RE: Koveral Appication
Jim, beautiful doping job.
Michel, I'm so glad to see someone wanting to try fabric & dope. Somewhere, somehow (maybe Topflite advertising hype?) silk (or koverall) & dope got billed as difficult and time consuming. Time consuming maybe but difficult? Applying fabric is many times easier than messing with plastic film. But the best part may be that you will never have to worry about bubbles, wrinkles or sags, even 10yrs down the road. It is also very lightweight and durable.
Jim used the conventional method of using nitrate instead of Stix-it. If you go that route, apply at least three full-strength coats of nitrate where the fabric will contact the wood, let it dry and sand any bumps. Then, brush straight thinner onto the Koverall and rub it against the framework with your finger to disolve the nitrate beneath which will "glue" it down. It only takes a few seconds to get it to stick. (similar to the way you would rub an iron to adhere film). If you need to move it, just brush on more thinner and you can lift it up. Try that with plastic film. You can tack the corners first and pull the fabric tight the way you do with fim, and then go back and brush on thinner to seal all the edges.
Now, you want to cut the nitrate 50/50 with thinner and apply two or three coats to fill the weave. Let this dry a day or two at least. After this, you can paint the way you prefer. Brodak sell a good butyrate primer that you can sand smooth as a base for colored dope. Many people put a coat or two of silver under their colors for added opacity. If you're looking for a Concours winning finish you can spend weeks priming/sanding/filling/sanding until the surface is perfect. But, you can get wonderful results just using a few coats of primer sanded with 600 grit. A lot of colored butyrate dope claims to be fuel proof, but it;'s really best to add two final clear topcoats.
The nice thing about all this is that it's a very fun and rewarding process. Yes, it takes longer than using iron-on plastic, but it's much, much easier to get a tight, wrinkle-free finish that will truly last. One other thing: you can put butyrate over nitrate, but not vice versa. Also, Midwest Aerogloss behaves like nitrate when applied over SIG butyrate.