Working with Diacov 1000
Posted: 28 Dec 2020, 10:14
I’d be interested to hear about anyone’s experience of working with this covering and any hints, tips and advice. The story is… in a moment of pilot stupidity I manged to prang my Grunau Baby a week or so before Christmas. It was covered in ‘natural’ solartex so after the internal spar fixing session, I had to find something else. Diacov seemed the obvious alternative so I ordered 3m from Sarik.
First, the good news:
1) At £9.99 per meter it’s not cheap but than not silly money either. Incidentally postage is not cheap at £9 so order whatever you might need in one go.
2) It’s slightly wider than Solartex at 73cm on a roll. This might be good news for big models – a strip cut from the roll will actually go all the way round the wing of my Grunau baby (despite the 12” chord) so if I was starting from scratch I’d only need 3.5 metres for a 3.5 meter wing (if you see what I mean).
3) Goes on pretty much like solartex – nice to work round compound curves and wing tips etc.
4) I did a not-very-scientific test and reckon Diacov is slightly lighter than solatex (but maybe only 10%) and shrinks slightly more than solartex - again , maybe by 10% but both those figures are rough!
Now… the not so good:
1) Like any covering, you can get air bubbles which need sorting out – not a fault but easy to do.
2) It has a very ‘unfinished’ feel to it – it is very easy to get pen/pencil/dirt marks in the silk like weave – these will then not come out so work in a clean area.
3) Likewise, you are going to have to paint/lacquer it or something – it’s going to get very grubby. Again, probably not an issue on a large-scale model.
4) Biggest problem I had was that when I sprayed paint and then later, lacquer on the wing to seal it, the covering seems to absorb the liquid, sag and the edges came undone (it felt like the old tissue and dope days!) Most of this seems to have rectified itself and you can always go back over with the iron to stick things down but it was a bit frustrating.
5) I probably need to experiment with the iron and will admit I’m using an old domestic iron not a pukka modelling one.
Well that’s it but as I can see myself using this stuff a LOT in the future I’d love to hear any advice you more experienced folk have.
First, the good news:
1) At £9.99 per meter it’s not cheap but than not silly money either. Incidentally postage is not cheap at £9 so order whatever you might need in one go.
2) It’s slightly wider than Solartex at 73cm on a roll. This might be good news for big models – a strip cut from the roll will actually go all the way round the wing of my Grunau baby (despite the 12” chord) so if I was starting from scratch I’d only need 3.5 metres for a 3.5 meter wing (if you see what I mean).
3) Goes on pretty much like solartex – nice to work round compound curves and wing tips etc.
4) I did a not-very-scientific test and reckon Diacov is slightly lighter than solatex (but maybe only 10%) and shrinks slightly more than solartex - again , maybe by 10% but both those figures are rough!
Now… the not so good:
1) Like any covering, you can get air bubbles which need sorting out – not a fault but easy to do.
2) It has a very ‘unfinished’ feel to it – it is very easy to get pen/pencil/dirt marks in the silk like weave – these will then not come out so work in a clean area.
3) Likewise, you are going to have to paint/lacquer it or something – it’s going to get very grubby. Again, probably not an issue on a large-scale model.
4) Biggest problem I had was that when I sprayed paint and then later, lacquer on the wing to seal it, the covering seems to absorb the liquid, sag and the edges came undone (it felt like the old tissue and dope days!) Most of this seems to have rectified itself and you can always go back over with the iron to stick things down but it was a bit frustrating.
5) I probably need to experiment with the iron and will admit I’m using an old domestic iron not a pukka modelling one.
Well that’s it but as I can see myself using this stuff a LOT in the future I’d love to hear any advice you more experienced folk have.