Postby david walker » November 8th, 2021, 9:38 pm
John, like you I found the price of Oratex getting prohibitive and I used the Sarik Diacov 1000 on the Paul Hughes Shoestring. Was reasonably pleased with the finished but it was my learning curve having used Oratex in the past.
The good news is that it is wider than Tex, As a start point I coated the area's to be covered with Balsa lock. If you can't find it the Delux Materials equivalent is also good. The covering adheres and shrinks well but it does need a fairly high heat level.
What I did find however was that when trimmed the edges frayed and there were grain lines at places in the covering.
As a finish I used a grey acrylic undercoat and base coat car paint for the finished. I found the material was quite absorbent. it was finished in this case with a clear laquer.
On reflection there was two solutions which I think would help. The first simple It would be helpful if you got guidelines from Sarik and secondly before before I applied the undercoat I would have doped the material which would have hardened the frayed edges and allowed a rub over with a fine wet and dry to give a better surface before paints were applied.
I'm happy with the finish but it took longer to get there than previous models covered in tex.
One closing note, If as I have done in the past, you are covering sheeted area's, I would use Glass cloth and resin, Its not too difficult and gives a far superior finish and its much more ding proof.
Hope these notes help, Cheers Dave W
