Refinishing can be easy, SOMETIMES
The covering on my small Tempest 560 sq" started to crack next to the ribs three months after it was built. A combination of very thin tissue the wrong primmer and to much sanding led to the problem.I lived with it for 18 months expecting the covering to collapse at ant time. The plane was mint with no fuel soaking so I went ahead and wiped off the color with thinner and cut out the old tissue over the open panels only.I didn't remove the tissue on any wood. This is the first time I have not removed the tissue from the entire wing to do a recovering.It was very easy and fast compared to the recovering the entire wing.This plane was always nose heavy with the ST.46 in it so I shortened the nose and now can run a 2" spinner. Plane is the same weight as before but no longer requires tail weight. One thing I did change was getting rid of the long removable cowl and closed in the nose with a very small removable cowl.This Tempest was built from a Vector ARF with the long removable cowl hatch. I used Dupli-Color just like the original finish but used Sig clear as a top coat. Dupli-color clear never got as hard as dope. Dupli-Color in the quart can comes out very flat as it is made to be covered with a top coat.It is very easy to spray and dries quit slow compared to dope so it flows out nicely.
Ed NOTE the Cream color and the white look the same in the picture but they are very different