It seems I didn't learn much when covering my first stick and tissue plane. I build a great looking walnut scale F4U Corsair and covered it but I didn't know that colored dope doesn't shrink the tissue as the clear does. Can anyone help me in either shrinking it or removing it. It has 1 coat of blue dope thinned 50/50 with thinner on it and it will not tighten. Is there anything that will make it shrink now or do I have to remove the covering?? Do you have a method for removing it without breaking the airframe? I used all Sig dope and thinner but I'm not sure what the material was that came in the Dumas kit. It didn't seem to be tissue paper because of its heavier feel.

It has ben a long time since I painted myself into that corner, but I think if you just give it a couple of coats of clear nitrate dope, it will probably be OK. Failing that I think soaking any adhering part with thinner should free the tissue from the frame.

I normally just peel off as much as I can and then sand off the rest. You can use thinner as already suggested, but if you sand the covering off the structure should be even smoother than it was before.

Colored dope is usually low shrink and not what you should use to attach and shrink covering. I don't think you can put nitrate dope over butyrate either. What I would do when the model is ready for new covering is apply 2-3 coats of nitrate dope to the bare wood and sand the final coat with fine paper.

Then apply the tissue wet. Just use a spritz bottle, don't put the tissue under running water. While the tissue is wet, work out the wrinkles and get it relatively tight. Immediately apply thinned nitrate dope to adhere the tissue. Once the whole part is covered, apply 2 more coats around the perimeter to ensure the tissue is well adhered.

If you have an airbrush, you can spray the model using more thinned nitrate. Otherwise brush on a few light coats to seal the tissue. Sand with very fine paper being careful not to sand through the tissue. Now spray your color coats.