HPA

I would just add that I did this on a blue and yellow model two years ago. It's still bright; plain Esaki would have faded by now.

Thank you. I will give it a try, amongst other experiments I will do 

I've used Panpastels after seeing the results on a model by Mike Kelly. Applied on the inside (rough side) of Esaki it gives a more vibrant colour. You can get a set of 5 or 6 colours for about £30

Dear all,

I'm currently preparing my Fokker DVIII and will be using printed tissue (asuka).

The result is really nice, however I would like to make it less trasnparent.

The method I'm using is shrinking with pure alcohol and then applying 50/50 nitro dope.

Therefore any solution to be applied under the tissue, should be compatible.

I have heard of chaulked tissue but have absolutely no experience.

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi, sorry for the radio silence the past few days, I was away and although I could read, I could not properly reply.

Thank you all for your replies, it seems I opened quite a big subject. All answers were useful but would require further searching, which Steve spared me from, more or less.

I could have left the STL files as they are for US modellers. It is a simple thing to find a fitting screw to pass through the 3mm hole. The problem is/was, that I have the nuts embedded in the plastic parts to be fixed inside a hexagonal cut and if they are bigger they will not fit.
But now I have this information and I can check and modify accordingly.

My CAD does not have a fastener database, neither in metric nor in US units.

So I d' better complete the article now as is. I have some time to add the STL files to the Plans Gallery.

Thank you all for your replies and help!

George

Your approach sounds very well thought out, but with this Fokker wing the wing section decreases in thickness so strongly, that I thought my approach would be the only way to achieve success. With with less accute decrease in thickness and taper I have used the technique you explain myself. Another problem is the slots for the spar. As my thinnest file is 1,5 mm thick, I find it difficult to make consistent sized slots smaller than that.
Well, back to this build. After some thought I decided to lift the wingtips (at rib 6) 10 mm. This would leave the top of the wing horizontal but still show some dihedral. Perhaps a little more difficult from the aspect of stability, but better for scale appearance, I thought.
So the tips were lifted, center section spars were added, and spars and trailing edges glued together. In this form the wing was stable enough for some sanding. The TE was sanded down, and I sighted along the ribs at the LE. The hand made rib shapes were well aligned, only some detail sanding was needed to achieve a uniform section throughout the wing. A rib standing out must be sanded down, to misquote a Japanese proverd. The slots for the LE needed some more work, but after that the LE fitted nicely and was sanded down to conform to the section.
The next step was bending the tips out of thin bamboo over a soldering iron, and pinning down the wing half to fit and glue the tip. After sanding this to shape and fitting the right hand tip, some LE sheeting was sanded down from soft 1 mm sheeting to approx. half thickness. The sheeting was applied in three sections: center and both wing panels. The sheeting was first glued to the spar, and then to the LE. The center section was also sheeted on the bottom because a cut-out for the cockpit must be placed under the wing.
After a final detail sanding the wing was put on the scale; 5 grams, not unreasonable.....

Good point. Tamiya paints are naturally thin and provide good coverage. Especially when they're stirred well—and all paints should be stirred, of course. I only use Tamiya paints on my models. Plus, they retain their coverage even when further thinned.
Have fun building your great model.

Peter

Quote from: Nigel_M on Aug 17, 2026, 10:53 PM

Quote from: Jmk89 on Aug 16, 2026, 12:49 PMI wouldn't worry about this issue, George.

McMaster-Carr seems to have plenty of suitable metric nuts and screws in suitable sizes: www.McMaster.com. 
They are a very big supplier of hardware in the USA and will supply hobbiest scale orders in my experience.

Thanks, Jeremy, you've reminded me - it was McMaster-Carr whose catalogue is embedded within Fusion 360. Inserting any of their very extensive range of bolts and widgets into a CAD design is thus made extremely easy. Anything similar in your CAD weapon of choice, Andrew?

I think the question from George was what nuts & bolts would a typical modeller in USA find in a typically USA modelling shop. It will be useful if we can get an input from someone 'on the ground'.

