The effort to re-skin depends on the builders skill level, as well as the method used to attach the skin that is being replaced. I've heard of guys doing it in their hotel rooms after a day of battle.... obviously skilled builders who have fine tuned their attachment/ replacement skills and methods. I can't imagine myself doing it, and it is probably easier on the thinner fast gun skins than the big gun ones I am more familiar with. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I have read, it seems to be easiest to remove and re-skin a contact cemented skin vs one that was ca glued on. The ca glue gets pretty hard and is more of a challenge to remove the remnants from the ribs prior to applying the new skin. The way you choose to apply the silkspan would also play into effect as well, some guys pre-apply it to the balsa, others apply the skin first, then apply the silkspan to the skin and overlap it a bit to the hull, the prior makes it a bit easier to pre-apply the silkspan to have a sheet ready to go when re-skinning does become necessary. Either way it probably would require a few hours to get completed. Of course you would also need to paint afterwards as well, and the time that it takes to do that will vary wildly, depending on the anal retentiveness of the builder.
Using CA glue to attach the balsa is quicker and easier, but it is much harder to remove afterwards. Using contact cement, you apply it to both joining surfaces (hull & balsa) and then join it after a few minutes. Removing contact cement is much easier as you can clean it off with acetone.
You dont even have to remove old contact cement when reskinning. Fresh contact cement brings the old stuff back to sticky life.
