First Experience With Gampi Tissue

The fine art of those finishing touches
kittyfritters
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:13 pm

First Experience With Gampi Tissue

Postby kittyfritters » Sat Aug 12, 2017 8:04 pm

I had heard of Gampi tissue. It's supposed to be lighter than Esaki but with good wet strength. Some competition rules for stick and tissue classes actually forbid using it. Aside from this, I was happy with Esaki and never thought about using gampi.

One of my customers has been competing successfully with my No-Cal kits. He placed an order, then called me and asked if I could print the skins on Gampi instead of Esaki. I said that I could try if he was willing to pay the extra cost of the tissue. He said no problem. A little quick research revealed that gampi tissue is made of fiber from the gampi tree. Esaki is made from fiber from the paper mulberry tree. There are many weights and types of gampi tissue, mostly used by artists. Gampi tissue for model airplanes is made by Mr. Esaki.

Now I had to get some. I checked out several web sites and found that Volare Products actually had some in stock. I gave them a call and asked George how ink jet printing worked on gampi tissue. His reply was, "I don't know anyone who has done it. Let me know how it works." So I placed an order.

When it arrived, very carefully packaged, I decided to print a test sample. It's thinner than the Esaki and the ink penetrates it more easily. The trick is to adjust the print quality carefully to get the best possible coverage without the ink soaking through and sticking the tissue to the carrier sheet. You can't get the opacity that you can on Esaki but it still looks good. I proceeded to print the production skins for the order. I was thinking that this stuff doesn't seem that much lighter than the Esaki while I was sticking a sheet down to a carrier sheet. At that point the air conditioner came on, the vent was 25 feet away, and the sheet I was about to work with lifted up and wafted across the room. "Ok", I thought, "Maybe it is that light." The order was delivered and I'm waiting to see how well he does with it.

Anyway, instead of using my well worn P-36 and F2A prototypes in the Pearl Harbor No-Cal contest this year I am thinking of building new ones using gampi tissue.

More later.
Ubi sublata omnia praecepta legis

AnYun
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2016 12:41 pm

Re: First Experience With Gampi Tissue

Postby AnYun » Sun Aug 27, 2017 12:40 pm

Interesting to know that one can print on Gampi tissue, I have not seen it done before.

kittyfritters
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:13 pm

Re: First Experience With Gampi Tissue

Postby kittyfritters » Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:57 pm

The experimentation goes further. I just purchased a new printer that uses (supposedly) waterproof ink. The object being able to print shrinkable skins. I'll post the results.
Ubi sublata omnia praecepta legis


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