O.k. heres the question. I am building an albatross and all the pictures I have seen the have a clear coated wooden fuselage.
How do I imitate that look? Can you stain balsa then clear coat it? Also the wings and control surfaces on the tail are fabric covered and I've done some reading and was going to use either worldtex or solartex. Any input on that as well? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

Yes, you can stain balsa and clear coat it with anything that is fuelproof.

Either solartex or worldtex will work very well.

Be careful when staining. In order to get a good uniform stain job you need to stain the parts before assembly. The problem here is that most stains have waxes in them and the glue will not stick. One more word of caution- even though the parts may stick together well at first, as time (months) pass the glue joints will begin to fail.
Proctor sells some lacquer base stains that do not waxes. I've tried to find them locally without any luck. Gary at Proctor says they have them special made.? This would be the best options for "pre-staining". I have had good luck using water based stains in a pinch, but would still recommend Proctor.
Your second option would be to build first then stain, but... Usually formers, ribs, and stringers are of different types of wood and require different stains- staining after assembly is hard. Plus the stains don't usually stick to the glue joint areas.
And I second MinnFlyer- worldtex or solartex will work fine.

I would actually be staining the balsa sheeting to give it the wooden look of the albatross. This would be from about the fire wall back to the horizontal stab I,m currently testing some different stains to see the results. I'll keep you posted how it goes.

here's a pic of my d.va, it has 1/64 ply "skin".
2 Piece

2Piece Nice job what size is that and does the ply work better than balsa ive got a DII to start this winter and was thinking of doing the same thing with ply wood thanks Dave

If you're worried about the glue joints failing, you can fiberglass the model and then clearcoat it. The glass will become invisible with the clearcoat.

Take a look:

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/galler...k_30/index.htm

It's a 1/4 scale Proctor D.Va. The ply works out great, but it is very hard to work around the compound curves where the horizonal stab meets the fuselage. You have to boil the pieces in water to get them to form around this area. But once you get passed the tail area the ply goes down pretty fast. Makes a very strong and light fuselage.
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Hi. I was just reading your albatross build. I am considering building one as soon as I finish my Duncan Hutson SE5a. A friend of mine is also building one and he is about 90 % finished. I see that Proctor recommends the Laser 240 or 300 V engines. What engine are you planning to use? Is there an option to put in a small gas engine (for example?.. Thanks BobH.

There are some paint schemes where the fuselage is painted, one is an all red Von Richtofen plane. there is another one that has an all black fuse with a big bow on the side. This doesn't really answer your question but gives you a way out

BobH, mine is set up with the Laser 300V. I don't think a small gas engine would work very well. This plane is in the 20+ pound range and would probably need a G38 or equivalant and I just can't see it fitting within the fuse. The Laser 300V is totally enclosed.
2 Piece