Monday, December 11, 2006

12. Coating and painting


Wings and fuselage can be coated with paper, plastic foil (Monocot) or silk. The most common is paper. The best glue would be some diluted cold glue or colorless nitro-polish.
Firstly one would cut the paper using scissors to be a bit bigger the the part to be coasted. If one is coating wings or stabilizers, ribs have to be glued before the paper is being coated over the ribs. The paper has to stay straight, it must not get wrinkled and it has to be tight. The leftovers are cut with a razors or something similar.
After the glue is dry, the paper has to be tightened more, which is done by moisturizing the paper. It will tighten itself while drying. This can flex the wing, so we should always be careful with the wing and how we secure the wing.
After it's completely dry, the wing has to be protected form moisture with some polish two or three times. It is usually done by some colored polish for better visibility. Note that indoor models don't have to be polished.