The covering is the sticky backed kind but it seems to hold up well, It does shrink with a heat gun if there are any wrinkles in it. I painted the wingtips and tail flourescent orange for visibility reasons. The plane was a very easy build, one of the easiest I have built. very sturdy, lots of room to work on, one thing with the split elevator control rods, its easier to put them thru the fuse before you put the tail on!!! the wing bolts on with two metal screws, very sturdy, i have bounced it on wingtips a few times with no damage, very sturdy wings and fuse. the plane has large control surfaces and on high rates is very areobatic, Any 45 size two stroke will power this plane fine, i think even a strong 40 would be ok plane is very stable on the ground, the wheels are well forward there is no tendency to nose over at all. If your new to flying you might want to learn to fly this plane without the extras like the flying wires and pilot etc. as they do affect the control responces. then when your good at flying it , put them on, i put mine on for local club fly in's i also put a scarf on the pilot, it looks great. good luck to ya, Butch in Niagara Falls NY