Tissue Covering in General

[rayd]

Semi humorous.. most times, I'm the only guy walkin' in local big box craft store in search of replacements for glues, paints, coverings from yesteryear. I'm asked often, "Can I help you sir?" Guess I look out of place, maybe suspicious. (My wife must seek out help for her "stuff", but I'm like a magnet). The staffers are not able to assist much, but as a gentleman, I'll ask anyway. Am often directed to wood cutout craft area or plastic models. I guess they try, but more and more, I think we're in sort of a lost art. Fortunately, we've sites like this with helpful members for some advice.

This has been discussed in various categories here, but need more advice, maybe big box store wanderings confused me more. I know from yesteryear about Japanese tissue, silkspan also (generics anyway). It's not all that available or reasonably priced now, but what else is new. Question/s follow...might those colorful (nowadays recyled paper) wrapping tissue be ok? Yes, no, maybe... or just for trim? Any experience with 'em? Craft stores, party stores, card depts, have mounds of this tissue, polka dot if you want. Is it usable? Using 50/50 Elmers eg? Anything else besides that Esaki paper? Yesteryear, kits came with some tissue, most in white, some color. Brand unknown. Might cheapie or easily available stuff work? or might it ruin a nice job, wrinkles, etc....the papers at big box stores look nice, reasonable, no S&H, and we're liable to have around from gift wrap! Just looking for some opinions so I don't a bunch of skeletons or mostly white covered planes. I have reservations about those acrylic paint tubes for artists I saw also. Any comments welcome. Not to worry, if I botch up ...mistakes often fixable, if not, well we tried and chalk it up to experience.

[rayd]

David..thanks for inquiring. Decades back, there was an artist guy on TV, Jon Gnagy...Sat.morn kids show..how to draw. I watched religiously. Became good. (Hobby) As time went on, I went from b&w charcoals, to color, water color paints, then oils. Later they had acrylics in tubes. Tried 'em in drawings, seemed kind of thick, but ok for art. Guess they need to be watered down for "stick model" builds, and perhaps color consistency may differ between batches. But, cars, girls, career, family etc so art went on backburner, so did model building. Returned to balsa airplanes lately, seems like a lost art these days though, due mostly to lack of LHS, supplies, but thank goodness for this site/nice forum though.

Being old fashioned in balsa builds, got used to yesteryears Pactra stuff, Testors dope (<not good word to use in big box store, by police, or anywhere except amongst us guys maybe)...the consistency of oldie stuff was pretty uniform, the clear and paints, and they tightened up tissue like a drum. I'm reading on this forum that acrylics generally ok, but am doubting Thomas type maybe since I tried acrylics for some small paintings. So, right or wrong...and being a tad of a pighead also, figured I'd just go with different tissue colors for now, with 50/50 Elmers and atomizer for water spray to tighten some...then..hmm, hope for the best.

Say, do you know of any articles, on line eg re paper issues (esp types), acrylics? I can't be alone with these questions. Thanks for any help you can give. Man, I'm still horsing around in the glue dept, Elmer white takes long to dry, Testers fast drying smells up house and costs near 5 bucks for a small tube with S&H more than product. Gee, one gets old, grumpy, and bellyaches about all kinda things.

[Szyp]

I am in the same boat you are, and this forum has helped me beyond any expectations. Two months or so ago when I started again (I'm 65 now) and was caught in a modelers time warp, I had all the same questions you do, and many more. Dave knows; try the search function, and you will get the answer. If you are still lost, someone here on the forum will rush to help you. This is a great place, great people, and all willing to help above and beyond the call of duty. Welcome, and enjoy. PS Try the laser cuts- they are fabulous!!.

[SteveM]

I'm not sure that I got the gist of your post as it was narrative in form and didn't seem to clearly define the question(s), so I'm going to try to provide some generic covering info and links.

I've never used tissue or wrapping paper not specifically sold for the purpose of covering a plane. I recall some people having success with these cheap and readily available products, but I couldn't tell you if the results were good or not. Why not invest $1 and a little time to build a small balsa frame that you can cover as a test?

If you still want to use tissues like Esaki and the domestic stuff that comes in the kits then there is a plethora of options online. If you want silkspan it is also available online. The hobby shop where I used to live didn't sell tissue, but did sell Silkspan by the sheet. If you want something a little more durable and "modern" try a lightweight film like SoLite. It is an adhesive backed plastic film that you put on and stretch tight with an iron (a special one, not your wife's clothes iron). For larger planes intended for RC use there is an endless supply of plastic films and even some products that are meant to look like fabric and can be painted.

For colors you can apply tissues or plastic films of different colors and apply trim pieces for small areas of color difference. You can even apply chalk to the back of tissue or print colors and patterns onto tissue. Silkspan and some of the plastic films can be painted for a much wider range of color choices and detail.

