I am wrapping up a Kadet I started a long time ago. I am covering it in Coverite farbic, pre painted. The Coverite is going on nicely, but I'd like to finish the plane the way SIG did. I need to paint a good amount of the farbic black. Coverite suggests only 21st century paint (can't find it), or nitrate dope (even SIG doesn't sell colored dope anymore).

If I paint some test frames with other type paints (lustercoat, or rustolium or example) how long should I wait to see the effects? I guess I'm concerned it will look okay, then wrinkle or crack over time.

Also, any other ideas for painting prepainted Coverite Fabric would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Try a place called "Aircraft Spruce". They used to carry "Randolph"; the manufacturer of dope.

Les

If you dont see any problems the first 30 minutes or so then Youre only wait time will be cure time,,go with light coats to start with and this will help I wait atleast a week on lustrekote to expose it to raw fuel. I wait 2 days to color sand . Careful not to mix paint brands,, that is where problems come into play.. lifting...not drying..never getting hard.. so on.. Make yourself a test piece and save the work on your plane! Good luck! Terry

When painted, it will look fine. Exposure to heat and sun will bring out the cracking, if it's going to appear.

You can use butyrate dope. Butyrate can go over nitrate but not vice versa. Kind of like putting lacquer over enamel nitrate over butyrate is a no no but it sounds like the Coverite finish is Nitrate based. I've always used the plain coverite and put dope on top of it. Like in full scale the bare fabric needs to have a few thinned out coats of Nitrate before the Butyrate is used because Butyrate does not bond as well to the raw dacron fabric. Sorry if I rambled on.