Covering a model airplane in Tissue

Step 6 Repairs

If for some reason you get a hole or tear in the covering you can repair it quite easily.

If the hole or tear is small, tear off a piece of tissue from your scrap and apply glue to the dull side of the patch. Stick the patch piece over the tear and gently smooth it out with your finger. After the glue has dried spay it with alcohol and it well shrink smooth. Note: to get a smoother patch tear the edges of the patch this leave a less noticeable edge when it is glued to the rest of the tissue.

If the hole is large it is best to carefully cut the section out to the surrounding balsa frame and make a patch to cover the whole section, sorry no pics on this one maybe after I fly it a couple of times.

After the tissue is done shrinking you can respray the area with clear to get it to match the rest of the tissue.

Comments

[stabian]

I also noticed that when you use glue instead of dope to put the tissue on it doesn't stretch as well but this mostly would happen on a fighter plane or other with a round fuselage.

[planebuilder123]

what exactly is dope?

[stabian]

when i put patches on, I put the piece of tissue and cover it with dope so its nice and smooth because with glue it CAN make lumps.
The first model I made was a messeschmitt BF 109.

[rhino]

Nice work. Thirty years ago when I was building planes, I used to give my framework two coats of clear dope to seal it good. I would coat each section one more time as I worked on the fabric. The fabric would be coated with water in a hand sprayer until quite moist, then applied to the frame without regard to grain. The wrinkles would be pulled out and the fabric pinned to the ribs with straight pins. Sometimes you have to apply more clear dope and massage it in where you want the tissue to stick good. When dry, the pins would be pulled and the fabric would be sprayed again and blow dried on low heat with a hand held hair dryer producing an extremely taught no wrinkles finish ready for the clear dope topcoat. Also all frames should be sanded smooth prior to doping and covering. It is nice to see someone doing the balsa wood and tissue models in this day of instant styrofoam rc gratification. Two thumbs up.

[dboyfly]

Nate, Aha! I remember the Lancer. I actually built one about ten years ago. It is a great rubber flyer but I wasn't brave enough to try it with RC, plus, their would not have been a battery pack back then that would fly it. What are you going to use for a motor? It seems like a GWS system would be too large for it (unless there is a direct-drive prop adapter for the actual motor without the reduction gear assembly). The polyhedral wing would sure make it fly nice I bet. Good choice for micro RC! Keep me posted. Dan.