For beginners who are getting started by building a kit, I'd like to suggest that you cover your model with an iron-on fabric covering like Coverite 21st Century, etc. This material adds an incredible amount of strength to the plane and will help it absorb a lot of punishment without serious damage. If you have a good flight instructor, you probably won't crash too often, but when you do, it can help keep the repairs to a minimum.

Bob

Yes, iron on fabric is durable, but tough to apply, if you choose to use a fabric, go with worldtex covering, easy to apply and the only thing you have to do after putting it all on is spray it with lustercote clear to keep the oil from seaping into the covering. 21st century covering is good, but it is harder to apply because it doesn't need the sealer coat, I've done 3 plaanes in 21st century and after using worldtex, I'll never go back to using the 21st century covering, I'd rather cover with less headaches and spray the clear in the covering than fight to make a drum tight finish and stretch it around corners. Give it a try, Horizon sells it and Balsa USA sells solortex, the same stuff, but in more size options, and cheaper too, it just seems that people are more willing to buy from horizon then Balsa USA, but I highly recommend ordering from Balsa USA over Horizon, better quality than the chinese garbage.

I have ordered from Balsa USA numerous times and the Solartex fabric covering is the easiest I have ever worked with, great stuff.

Solartex is by far the toughest iron on covering that I have seen. The guys that use it our our club say it really stretches well for corners and tight spots.

Anything with the TEX in it is about the same stuff, I too use only the Solartex for my fabric covering. Talk about A product that makes you look like A pro!!! The big trick with it or even the Ultracote is to set the plane out in the sun after you do the main covering job then bring it back inside and shrink again, I do this A couple of times. I call it curing?? After curing the covering you can leave the plane out in the hot sun and it doesn't bubble or sag on you. After curing is when you want to add all the cool looking trim to it too.

Hummmm I don't know about recommending iron on fabric for a first time builder, Ultra-Coat or Mono-Kote is still probably the best stuff to use for a first timer.
While I have not used the -Tex coverings the last plane I covered was with Super Coverite and all I can say is never again.
Without this just being a P&M post about the material here are my observations about the Super Coverite ... Since it is fuel proof off the roll it has the same disadvantages as Ultra-Coat or Mono-Kote as far as bubbles over sheeted surfaces and bubbles when applied over itself, plus the seams don't melt together and become almost invisible like the plastic covering will do. The adhesive on the covering was not as good as the iron on films either. In addition to these woes it would not stay taut, initially it would shrink drum tight and then in a few hours it would be sagging again ... shrink and sag over and over again, another issue I had was seams that would release after sitting for a couple of days ... iron them back down and an exacto blade would not be able to pry it apart ... then maddeningly a couple days later it would begin to separate again ... I laugh at the frustration now but a couple of months ago it was not funny at all.
I fought through it all and the plane ended up looking good, but I am going back to Koverall. I don't think I would recommend Koverall as a first time covering either but at least it shrinks a lot, stays shrunk, does not bubble, and conforms to what ever is under it very nicely and it is seam free once painted. The chemicals are certainly a minus with the Koverall, but if you can deal with them Koverall is good stuff.

Chashint: I do agree with your post.
I am currently covering an SE5a Dynaflite biplane with koverall, I am using Stix it before applying the fabric, it is really a nice job and the fabric shrinks very well. Now the next step, I do really want to go with an acrylic (water based) paint instead of using dope, what do you think about it?
Have you done like this before?
Need some tips
Thanks.

Charlie, you should give the TEX A try, best stuff I have ever used. It is fuel proof like any plastic covering but the fuel and engine snot get into the weave and it tends to look bad with time and dirt, that's what the top coat is for. Fabric covering is used for planes that had fabric covering, I have seen people use TEX on Extras and Edges but it really looked odd. I only use Ultracote or Solartex on my own planes, very easy stuff to work with. The Tex takes paint very well too. If you ever try it you will never look back.

I agree with the tex advocates, much easier to apply than any of the films such as Ultracote or Monocote as it goes around compound curves much better, sticks to itself much better and is much stronger and resistant to hanger rash. It also comes in slightly larger sized rolls which makes a tremendous advantage when covering larger models.

