I have an Older Profile plane laying around that is fully skinned with balsa wood sheets. I am just wondering if there is much of a weight difference between the two?

I am leaning more and more towards painting since I am not too good with monokite yet and some of the complex corners and curves seem llike they will be a pain. If painting does add considerable weight would a larger powerplant, and light weight servos equal it all out?

Painting is usually heavier than covering. Good Luck, Dave

wel spray [aining balsa usually doesn't come out well either. covering will be much lighter

Actually...............

Learning to paint properly isn't easy. However, properly spray painting a model can produce a stronger and lighter (yea, lighter) model.

I always prefer to paint my glider bodies. Monokote or any film isn't going to add a bit of strength at all. The films will give a slicker finish for a beginner, but that's it. And I really would prefer to have EVERY one of my models painted instead of filmed. But note that I said I'd prefer to "have them painted", not that I'd prefer to paint them.

When you paint instead of iron, you have to learn a TON of stuff. You also need to have some fairly good equipment to do it. You got to stay with one type of paint to be perfectly sure of it all working. Or you need to know what works with what and that takes years to learn.

And nowadays, you're not even going to be able to find most LHSs with full stocks of paints. The ones around here are basically selling off stocks they've had for years and only restocking the most popular spray cans. And forget about the LHS, in my fairly large town, we don't even have a full service automobile paint store! much less anywhere that sells full lines of paint that MIGHT be fuel proof.

The answer to your question is actually a default answer. You probably won't have any easy way to even purchase the stuff to paint. Iron on is just about the only choice you've got that will work for a beginner.

... And then there's the fact that you need paint that's fuel proof, or you'll be repainting it every other flight. Most profiles don't have really complex corners.
the wingtips usually cause problems for some, but there are ways to make it easier. Painting is usually going to be a bit heavier... especially with an older model. That balsa has to be pretty dry, unless you prime it, the wood's gonna soak up the first 3 or 4 coats. If you're using an engine that's actually sized for the plane ... like a .40 on a .40 sized plane, then you're going to need either a longer runway or a bigger engine.
If you fly in a grass field, you'll have to be carefull not to let the grass and weeds rub the plane on takeoff and landing, or you'll mess the paint up. If it gets too hot, and the paint starts to bubble or peel, you're repainting it and adding more weight. If your monokote gets too hot and starts to wrinkle ... hit it with the hair dryer, and it looks new again.
Painting is prettier though. But I'd think it'd be for something you only fly on special occasions.

Complex curves are surprisingly not too bad to deal with. The trick is to have excess covering that you can use to pull while you use the iron to fix the covering to the structure, and use the heat gun to heat up the covering. This will make the covering pliable and form to curves. Its pretty cool to watch the covering melt slightly and adhere, you just have to set the iron to a high temperature.

Ok well I will try the covering first but I guess if all else fails I can fall back to painting...

You had best take cover because YOU'RE going to start to bubble and peel. And for heavens sake, don't take cover under your car because it's liable to melt around you. Honest, if you've ever had a painted plane start to bubble and peel, you really should not ever paint ANYTHING ever again 'cause you're not doing it right.

Back when Monocote first showed up, the Control Line Precision Aerobatics guys did some very serious comparisons. Heck, EVERYONE did weight comparisons. And paint was lighter and more scuff resistant and had no seams that came loose. And most paints in use then (fuelproof) actually increased the surface stiffness if for no other reason than you usually also covered with either silkspan or silk as well as using paint. And with all that, the total finish weight added would be less than if the model had simply had iron on film.

BTW, one of the most bulletproof ways to finish a model is also extremely light if done right. And almost nobody nowadays thinks it could possibly be light, but if done right is lighter than film. Epoxy paint.

As for your model soaking up 3 or 4 coats of paint.......... You very often sprayed a couple of coats of clear to begin with. And each of those coats weighed almost nothing after they'd dried. And they sealed the wood and the rest of the coats didn't soak into anything, they started to build.

CL stunters would often have 8-10 coats of paint. Eight or ten! And they were probably the lightest and strongest models we've ever produced. My last one was about the size of today's 60's sport models. It was about 600 square inches and weighed 46 ounces ready to fuel. There aren't many 60sized RC planes with a 2.75 pound flying weight. And that sucker has at least 8 coats of paint on it and has flown over 300 full flights and is as slick and shiny as the day I hooked the lines to her the first time.

Believe it or not if done right paint can come out just as light as ultracote/monokote. But it takes a lot of learning and or skill to do it right... To paint a surface you need to "glass" it 1st. That is you put a layer of EXTREMELY lightweight fiberglass over the entire part of the airplane that you intend to paint and apply it with a thinned epoxy or fiberglsas resin that goes on about like water. Once it dries you sand it out with a very fine sandpaper and prime, sand some more until you get it slick and then paint. If done correctly you will come out with an extremly lightweight, strong airplane.

But its not easy...

Here are some examples.