The structure for your Saturno is now complete. Give the entire structure two coats of nitrate dope in preparation
for covering. We chose to use polyspan to cover the fuselage, which required the use of Sig Stix It to provide a good
heat activated bond. The flying surfaces were covered with 0.6 mil doculam lightly misted with Design Master paint
on the adhesive side. This is a very easy to use covering, however it adds considerable weight, and a better solution
is to use either tissue or ¼ mil mylar. The mylar is the best option since it is extremely light, adds a little more torsional
stiffness than doculam, and it won
’
t rot like tissue. To attach the mylar, you would need to coat the flying surfaces
with either Sig Stix It or thinned Weldwood.
It is not necessary to cover tissue over the mylar on the flying surfaces as the Saturno is not a particularly fast model,
and adding tissue over the mylar would just add unnecessary weight.
If you choose to cover your model with tissue, you can simply activate the nitrate dope by soaking acetone through
the tissue to bond it to the wood. Once the tissue is applied, water shrink carefully with the flying surfaces pinned
down to avoid warping the structure. Give the finished tissue covering two coats of thinned nitrate dope to fully seal
it.