I've always used the "coat" stuff (MonoKoat, etc) but the "tex" stuff sounds interesting how about the weight, is the Solartex heavier then the "coat" covering?

Just A bit, nothing to worry about. It really doesn't go with all planes though. If the full scale plane is covered in fabric then cool, if not then it looks wrong. I have always wondered why Horizon/Hanger 9 didn't cover there war birds in the Tex covering, there war bird ARFs look cheap with all the shine from the Ultracote. Ultracote doesn't go on too much different either, very easy to work with.

Great choice on the SE5 I have the FunAero 60 size SE5 under construction right now. http://www.funaero.com/
This project was started September 27th and I have the fuselage about 50% framed, I guess it is never to early to start thinking about covering and paint though.
I have used the Koverall on three planes and all of them had a smooth glossy finish. The base coat on all of them was the nitrate dope. Two of the planes were top coated with Butyrate dope and one of the planes was painted with Rustoleum.
The SE5 will be the first plane that "needs" the weave to show through the paint and for the paint to have no more than a semi-gloss finish.
The way I have approached paint choice and application in the past will not work for this plane.
I have read in multiple threads that the water based acrylic (poly-urethane) works very well as a base coat and as a top coat on the Koverall.
While I am not opposed to this paint I have never used it and have no recomendation about it.
I know that is no help but I would rather be no help than bad help.
Since you are still deciding take a look here http://www.stits.com/store/index.html#36
These products are made specifically for model airplanes.
Koverall is very similar to their Poly-lite fabric so there should be no compatibility issues.
I hope to learn through your experience so keep posting.

Thanks Charlie, I am still in the covering process, and I am doing some tests in an old Venus wing (which is not in use anymore but it is great for the testing purposes). Right now I am running a test with Rustoleum, but it need many coats of painting (5 so far) to start covering the fabric pores.
I went to walmart and bought the water based polyurethane but I have not bought the acrylic paint, that is another test that I need to do.
I will keep you informed regarding those tests.
There is a long thread in the Kit building forum regarding the SE5a build, I have posted some advances of my building there.
Thanks.

You do know that Solartex comes in A lot of different colors plus it takes to paint very well? An old scratch built Boeing F4B-2 in Army colors, Navy colors were just silver and yellow but the same plane.

This is a worldtex dark blue and cream on my sig smith miniplane.

Is the Super Coverite the same stuff as the -Tex coverings ?

Nope, super coverite in my opinnion, ...Sucks compaired to tex coverings. The only drawback to using tex is you should really give it a clear topcote, but that can be an advantage, say you want a flt fabric finish, coat it in clear flat fuel proof paint, same goes for any shean you want, flat to glossy. I always seem to pick semi gloss, or flat, it gives a slight shean but doesn't seem to reflect the sun so much as you fly, all you see is the color you put on it and not the mirror shine from the sun.

The only reason for the clear coat is to keep the engine snot and stains out of the weave and help with clean up. The Tex if fuel proof but looks nasty if you don't use something. I use water based Poly-U, if you let it dry for several days it is fuel proof. And A big Yep, SC swallows compared to the TEX, nice looking little Smith.

I know we have gotten off topic but since we have and alfredbmor is building a SE5 too here is a thread that will either inspire (or depress) all SE5 builders http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_50..._1/key_/tm.htm
This is a long thread but the plane is a work of art.

Thanks Charlie, I have been reading that thrad for a while as same as the new thread by the same author building the same plane but in a big scale.
It is amazing the detail.

Alfred.

I just went to the local LHS about 2 miles from my house, never been there, and he stocks solartex, I'm in heaven! He carries kits, ARF's, not that I'd buy one, and a few engines, but the ones people want, saito,os,magnum,super tigre,rcv, webra. This guy's got it together, no high margin garbage that many other stores carry, just planes and acc's with the little hardware you need that's quality, christ, he even had a couple packs of nichrome wire from sig. Just try and find that at your local horror shop, you won't because they don't even know what it's used for! My eyes lit up when I asked if he had solartex and he said yup! Top notch stuff and a top notch shop.

Hi Alfred,
Can you post a link to this thread, I browsed the first couple of pages in the scale forum and did not see it.

BTW I your posts in the Dynaflite thread, very nice.