Polyc Review

POLYC
Polyc a users review.

Poly-C™ is an industrial Polyurethane water based varnish with an additional additive that is used to cover models with Nylon, Tissue or Glass cloth. It is very similar to glass resin although there is no mixing and it is water based. It usually dries in 20 - 30 mins in a room temperature and although it doesn't dry as hard as glass resin it certainly is strong enough for a light weight covering.

This is the first time I have ever used this product normally being a tissue and dope man, so I approached it with some trepidation.
But I should not have been worried as it is far easier to use than my favored dope and tissue.
I am building a Tony Nijhius Hawker Hurricane and have been debating what to use as a covering for some time, glass and epoxy would have I feel covered the open structure of the frame to much making it look sheeted when it wasn't.
Solatex was a unknown to me as I have never used it.
So when I came across Polyc I had to buy some to try, mainly because I could use heavy weight tissue as my covering material.
Now they say that you cannot use Poly c on an open structure and as I had made my wings lighter by doing away with the sheeting I was a bit concerned, but again I found that there was nothing to worry about.

Polyc being water based might have warped the balsa so I started my wing by applying 2 coats of sanding sealer to seal the wood.
I then laid a dry sheet of tissue on the wing and painted the Polyc through the top of the surface and allowed it to soak into the tissue, but only onto the sheeted sections, I left the open sections dry for now.

Once the Polyc on the sheeted sections had dried I then painted a coat onto the tissue over the open section of the wing, it did sag when first applied but once dry the tissue had shrunk nice and tight.

A second coat was the applied and once again left to dry.
When dry the overlapping tissue was trimmed off and the edges sanded down, a third coat was then pained on and that was it, one covered wing.
An hour later the wing was rock hard on the sheeted sections and on the open parts, the tissue was nice and tight and very strong.

The fuselage was done in the same way.

Once the whole plane has been painted a further coat of Polyc will be used to seal the paint. Job done.

So in my own humble opinion Polyc is a good alternative to dope as it does not smell and can be washed off the brushes in plain water.

Cost wise it is not going to break the bank either.
£10.00 for 500mil, which is more than enough for one 62” hurricane.
Polyc can also be used without any covering material or with glass cloth as an alternative to epoxy.
For more information and to buy go to rc world

To sum up.
Polyc is easy to use,clean and non smelling, ok it's not as strong as epoxy but on the other hand it's not as heavy.
10/10.

Tony B. aka Blooper.

Ive heard a lot about people using Poly C and your review has made it sound very straight forward and easy/.It was also written and described in a way that anyone can understand the proceedure and gives confidence where maybe the myth of Poly C would have led one to believe otherwise,Thankyou

Told you Tony!

yes you did, you smarty pants.

but being told and seeing for yourself are 2 different things.

Very interesting and well described.

In fact I think it has given me a good solution for a possible future very big, very light build!

it seems to get harder over time.
i wonder what the full curing time is.

Tony B. AKA Blooper wrote: it seems to get harder over time.

It gets like that when you're over 65 Tony!

Klipkopwildlife wrote:

Tony B. AKA Blooper wrote: it seems to get harder over time.

It gets like that when you're over 65 Tony!

What? what? What gets harder over time??? Is there hope for me yet? Errrrrrr - now I'm 69 - so - how MUCH time????

it also makes a good matt fuel proofer, glow/diesel/petrol, engine bay fuel soaked wood, brilliant:)

if you want a gloss fuel proofer :- "ezekote" from deluxe materials, same water based product.

I seem to be the only one thats having problems with it it is still lifting off the SR71 :S i applied it on top of sanding sealer, maybe i got the surface to smooth.
Looks ok on the fence though

Not just you, BB, when I tried it, the genuine poly c foamed up and made a horrible mess.

wrong brush and scrubbing too hard.

but it is horses for courses.
i like it.
you don't.
fair enough.

THE BLACKBIRD wrote: I seem to be the only one thats having problems with it it is still lifting off the SR71 :S i applied it on top of sanding sealer, maybe i got the surface to smooth.
Looks ok on the fence though

Maybe it's incompatible with the sanding sealer (cellulose).