Resources:
Esaki tissue - http://www.shortysbasement.com/index.ph ... at&catId=6
Tissue and silkspan - http://www.easybuiltmodels.com/parts.htm
Tissue and silkspan - http://www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com/ru ... tissue.htm
SoLite film - http://www.mountainmodels.com/product_i ... cts_id=315

[yellowlynn]

I'm like rayd, just now back into building planes after a 65 year layoff.
I have finished up 4 models now, and I THINK maybe I'm improving on each one. Papering is sloppy, and I mean SLOPPY in capital letters. I have tried several ways, and the best method I have found is: brush the wood surfaces to be covered with a 50/50 water/glue mixture, mostly just the outer framing, then drape the paper over it and tap it down onto the glue. Even touching it VERY delicately, the paper spreads and makes holes, like Kleenex or such. Is that the type of paper they put out now? I never seemed to have that problem as a Kid. Of course, at 81 I'm not near as steady as I usta was.

Lynn

[rayd]

Thanks for input guys...guess I'll just have to experiment awhile. Steve, sorry if longish narrative not all that clear. (Suspect excessive caffeinated beverage this morn when posting). Thanks for informative links though.

Inquiring if any of you had success with mass market tissues, the cheap EZ to find stuff in stores. Ancient flyboys must watch budget. Might even skip painting, just cover with kit white and trim with color tissue. Not gonna chase anymore, just looking for fun building rubber power. Maybe keep for display & give some to local kids. But if work looks sloppy, hard landing guaranteed. Yes, have other hobbies, but this one was always special.

[cliffm]

I must be the kid of the group here,but I have found that a 50/50 mix with water and elmers,maybe even 60 water, cut a piece of the kit paper to cover the area intended,with maybe a 1/2" lap over so you have an edge to pull from,put the material where it's mean't to be and brush on an ample coat of the mix, gently pull out the wrinkles,DON'T STRETCH THE MATERIAL, just smooth out the wrinkles as best you can and let it dry. Mine have been coming out like I was an old pro. I have'nt tried to do this with an airbrush yet but that's my next experiment. Later.

[Szyp]

Do you have any experience with attaching the tissue right to a completely balsa model? I am thinking of that because I just can not get the tissue ti=o completely tauten, and leading edges and wing tops are impossible to get wrinkle free using the sealer- dope the adhesive areas, and spray; I have even tried using wet tissue- same problems.

[rayd]

Szyp...I gather tissue covering is hotter subject than I realized. Question, whenever you get a chance. ( am dealing with flood issues, so must hold off a bit) Did you ever try common type store tissue for covering? Think its recycled and perhaps many kinds around. Soon as I can, will try Elmers 50/50mix and cheapie EZ to find tissue. Who knows, maybe ok, or same, or maybe good! Will try on a frame of scrap balsa. Hmm, wife has plenty around for gift wrap filler. Will try first at random. Feel free to try at your end, let us know your findings. Maybe teamwork needed here.

[Szyp]

I have had some success with test pieces of balsa planking. First sealed with 50/50 thinned dope 2-3- coats, when dry then tissue either wet or dry
laid on the wood and "sealed" with another coat of dope. Seems to work very well on trial pieces- when dried I used colored dope and/or acrylic and seems to hide well and give a smooth appearance after 2-3 coats of either dope or acrylic. But I just cannot seem to get the wing tips right, even if I build them with layers of balsa and sand to shape. Maybe it is just the nature of the beast. I will keep trying variations as long as I can think of them. Thank you.

[Phugoid]

Have a look at any of Scig's builds, and I have a couple on here the most "step by step" of which is the Piper Super Cub build (link below) Scigs also shows his method on it too which is useful

http://balsamodels.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... ub&start=0

Andrew

[scigs30]

Covering has been discussed multiple times on this forum simply because it is the hardest part of any build. There is a reason why you can walk into many builders rooms and find unfinished planes sitting around just waiting for a nice covering job. I learned along time ago that building an airplane frame and not finishing it is the worst thing you can do for covering skills. Sure your building will get better, but your covering skills will lag behind. I have posted most of my builds on this forum and taken many pictures on covering. I even covered a couple of my planes per the Guillows instructions just to show it can be done and produce wonderful results. Most of the time on round fuselages I like to cover wet and yes that is with domestic/Guillows tissue.
As far as gift tissue why use it? Peck and Easybuilt supply domestic tissue that is cheap and we all know it works. Some gift tissue just falls apart, colors bleed and sometimes it dose not shrink. If I am going to put hours into a build the last thing I would want to do is ruin the covering job to save a buck. If you are having wrinkles when covering your wing, search my Messchermitt build and Cessna build, I show a great technique that works every time. I am building a Sterling Pt-17 Stearman right now that is using laser cut wood from DPC models, should be a fun build. Keep building and have fun.

[Dusty]

I'd like to get opinions on the covering materials; Coverlite, Skyloft, Silkspan and real silk. I'll be darned but I actually gave away two 100% silk shirts that I could have used, one was Olive Drab even. I'm not sure how real silk shrinks though but if you can find some at a thrift store for $5 why not? Maybe I'll cover one in Paisley...

[scigs30]

Freeflight rubber- Domestic or Esaki
Large RC- I like the ease of Monokote
Large RC Cubs- Solartex
Light Park Flyers- Coverlite
WWII RC- Silkspan

[joecrouse]

I Have found the BEST place to get tissue. and Nobody is going to believe me.
The Hallmark Store. It comes in most of the colors you can want. AND they can order it for you if they can get the right colors.

I also found the tissue paper that Target carries works REALLY well. (The silver stuff is actually silvery in fact)