I received the Oratex Samples in the mail today. I had Paul Mills of Oratex send me a large sample of each Oratex6000 color, eleven in all. Each sample is approx 2ftx3ft so it's a good size to grasp each color. He also included enough glue to be able to test them out for real. I have an extra rudder and aileron to use as test beds.
So, here are the colors from left to right White, Fokker Red, Corsair Blue, White, Cub Yellow, Olive Drab, Orange (new), Sky Blue, Black (new), Silver, and Light Gray. They are bright colors and look really nice.
Here are the back of the fabrics to show what they look like from behind. A few of the colors have white backs and a couple have black. The rest are modeled as in the last pic of the back side of black.
I have an idea for a paint scheme and was originally planning to use the Polyfiber System and paint the plane. However, the more I think about it the more I like the Oratex and not having to paint. However, I really like my paint scheme and could cover the plane in white Oratex and paint it anyway. There are several advantages to Oratex from my point of view: (YMMV)
1. Lighter weight
2. No painting (if you don't want to) However, you can paint the Oratex, I'm told you just scuff it up with a scotch brite pad and clean it off and shoot paint.
3. It's impervious to UV. This is a biggie to me as I live in Arizona. As a side note, how many traditional fabric airplanes have you seen where the inside of the fabric was not painted and/or primed? Tons. Polyfiber is VERY susceptible to UV light degradation. One must coat the fabric to protect against UV or it will degrade, and fast. In this SuperSTOL, I will have a lot of glass area.
4. Much simpler and quicker to apply.
Ok, so that's it for now. I'll post more once I start working with them...
