Paper "hospital" tape. It's basically silkspan on a 1/2" roll with an adhesive back. Can't get much more convenient than that. Tear off a piece, stick it on, & slap some dope over it. If I don't have too many holes, I'll punch out 1/2" plugs & replace them with fresh balsa, likewise punched out. Apply a little silkspan & dope, then paint over. If more than 8-10, & depending on where they are, it's usually faster & easier to just re-skin. Sometimes, I'll just re-skin a side or a portion of a side, if there's a lot of damage in a smaller area. I've got re-skinning down to a good art & can do it pretty quickly. JM
really? its easier to reskin if you've got more than say 15 holes? gees that sounds like a lot of work. and I thought fast gun patching could be tedious.
It depends on the damage, & some ships are easier than others, but in general, yeah I think so. Unless Axis gunnery really sucks over a number of battles, I usually figure on reskinning every other battle at least. Once I completely reskinned my Nelson in less time than a friend was able to patch about that many holes in another ship. Of course, a big part of being able to do that is being ready. I keep a bunch of doped/silkspanned balsa sheets all prepped & ready to go, so it's pretty quick & easy when the time comes. The old comes off easily (Nobel Prize nominations for the inventors of the Dremel Moto-tool & hand-held sanders!). Total time is about 3-5 hours, spread out over 3-5 evenings (sometimes more, if there are multiple colors such as for a camo job), to let various things dry. Day 1: Strip off old hull sheet; grind off old glue; glue new sheets onto hull; trim, sand, apply wood filler. Time: Approx. 2 hours. Day 2: Sand dried filler (no point in using anything finer than #60); apply additional filler to low spots if necessary; dope & paint with spray primer. Time: Approx. 1 hour. Day 3: 2nd coat primer if necessary; mask off waterline & spray red below. Time: Approx. 30-60 min. Day 4: Mask off & spray additional colors if necessary; apply boot tape; spray overall with clear dope (helps keep tape from coming up). Time: Approx. 30-60 min. JM
I use contact cement to hold the balsa sheeting off. I guess I'm lucky in that I have never had to us a sander or dremel to to resheet. We do use 1/32 balsa. That may be the reason why.
Yes, gaps as well as to smooth the fillets to blend the sheet edges into the hull chines, bow, stern, etc. JM
