I've used the PIne-Pro sealer with good results - put on a couple nice coats, then WET sand it ( being water based the 'sanding dust' will help smooth-in the surface while sanding ( if that makes sense, lol ) .

I get real nice smooth finishes with Pine-Pro , just needs a few more coats ( 4-5 total sanding betewwn each 2 ).
Also works well on repairs, as it can be used OVER painted surfaces ( does react / sand some paint off depending on brand, but have never had a chemical reaction.
I have had problems sometimes of the sealer that gets over the Wood glue fillets ( I use Titebond 2 ) sometimes will crack when painted, generally corrected by sanding, but I;ve gone to sealing, then before priming I wipe a real thin glue fillet over the sealer, then sand lightly, and prime, if any cracking occurs, sand before top coating .

~ AL

Kinda OT: I suppose this is a common occurrence throughout the continent, but local hobby shops are getting few and far between, and the only one even remotely close to me looks like it might be closing soon too (I've been going there for over 20 years). Heck, even the big chain Michaels (which never had rocketry items here) closed out here years ago. No other chains like in the U.S., the only hobby one closed around a decade ago (LOL, I noticed a large collection of vintage rocketry items from them on eBay recently). Just no demand I guess. It doesn't help that their prices are so high either, like the Estes kits still way more than double the U.S. prices (even online at Canadian places about double).

The only local shop: $20 for epoxy that's $8 in the U.S. They don't have any dope right now, and I'm almost afraid to order it from them! They do not have any Midwest stuff because I had to order that online too recently, forgot the Aerogloss came from Midwest (doh!). I will probably get the SIG stuff from Great Hobbies, unless you can recommend a better place.

FWIW, I do not always use sanding sealer to put the tissue on. It depends what the balsa looks like, there was a time when it tended to have massive grain in the Estes kits. Sometimes the grain is extremely fine, but then the balsa also tends to be lots softer then. Anyway, if the balsa is typical, I use 50% thinned dope.

I was thinking of maybe making my own sanding sealer, that way I could just order a big can of dope and mix it up the ways I like. What kind of talcum powder should I use, like brand names? I've never bought talcum powder before and want to avoid the typical faking/additives of consumer products if possible. Thanks.

Edit: I'm not trying to ignore other methods BTW. I do use several myself, doing CA/paper on something right now because it makes sense for that app. And I'm highly allergic to fiberglass so really try to avoid it, so understand the allergy thing. But many products commonly available in the U.S. are hard to find here, or if available often come in large volumes only. Can get expensive just trying something out, paints an especially good (bad) example here. IOW, I have found the tissue/dope works well for smoothing/strengthening balsa fins after trying a few methods and usually suits what I want to do using the stock kit parts. After that I find tracing fins onto light ply the next most useful stage, especially that "Chinese mystery plywood" that has no grain and is ultralight, not to be confused with real/strong plywood, but way stronger/smoother than balsa.

Craig:

I have purchased AeroGloss dope on Ebay from time to time. I got it in 8 oz. and 16 oz. cans in various colours. There is a guy who sells it on an ongoing basis.............only trouble is that the lots tend to be for about 10 cans or so, and so they usually go in the $40-$50 range plus about $10 for shipping. Don't know if those quantities or price range would interest you, but at least the stuff is obtainable. And the Canadian dollar is strong right now...............when I got mine the Loonie was worth about 70 cents US.

Joe

Craig:

You should try Hornet Hobbies http://www.hornethobbies.supersites.ca/ they are in East York side of Toronto. They're waiting on a shipment of Aero-Gloss dope from the states. You should call them and see when they can get you what you want. ;)

As for making you own sanding sealer, just add real talcum powder (not that baby powder stuff), balsa sawdust, or corn starch to clear dope and mix.

I don't know what SIG uses for filler, but man it's full of the stuff!

You right about covering the fins with tissue paper. Much better method than sanding sealer alone, but time consuming. Slapping on the sealer tends to be quicker, and Japanese tissue paper has its own scarcity problems.

Thanks for the tip Brian. I called them and they're still waiting, no real ETA yet. As I already whined about, the problem is shipping it out of the States. Weird: OK to ship in the States, OK to ship in Canada, but shipping out of the U.S. is a problem. What do they think us ferrenners are doing with the stuff? I bet there's a dangerous use for the dope I don't know about (besides huffing it etc.). I know I have had to get State Department approval to export (so I can import!) some pretty innocuous-seeming items, takes 2-6 weeks usually to get that.

Corn starch?? I have that, does it really work for sealer without getting "blobby"? I don't have to have the sealer for the issue, least right now, the balsa I want to do is fine-grained. Doing the tissue is quite fast actually, just be generous with the dope on the edges and use your fingers to smooth it out, it dries fast. Great Hobbies has SIG Jap Tissue, Silkspan is OK for fins too, I've used it lots of times, and can't really tell the difference (would be different if over a light airframe) except color. Admittedly there are some little tricks to doing the tissue conveniently which anybody will figure out quickly if they practice on a chunk of balsa pretending it's a fin. It's really quite hard to screw it up because light sandpaper smooths it out quickly.

If "getting 'blobby'" you mean does the corn starch dissolve. Yes it does! There may be conflicting opinions on whether talcum or cornstarch are the better fillers, but they both dissolve well into the clear dope. ;)

I think it was the result of competition rocketry from which papering fins really lost its favor. It's the old cold equation from a sport that eliminates almost anything it doesn't need in order to lose weight so that rockets can go higher. Not that I would think tissue paper adds that much, but this is from the same group that uses pop-off launch lugs to save on flight weight. :D

Thats good to know Al, I'll have to try it with more coats, and I was using only 1 coat between sanding.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Thanks! :D

JIC it wasn't mentioned, AC Supply has AeroGloss dope and sealer, for shipping within the U.S. only. The guy inferred shipments from Midwest were generally kinda slow/sporadic these days...