Time to cover up that naked wood! I've covered a few planes over the past few years and used a bunch of different brands of covering. One of my favorites is the lightweight covering I get from Mountain Models. It sticks well, shrinks well, and looks good. Some people think it sticks too well to itself when you're installing it, but that's a small price to pay in my opinion.
To use the covering material you need a few specialty tools. First is the iron used to tack it down. Many people also use it to shrink the covering, but I prefer the hot air gun for that. Along with the iron you should also invest a few bucks into a thermometer and covering sock.
This is my preferred method for shrinking covering on large areas, like wings. On closed areas like sheet fuselages or wings I'll use the iron, set hot enough to stick the material down, but not hot enough to shrink it. That's kind of the key with the shrink covering - temperature. Each brand has their own temp range, so be aware of it.
The instructions with the covering should include details like temps for sticking vs shrinking. Test scrap balsa with it to be safe, it makes a big difference in the final product.
First parts to get covered on this plane are the ailerons. Like the wing, these pieces are pretty flimsy until they're covered, at which time they are a lot more rigid.
3M makes "Blenderm" tape, which works great for hinging surfaces like ailerons, rudders, etc. It's not invisible, but when you have thin surfaces too small to easily use mechanical hinges it's a good alternative. I've had this stuff on some pretty aerobatic planes over the past few years and have found it to work perfectly, with zero lift.
With the ailerons done, the wing was next. I haven't used the transparent film much in the past and was waiting for a good candidate to do some large areas. I'm building this plane for my dad, and he has no idea what it looks like yet, much less what colors are being used, so I get to have some fun with it.
A little extra shrinking is needed in the corners, but the overall look is pretty good. On nice smooth laser cut panels the transparent film shows off the construction. Also note that the ribs each have a small hole laser cut in front and behind the spar. I think that Mountain Models added these to allow airflow between the ribs. Without air holes you get trapped pockets of air which balloon up when you are trying to shrink the film. This allows an easy escape for otherwise trapped air.
The wing is held down with rubber bands, allowing some "give" if the plane cartwheels in some day. It might make the difference between minor and major repair. If it were being built for myself I'd change it to a bolt-on wing and take my chances.
All green would be overkill, so the fuselage is getting treated to silver film. The nose will end up green, but I'm waiting on that until the motor is installed in case I need to do any minor surgery to the nose to make the motor fit. I'm thinking of adding a little pinstripe of third color just to finish it off. But this is as far as I'll take it for now. Once the motor and ESC arrive I figure I'll need only a few hours to finish it up so it's ready for a maiden.