Gentleman,
It seems that I went through this same thing every two years during my 20 years at Sig as a designer and engineer. Almost every time there is a balsa (supposedly) shortage people want to find something cheaper and easier to use, in that time I’ve tried countless types of verniers from pre-preg glass sheets, to paper backed mystery wood with the same results, heavy as hell, nothing works as good as balsa. At Sig we even had a product called “Rino Skin” but that stuff didn’t turn out so well at all. When the sun was on the wing it would srink and add warps and other things you didn’t want
I’ve even tried the foam sheets from art supplies stores, I did find the that stuff can be vaccine formed that works pretty good. But my opinion hasn’t changed, I found it difficult to use as a wing skin unless you you built a structure under the skin. It did get heavy just like everything else we tried. The molded carbon fiber maybe the way to go, but it will be very costly if you don’t have the equipment and/or mills for the molds. Finding a good process is the key here, or use heavy wood until the shortage ends. Im always open for good ideas so let’s hear it from those that have tried something different and it worked?
Mike Pratt