No not the stuff you get from some shady character off the street.   It may be a while before I finish another plane with Butyrate dope.  Haven't used nitrate since the lsat mess I made.But, covering this wing with what I will call wanna be silk span.  I sanded the structure with 220 grit paper trying to get rid of the rough stuff.  Then is was using cheapo Harbor Freight brushes I put a coat of 'Mod Podge' around the perimeter of the frame including center section.   After letting it dry for a day I then sanded a few spot that were a little rough.

Now I cut the materials to over size.  Thanks to Terry Caron for the material and an out fit on the bay for the mylar.  Also I change my procedure I did on the stab/elevator on another post.   Tried to put the material down wet.   Too big an area to work with and I had a mess.  Stripped it off and started over.   Lay the material in place dry and taking the iron start tacking it in place on the trailing edge as that is a straight line.  Only need enough tack so you can start the leading edge.  First tack center of leading edge panel.  The do the LE tip and the LE center.   Then start halving the areas on the leading edge.   Learned this watching a guy do gliders with Monokote.   I only did an area along the wing with enough surface that the material stays in place.  Then it was the wing tip and center section.  Finally it was go over all the area and iron down to activate the glue.  Had some trouble with the curve of the wing tips.   No water as the heat of the iron let the material move a little.  Once it was all ironed down a piece of sand paper to sand off the excess.   No razor or knife as that leaves a sharp edge.

Now comes the Mylar.   Yes only one panel at a time.   My thumbs/finger poked holes in the material on the stab/elevator.   By the way the iron will take up the slack in the open areas, but some slack will come back when you leave it set.  Again I start at trailing edge putting the Mylar down over lapping the hinge line far enough that when I iron the hinge line there will be some mylar over lapping the flap by 3/8 or more.   Sealed hinges taken care of with this procedure.  Once trailing edge is done enough to hold do the leading edge starting at center of LE panel and working out.  Over lap LE just a little to cover the material.  Same with the wing tips.   Make sure the mylar is all ironed down on the solid surfaces.   Look at as it looks like a mess at this point.   Now you go over the open areas and shrink them down which will adhere to the material underneath.

Looks better now, right.   Only three more wing panels to go.  The base material is butted up against the previous material in the center section.  You did do a bottom section first that I forgot to mention.   When you put the top section of material on it will not adhere to the mylar.  Excess will be sanded off and the mylar will over lap the previous mylar that was put on.  Also the mylar will be trimmed with a razor blade or EX-Acto knife.  Anyway I'm happy with the results and have a wing ready for installation and same for the stab/elevator.

Can't thank Larry Renger enough for the idea and Terry Caron for the wanna be silk span.  It has already with stood the puncture test of my ball point pen.  As with any thing try it a plane you are not too worried about before yo tackle the next contest winner.  Also patience goes a long way.

So, what do you plan to paint it with?

How about Valspar premium latex?

       

        John

       Tested some Mod-Podge based on your earlier posts and promptly moved it over to the grandkids arts and crafts section of the shop. Looked at your pictures again and they're  pretty convincing. I might have been trying to stick down the wrong stuff; Dacron from the fabric store and Micafilm. It seems to work best on porous materials like silkspan? Did you wet/shrink the silkspan before the Mylar was ironed on? What's your source of Mylar? It's worth trying again to have the option of a non-dope system.

        I'm beginning to think all this stuff comes out of one giant vat in some undisclosed location of the world. It's all the same, just packaged in different viscosities. Elmer's, RC 56, the little vials of Balsa-Loc, Mod-Podge, Tacky Glue, etc.

       Ara