce off of it and doesn't get brittle.
Super looking Staggerwing, hope you post more pictures.
Chris...
Originally Posted by
I-fly-any-and-all
my royal stagger wing will be finished soon just cut out upper wing ailerons and then realized the horizontal stab was tilted to the left a little....
just minor adjustments needed. plane weighs about 6 and a 1/2 pounds including the saito 80 engine but I haven't decided to covering in iron on film or silk and dope? paint does add a lot of weight....