When deciding which type of covering
material to
apply to a model airplane structure, it would be helpful to have a table of covering
density for comparison. Here is such a table which shows, for instance, that 21st
Century Fabric is the heaviest type of covering you can use. MicroLite covering
is the lightest weight. Not shown are most doped or painted coverings because finished
weights are so dependent on substrate type (silk, Silkspan, tissue, etc.), paint
or dope type, and number/thickness of coats. To calculate the covering weight, multiply
the density by the total surface area of your model. Unfortunately, most of
these coverings are no longer manufactured, but a lot of it can still be found
on eBay.
HomeFly has a very extensive table of model airplane covering material weights.
Note that they use units of grams per square meter. I have not verified the numbers
there, so be sure to investigate further if weight is critical. Here is a
units converter
for you.
* Opaque, transparent, pearl, metallic (other sources claim transparent
is lighter) ** w/o dope
Posted June 7, 2024 (updated from original post on 10/13/2009)
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