Surface and bulk texture measurements have been carried out on highly aligned NiFe tapes, suitable for use as coated conductor substrates. Data from small-area electron backscatter diffraction measurements are compared with those from bulk x-ray analysis in the development of a two-dimensional percolation model, and the two are shown to give very similar results. No evidence of grain-to-grain correlation is found. The model is then developed to assess how the properties of a superconducting layer grown epitaxially on buffered tapes will depend on parameters such as sample size, grain size and the extent of grain alignment.