stunthanger.com
Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: Andrew Tinsley on March 29, 2012, 09:28:02 AM
-
Hello All,
I usually cover with thin Mylar, then silk and just spray with dope which has been tinted with printer ink combinations. This gives a reasonably strong and very light finish.
Someone mentioned dying the silk with colours from Dharma trading. I looked up the appropriate part of Dharma's website. The dyes have good depth of colour and are quite dense in application. They also claim very good resistance to UV colour fade. Sounds very good so far. You need to dip the silk in an aqueous solution of the dye, can't remember the recommended temperature.
My query is this, the silk must shrink quite a bit due to the dying. Is there enough shrink left in the material when doped? Probably worrying too much here. However I have a system that works for me, trying something else can be a bit of a gamble. The promise of dense, fade free colours is very attractive. Anyone got any experience of covering this way? I shall still use my Mylar base, because it makes the covering so much less prone to finger damage and hangar rash.
Regards,
Andrew
-
I haven't used silk, but I know that silkspan expands when you wet it, then shrinks back to more or less where it was when it dries. I suspect that silk does the same thing unless you do heat it or tumble-dry it.
If you have any scraps, why not do a test patch?
-
Paul Smith posted on the forum about using the Dharma silk and their dye. I tried to find it, but haven't as yet.
-
Tie-dyed airplanes?
-
Every time I applied silk it was wet.
When you die it, it's gets wet. Why not just apply the silk when you take it out of the pan you died it in.
From the pan, to the wing!
I'd sponge it a bit first.
Charles
-
From my experience over the years with silk, it will go through a coupe of cycles where it expands when wet and then returns to its normal size when dry. That is why it is important to get it really taunt when applying it wet. Not sure how many times it will do it, but if you notice it tends to relax a bit when the first coats of dope go on it. I always use tautening dope for the first 3 or 4 coats.
BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM
-
Thanks guys!
I will give it a try. If the silk does relax after drying then I should be ok with doping the stuff after I have applied it over the mylar. I will even dampen it before I do!
Thanks to everyone for their help.
Andrew.
-
I used Dharma dye with silk. It didn't shrink well with Brodak dope. Windy recommended using some tautening dope over it, so I used Sig Supercoat. It pretty much worked, but I should have started with tautening dope.
I have covered dozens of planes with silk, but never with Mylar under it. I think you are correct to put it on wet and pull out any wrinkles.