I am familiar with "balsa filler coat", but not so with sanding sealer.  What are the differences?

TIA

Gonzo

"Balsa Filler Coat" was a product sold by Aero Gloss many years ago.  It was not a sanding sealer, per se, but more of a commercial blend of our homemade brew of clear dope and talcum powder.  Personally, I found it to be a waste of time and money.  Others' "mileage may vary".....

IMHO, the best actual Sanding Sealer for modeling use was the old Testors brand, but it was Nitrate.  Used it on a series of FF Gliders, 1950s-60.  Most newbies won't remember that stuff.

Yes Mike, Pactra made both.  I'm curious about the differences.

The basic difference was filler coat had much more filling agent , and was thicker than sealer, the sealer coat had much less sealing or filling agent in it.

Randy

I read, in an old source about how to finish FF hand launch glider wings.  Put on a thin coat of clear dope, then put on thick Calamine Lotion.  let dry, sand smooth, leaving lotion only in cracks or grain, then  a couple more thin coats of dope.   

Wow.  Never heard of that one.  Makes a certain amount of sense though...filling the grain and all.  Might cause a problem with warping since calamine lotion is water-based (?).  I would give it a try, except for the fact that at this age I'm well beyond the HLG days I once loved.

Of course there are always Catapault-Launched gliders.  May have to just check this out.

   Catapult is great!   There seems to be two common classes - one with hand-held catapults, the other with huge and powerful poles (with guy wires) and a MASSIVE rubber that looks like a Wakefield motor.

      I can still out-arm most of the locals but I prefer catapult. For the hand-held version, it's a very tricky optimization to decide the length of the rubber and how long your arm is. There's a maximum length requirement, but it's not necessarily the best choice since you want to be able to stretch it near max, and sometimes a shorter one is better. My best results were with wings of either 1/8 or even 3/32 and a span of about 16". That get's it right on up there and of course I have access to huge piles of <4 lb wood. I have also used 1/8 balsa fuselages with .003 carbon strips as reinforcement (which I noted all the local experts copied for the next year).
   
   But definitely plan on using a chase bike, or running a lot, because they are pretty potent and marginally too small to carry a DT.

    Brett