Hello all. I'm going to cover my p 40 old school. Now I was watching you tube and a guy used silk and a minwax product. Has anyone seen this video, or know what product I should get? Also, I'm not sure how many coats, or what to sand with, or any of the process. Thanks for any help you guys can give.

G'day Tlojak,

Do some searching on here and over at 'groups'. Search for silk covering, wbpu (water based polyurethane minwax floor varnish), silk and dope, meniscus method etc. You'll probably find answers to all your questions. You'll find everyone has slightly different methods but that doesn't matter, you'll develop your own technique.

Basically the old school silk and dope method involved painting dope, or dope and talcum powder, or sanding sealer on to all parts of the airframe that the silk will touch. Sand smooth. Wet the silk and gently tauten over the model. Glue the silk down around the perimeter with more dope. When dry fill the weave and shrink the silk with coats of dope brushed or sprayed on.

A proper silk covering job takes a bit longer than plastic film but looks fantastic, the downside is that the silk can become brittle and easy to split after a year or two.

A more modern method is to cover the model with laminating film first. Then apply the silk over that useing dope or wbpu. This method has several advantages over the old school method and looks absolutely authentic. The laminating film gives the tautness and extra puncture resistance but is a bit floppy on its own. The silk adds the stiffness. The film seals the weave so it takes less dope or wbpu to finish, the covering system ends up being lighter than plain silk. It sounds like a lot of effort because you are essentially covering the model twice but the film makes the silk a lot quicker and easier to do so overall it's about the same. Search for Sundancer's vintage builds to see excellent examples and discussion on this method.

There's an excellent website with lots of building and covering techniques. I'll have a Google and see if I can remember it. airfieldmodels.com . There's an excellent silk how to.

It's not hard to cover with silk but there is a bit of a trick to it. Do your research, ask questions, then give it a go. You'll pick it up no problem.

Dave H

Just reread your post. Everything I said applies more to vintage and open structure models. For a warbird I would finish the balsa with dope or wbpu, sand, then apply silk or tissue (silkspan) with the dope or wbpu. A couple of coats, sand back and you should be ready for primer and paint.

Thanks gerryndennis,
I'll do some research and get into it. I want to get this done. I've wanted a P-40 for ever. I've had the kit for 2 years and want to get it done now.

If you like the idea of a dope and fabric finish but want something more durable Sig sells an nice fabric that I think is dacron You heat shrink it after it is applied rather than using water but it makes a stron durable finish.

I will look at what I have because I don't think it's silk, that's what made me watch the video I was asking about. I'm still trying to find that minwax product.

Harry Higley publishes a book, "There Are No Secrets", which is an excellent primer on finishing models.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXL792&P=ML

I started in the hobby back in the 60s when tissue paper, Silkspan and Silk were the covering materials available. Iron was in its infancy and very expensive. If you have never worked with silk before I would recommend you build an open test structure and practice covering it. Silk is not for the faint of heart and has learning curve but looks great.

Most use 3/4 oz fiberglass cloth avail from many sources on the internet or local hobby shop. The std practice is to use epoxy resin applied in thin coats and sanded between coats until just the weave of the fabric has been filled in. Try searching "finishing with fiberglass". Polyurethane works well but could be affected by the type of paint you use later. I prefer using epoxy and glass finished with latex paint.

I've had good luck when spraying automotive lacquer and epoxy primers over Minwax Polycryllic and Minwax Polyurethane. Both hold up to these, and other less aggressive paints quite well.