covering tips
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covering tips
Hello, I have never covered a plane before but I am about to try. I was wondering exactly how I should do it. I am using ultracote and was needing to know how to place trim work on the wing etc. Are you suppose to cover the wing completely and then just cut out whatever you are going to put on the wing, and then just heat it up until it sticks to the cover? Pleaes help
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covering tips
I would keep things as simple as you can the first time. It will likely come out better and you will learn by the experience and be ready for more complex "tricks" the next time.
Keep in mind when reading through the various threads that ultracoat works different than monokote. Keep your temperature fairly low when sticking the covering down. Then you can warm the iron and shrink it on. I don't use a heat gun much with ultracoat because it gets very hot and is hard to control. With ultracoat I have much better success using a regular iron with a sock, even for shrinking the covering on the wings.
First cover the small pieces- wing tips, ends of ailerons etc. before applying the big panels. This will help make sure that you don't end up with any exposed wood. And sharp knife blades will make trimming much easier.
It is easy to add stripes up to about 1" wide just by ironing them on after the plane is covered and shrunk. It is much harder to apply bigger stripes or panels because air bubbles will want to collect between the covering layers.
For complex schemes covering open panels (like on the wings) I cut out and join the different covering colors using a trim iron on a glass table, then iron the finished panel onto the wing and shrink it on. This works very well but it may be a bit much to try on a first attempt.
Good luck!
Keep in mind when reading through the various threads that ultracoat works different than monokote. Keep your temperature fairly low when sticking the covering down. Then you can warm the iron and shrink it on. I don't use a heat gun much with ultracoat because it gets very hot and is hard to control. With ultracoat I have much better success using a regular iron with a sock, even for shrinking the covering on the wings.
First cover the small pieces- wing tips, ends of ailerons etc. before applying the big panels. This will help make sure that you don't end up with any exposed wood. And sharp knife blades will make trimming much easier.
It is easy to add stripes up to about 1" wide just by ironing them on after the plane is covered and shrunk. It is much harder to apply bigger stripes or panels because air bubbles will want to collect between the covering layers.
For complex schemes covering open panels (like on the wings) I cut out and join the different covering colors using a trim iron on a glass table, then iron the finished panel onto the wing and shrink it on. This works very well but it may be a bit much to try on a first attempt.
Good luck!