Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows of a source for coloured tissue?
I'm planning a couple of classic ships soon and will probably paint the fuselages and cover the wings/ stabs in yellow or orange tissue with either painted or coloured tissue trim.
  I'm more than happy to experiment with this if it is known to work ok.
Does anyone know if it tends to fade more than the commercial stuff?
  I have heard of a couple of  guys here  (in Aus) dyeing their own with food dye, either in a bath tub or in wallpaper troughs. Sadly info on  traditional building techniques is unavailable through the local r/c crowd as most of them only fly arfs, and the "builders" amongst them only ever use monocoat.
  Thanks in advance,
  Rob.

Rob,

I need a little clarification.  When you refer to "tissue" do you mean what we here in the States call "silkspan" as opposed to "Japanese tissue?"  Colored Japanese tissue is available, but is expensive and does not fare well when exposed to sunlight (it fades).  It is lightweight  but is more suited to FF models.  Probably not what you want.

Silkspan (which is what I assume you are asking about) is more appropriate for CL models.  K&S Silkspan is/was available in three grades.

OO - For rubber powered and small gas models
GM - For medium gas models
SGM - For large gas models and high speed stund and combat models

In years past, silkspan was available in many colors, but today
K&S is only available in white (as far as I know) but can be colored by using RIT dye.  There have been a number of threads on the SSW forum about how to do it.  Tinting the covering with a mixture of clear dope and Higgins ink looks like a great way to go.  SSW also had a few posts explaining the technique.

Colored tissue trim is another issue.  No strength is required since it is only decorative.  See Mike Keville's "Trailing Edge" column in the July/Aug issue of Stunt News.  The commercial tissue available at crafts stores is cheap and relatively color fast.  Don't try to use it for covering open bays since it won't work.   

It all depends on what your needs are.     

Don't waste your time, Rob; colored silkspan is a non-starter. It was available for a while back in the '70s and early '80s, but the manufacturer quit. (I think the machinery broke.)

You can get pretty good tissue (they say the best is now made in the USA) from Aerodyne. The stuff doesn't fade as much or as quickly as most. See:

http://www.freeflightmodels.com/index.html

Good luck,

Sig has colored Plyspan and Litespan which are similar to medium and lightweight silkspan.  Comes in colors, which do fade to some extent.   Also see my post on cutting out tissue letters and numbers on SSW

Hey Rob,

I'm from Oz too.  You can get this stuff called Coverlite (formerly called LITESPAN) from www.TowerHobbies.com that is an iron on synthetic tissue. You iron it on like monokote and use iron or heat gun to shrink it. It can be painted too.

Alternatively, have you heard of a company called BRISTUNT? Brodak agent for Australia. You can phone ( +61 2 99200438), or email Bill at bristunt@optusnet.com.au  They are in Sydney.  Bill has a stack of different colour light weight tissue as well as jap tissue.

As you have discovered you can dye silkspan too i guess but I could not be bothered doing that.

Me personally I'm a huge monokote fan, but have recently discovered this Coverite Microlite film which is iron on and only a fraction of the weight of monokote. ie 0.6 grams per square yard. Also available from Tower Hobbies

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Warren
Sydney Oz.

As a retired free flighter, I do like the look of colored tissue. One negative is the fading, another is the need for really perfect woodwork under the tissue. And then, oil soaking/staining always seems to spoil the looks, and add some weight. Yeah, yeah, you'll seal it better than ever before...but it'll still happen.

There is an alternative that seems to me to be a great solution. Below are some pics of Ed Ruane's models. He uses clear dope with about 10% colored dope mixed in, just sprayed over white silkspan. Light, covers blems better, doesn't fade, and looks very much like dyed tissue. What could be better?  These pics would look better, but they are compressed to under 50kb for SSW, where I 'found' them! Steve