solentlife

I'm old school modeller having grown up with Tissue, Nylon and Dope. Of course Heatshrink film and then Tex covering took us by storm and it became so common.
As time went on - of course old building skills were few as most now buy ARTF - where factory has applied covering etc. They of course look superb, but am I the only one who is fed up seeing a line up of same Sbach .... Extra's .... Edge's ... with same decals etc. ?

Soon I shall be building a Sopwith Camel from the Dancing Wings / Elerc factory - to create a dogfight duo with my pals similar size DR1. It seems a shame to not give it a traditional covering, and of course especially with the demise of Solarfilm Company - Solartex is hard to get and EXPENSIVE !! Oratex is too pricey in my view as well. For a 10m roll - its more than the model costs !!

So why not Nylon and Dope ... then a paint job. Finding it online is not as easy as it used to be when Mail-Order !! or of course Local Hobby Shop. I thought to try Net Curtain as I used to cover a foam model ... but the weave is too open and would need too much filler, making it too heavy.
No need to give me links to USA suppliers - I live in EU ...

My question then : Is there anyone still using Nylon and Dope out there ??

Abuelo

I do.

The Lil Esquire is about to get a silk and nitrate dope covering, the yellow silk in the photo.

I like the shrinking version of nitrate dope for adhering and undercoats with brushing clear lacquer for sealing. I buy the silk from Dharma Trading and I think (not sure) this batch was mailed from Malaysia. I also like polyspan or aerospan or whatever it is called now, with nitrate dope. It stays tough and puncture resistant for years, is light, and looks like silkspan. I heat shrink it after adhering and let the dope do the final tightening.

I've stayed away from nylon as my attempts to get it tight did not really work. That was so many years ago I don't recall the process. The wings are from a Roaring 20s and a Vic Smeed free flight conversion, the closeup shows the texture of the polyspan. Each is about 6-7 years old and have been sitting in the garage here in the Arizona desert.

Please go with the dope finish. Time consuming but so much more authentic to our hobby.

Bill

solentlife

The trick with nylon of course is to wet it before application. Same as with synthetic silk ...

Some people prefer to spray the nylon as they apply ... but I always put mine in a tub ... then wrung out - the only thing to watch then was the Dope often would have white blotches if too much water.

Nylon if not wetted out enough and then shrunk tight with Dope - can later sag and no matter what you do - its impossible to tighten. Of course you can actually have it shrink too much and twist the structure ... clamping the structure while it cures - possibly water spraying a little - to ensure it cures straight.

Abuelo

Good description of handling the nylon. Will have to try it as I've some I picked up at a remnants store years ago but forgot about.

Lets hope for more builders checking in.

I intended for photos to be attached, will try again.

Bill