Originally Posted by
Wildstyle
ok, good ideas here.
what is Polycryllic? is it similar or better than polyurethane.
after some searching last night, I did notice in a Japanese blog, that silk was used, and what looked like polyurethane. that was wet sanded.
that link to Don Ramseys site is a wealth of helpful tips as well. I have used dope and tissue or silk a lot with control lines etc when I was younger.
Polycrylic develps into a thin acrylic polymer. Think plexiglas only extremely thin, on the order of 2-3 thousandths of inch. Minwax and a couple other makers, make a water based paint but you can find other bases as well. This is a tough but a little brittle polymer which isn't really a problem when used with a reinforcing material such as paper, or silk or glass
Polyurethane is urethane based which produces similar thickness to polycrylic. Urethanes tend to be leather tough but are not difficult to sand. Again in the thicknesses we use in models, they all will ding easily.
Epoxy paint used to be my favorite way to finish but it was just too hard to produce light enough finishes. In thin sections it will ding as easily as the others.
Dopes particularly thinned nitrates build into a thinner section than the others. These are also very tough materials but so Thin they tend to require more careful handling. Thin means light so you should judge accordingly. One caution, nitrate dope doesn't hold up great to glow fuel so don't allow soaking for long periods. But gasoline (and electric of course) is fine.