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Hi Dave I generally glass anything that has balsa on it, then paint. I have tried a few cheaper ways that work also.
One is i have used curtain shear material found at local walmart on sale for $2.00 a yard. Then used water based poly and finally painted with tremclad. Have tried just painting with tremclad, problem with that is the smallest scratch in the paint opens the balsa to the water. Balsa is not wood, i'm positive its some kind of sponge material when it gets close to h2o. Have tried Ultracote and monocote. This works well if the seams are sealed and glued and your carefull in and out of water. This stuff is easy to punture also.
Best i've tried to date is the regular poly fiberglass resin for boats found in ctc etc. with the 1/2 or 3/4 oz hobby cloth. this stuff wears great. ie water, snow, ice, grass. Downside is you cannot work with it in the house and it is hard as rock to sand. I did a 30" set for a 40 size floatplane i flew for a few years. Had in the neighbourhood of 300 flights on this plane and never a problem with the floats other than needing to be repainted a few times. 1/3rd of the flights were from snow.
The floats i'm currently working on for my beaver are covered with 3/4 oz cloth and z-poxy. I'm going to paint with tremcad.
Brian
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