|
|
Thread OP
|
Discussion
Balsa USA Planetex and Oratex
Last week at our R/C club meeting one of the members brought samples of Balsa USA's Planetex that he's using on his Fokker project. I was pretty impressed seeing it in person and wanted to share what I saw. I have no financial interest; just passing along some information.
The fabric is the same as Oratex but without the iron-on adhesive and it's only available in white. It's considerably lighter than Koverall or other uncertificated Ceconite type products and the weave is much tighter. It should finish much lighter because of those factors. It drapes around compound curves very nicely. BUSA sells both solvent based Poly-Tak/Poly-Brush and the Stewart Systems water based EkoBond/EkoFill products to attach the fabric to the airframe and fill/prime the fabric. The demo piece, a big round Fokker rudder was attached and filled with the Stewart System products because the builder didn't care for the solvent odor of the Poly Fiber products after trying them. EkoBond is brushed on and allowed to dry at least two hours before adding a second coat. Once dry, it becones a heat sensitive adhesive that allows the Plantex to be ironed on. Personally, I like the Poly Fiber products and have used them on both models and several full scale aircraft. Poly-Tak can be brushed on, 2 coats, and the fabric ironed on. A single coat of Poly-Fill is brushed on and that coat, if applied per the directions, will be absolutely smooth and free of brush marks with the fabric fully filled and sealed. BUSA's instructions say to brush on a second coat but the full scale instructions say to spray on the second coat so either will work; you just have to buy the thinner in order to spray. The down side to Planetex is the cost. Five yards of Planetex costs the same as five yards of Oratex which comes in several colors and already has the adhesive on the back. At this point I expect to use Oratex on my 1/4 scale projects as I see no advantage to the extra cost of Planetex. Instruction PDF from Balsa USA: https://shop.balsausa.com/v/vspfiles...structions.pdf |
|
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | |||||
Category | Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Discussion | Balsa USA Planetex | RC Man | The Builders Workshop | 0 | Aug 15, 2018 02:00 PM |
Discussion | Balsa USA 1/4 scale piper cub | AlexBacopulos | Scale Kit/Scratch Built | 1 | Dec 05, 2015 08:02 AM |
Discussion | Balsa USA Citabria Pro Converted | Tucci | Glow to Electric Conversions | 11 | Nov 28, 2015 07:32 PM |
Discussion | balsa usa 1/4 scale sopwith f1 camel | bsovermars | Fuel Warbirds | 0 | Oct 14, 2015 03:37 PM |
Discussion | CG for 1/3 Balsa USA Fly Baby Biplane | srp55 | Giant Scale Airplanes | 3 | Oct 04, 2015 07:03 PM |