Malcolm,

Pat's finishing work is astounding. No one else in the States does the flowing and blending of colors as Pat does and is gracious enough to share as Pat is, that I've seen and I've been around for awhile. A real artist.....

Here's a short list of more info re: some of the terminology used.
Min Wax is a trade name for the polymeric resins we use. It may be purchased in a water based resin, such as the acrylic that Pat used or oil based that I and a few others used. There are advantages to each type: water based of course is diluted with water and has almost no odor. It is safer to use. The oil based is diluted by paint thinner or mineral spirits or VM and P naphtha. There's some odor with this but still is fairly safe. Another trade name that can be used is Varathane; similar resins. Buy these materials are a local home improvement store.

Dopes are the old familiar resins we used when we were kids. I use and prefer nitrate for bedding the various papers. I buy Randolph's nitrate and thinner, usually the non-tautening type but for fully sheeted surfaces, the tautening does not bother the surfaces. One should use a face mask with this material with appropriate inserts to remove the organic volatiles from the breathed air. I buy mine from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty but any aircraft supply house should have the material. Oh one other thing, there is also butyrate dope available but I don't use butyrate. This type of dope continues giving off vapors for a long time and has been known to lift top coats off a surface. Use butyrate on top of any stable surface such as nitrate or epoxy, but do not use anything other than butyrate on top unless the butyrate is adequately aged for several months.

Silkspan is a paper (wood pulp) product. It comes in 3 weights/thicknesses. For our purposes, medium has many qualities we want and has fairly good wet strength. It blends easily to itself at overlapped seams. Light is about half the weight of medium and fills much faster than medium (less coats needed) finishing out at a considerably lighter end weight, but is finicky stuff and tedious to handle. Application is as we have written in earlier pages and in other threads. Brodak in the States is one source. You would have to hunt for it in the UK.
The weight build up I get when bedding light silkspan with nitrate to the primer stage is about 1/3-1/2 gram per 100 square inches. Medium silkspan is ready for primer at about 1- 1 1/3 grams per 100 square inches

Esaki Japanese tissue also comes in three weights/thicknesses. Sig and Brodak in the States are easy to find sources. Sig sells it cheap at 2$ per sheet. Other sources found on the internet are much more expensive. Esaki is a much tougher paper than silkspan being made from rice husks. It has terrific wet strength. You'd want to butt seam this material since overlapping usually results in a ridge. It also has a lot of strength and medium grade is all that's needed for our purposes. Light grade is finicky to work with and is not as light as silkspan light. It has a rather tight structure and you have to use lots of care when bedding it otherwise it will lift. Surface prep is most important with Esaki as it must have enough dope applied before attempting to bed the paper. The weight build up I get with Esaki is similar to silkspan, grade for grade.

Klass Kote epoxy systems are two part paints similar to the old K&B we used 30years ago. Sold in the States by Diversified Solutions. I don't know if any other type of epoxy paint available in the UK will work. You would need to experiment. Usually these resins are thinned at least 2:1 for our purposes. Special thinner is required and a face mask should be used. Also once mixed, it should be allowed at least one hour induction time to initiate the cure. But that true with most two part paints, urethanes and acrylics alike. The paint is ready for handling and masking and finishing in a few hours but takes quite awhile to fully cure (a month or more). It cures into a hard shell just like any epoxy would.

Pat please add as necessary.....