[gafftaper]

First off let me suggest you purchase "The Stock Scenery Construction Handbook." It's got answers and sketches to help you design all the basic scenery elements.


As for my trick with hiding seems.

First, dutchman technique is really only for use on muslin covered flats, and done correctly it works perfectly. I also don't like the look of paint on luan covered flats as well as muslin covered flats. So I build hybrid flats. I take a 1/4 inch luan covered hard flat and then cover it with muslin like a soft flat. I get the strength and durability of a hard flat combined with the ease of muslin. Don't like the surface of your flats, just peel the muslin off and replace it.
I think it looks great.

The only trick is you have to get your muslin really well and evenly saturated when your are first sizing it. If not it dries unevenly and sticks to the luan in someplaces and bubles up in others... so thin out your sizing material a little bit extra.