Yes they are in Inventor, but just by designation and standard and not by a "commercial sponsor". Inventor is the more advanced industrial version of Fusion 360 (ie a product of Autodesk)

Andrew

Bill, thanks for going to the trouble of finding that nice plan showing more moderate thrust angles. I will apply them.

I have cut out the fuselage and empenage from nice, light 1/16" balsa. I plan to inset cross grained inserts into the fin and tailplane to prevent warping. As shown by the masking tape.

I will cover with yellow Asuka tissue. I am not aiming for a perfect finish or to completely fill the wood grain. I have bought some Deluxe Sand n Seal. Does anyone recommend that I apply before or after I apply the tissue?

I will apply a light coating of paint to acieve a uniform colour across the different construction materialz.

Anyun showed the Czech technique of colouring the balsa before covering, in his "Rieseler R III scale 1/25" thread. Much mass is typically added stopping the balsa from showing through the covering; more so than is required to give the general colour.

Does anyone think this sensible to pre-colour the whole fuselage and tail? It kind of defeats the object of weight saving if I paint such a large area.

I am considering a light dusting of Tamiya acrylic from an airbrush. Perhaps, this will help to unify the colour of the balsa/plastic/tissue areas.

Unfortunately; I could not obtain the 6gsm version of Kozo Shika. I anticipate that when filled that it will be significanty lighter than the aeromodelling tissues without the drawbacks of the 4gsm sample.

It has been successfully used by Jirka Pavlicek on his fanstastic Zlin build:
https://hpa.aeromodelling.gr/index.php?topic=273.15

I was intriged by the finished mass per area of these tissues compared to more readily available, lightweight, aeromodelling tissues.

So, I made further samples of different tissues from my stocks.

I attach a table giving the mass/area of the untreated and treated tissues. They are ordered from lightest to heaviest of the finished samples.

I water sprayed the samples to taughten, then sprayed a single coat of Pledge.
This was applied to all samples at the same time using an airbrush. Each sample was then, in-turn, and sprayed induvidually until it was sufficently wetted.

Conclusion

The following only considers mass and a cursory look at the surface porousity and smoothnes. Other critical items such as, wet strength and shrinkage are not considered.

The table of weights of the coated tissue should be taken with some skeptasism. I do not know how repeatable the results are. So, the results should be taken to indicate general trends only. Other poeple might get different results.

The 4gsm Kozo was the lightest, but not useable . The tissue disintegrated in places; slack and porous. Other areas quite useable.

I was supprised that thr 9gsm Kozo was one of the lightest tissues but that the wallpaper paste, needed to seal its pores, pushed the total weight up to more than many conventional aeromodelling tissues. Perhaps, I am applying the coats too heavily.  Do more numerous, thinner, coats seal it better? My conclusion has to be that the 9gsm Kozo offers no advantage in finished weight. It is nice though and I may use it on my next model. This increases my desire to obtain some 6gsm Kozo, which I feel will be lighter.

The Dilly tissue was similar in uncoated mass to Esaki, but was significantly lighter after 1 coat of Pledge. It's surface is very smooth.

I think of Esaki as the benchmark. It doesn't really need coating to produce an air-tight surface. It took a little more mass of Pledge than the Dilly. Perhaps, I over-did it.

The Lense Tissue (the stuff used for cleaning glasses) was too porous and really needs some coats of wallpaper paste to seal it. This would increase its mass. I don't consider it useful for our purposes.

The Gampi was very similar to Esaki, a good sustitute. But, I have not tried it on curved surfaces.

The yellow Asuka was a little heavier than Easki and took more Pledge. But, again, felt like a good substitute. It is slighty heavier than Dilly and Gampi, but comes in a limited selection of colours.

The Balsa Cabin tissue was heavier and took more Pledge. Whilst it was sealed; it's surface was still blotchy, like it had not been sufficently wetted. The increased mass would be more suitable to models larger than peanuts. Again, it.comes in colourz.

Using Solvite wallpaper border adhesive was quite heavy at about 0.2g. It was not accounted for in the weight comparion table. This is heavy relative to coating on the tissue. Dope and thinners might be lighter.