shd3920

If the bright yellow and apple green are transparent as well then the blue will show through.
If the yellow and green are solid (non-transparent) colors then all should be fine.
I always layer the secondary colors over the base color.

liftdump

That's a tough question.... that kinda gets into ones own technique. I personally try to avoid putting covering over covering, unless its trim stripes or thin pieces etc... When making a design that would require a large area of covering over covering I either cut it out on my sliding glass door using windex OR piece it together on the wing with some overlap depending on the wing type and design. The butterfly wing does not have much support (such as leading edge sheeting) for the latter method. I have always seemed two colors together with monokote overlapping about a 1/4."

There are numerous videos on youtube that would help. Just search "monokote covering plane"

Good color choices - everyone seems to get yellow in there somewhere.

-M

Nergall

Small pieces layer well. However, with large pieces, it's very difficult to avoid air bubbles in between. There are a variety of methods for working around this.

1. Do the best you can and then poke all the airholes after the fact. Of course, sometimes you get a horde of small bubbles...

2. You can pre-puncture the underlying layers with small pinholes? (Haven't tried this one, but it sounds like it should work.)

3. You can pre-assembled pieces on glass with a small overlap.

4. You can cover smaller sections (for example - the last two rib bays for a wing tip highlight), so that the layering is minimized. I like this one because it's the easiest. However, it only works with simple patterns.

ejam

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Well, I may have to re-think my design. What I wanted to do would have larg pieces over the transparent blue. I am thinking that I may need a large piece of glass to lay out the blue, then cut the blue out where the yellow will go, and have it over lap 1/4 ".

Quigleywins

Good luck, I will keep away from giving advice I still need lessons and lots of luck to get MK to work. I do know I can have moor on the floor than the wing at times and the floor looks better than some of my wing attempts. Thank goodness for other brands of covering. Even if they fix what it so I can use it I will never go back due to the original investment I have made in setting up the stock of colours I have. Hope to see your Photos of the finished item this weekend. Yours as always Paul T
This is a Photo of Me after fighting the last seasons Bushfires for 4 hours having just saved my house and all the models and gear. I used the bike to ride back in after bringing all my dog out.

ejam

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Quigleywins, I hope your home is ok. Ive seen on the news about the dust storm and drout. I pray for rain for all of you down under!

I dout that I will be that close to covering this weekend, I find myself finding more to sand and make straight each time I go to work on it. But I am making some progress.

Quigleywins

I hope that you don't sand to much and end up with a wing span of 70 inches. Yours Paul T. PS the dust storms are !000 KM from here Its wet now.

ejam

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Well I have made good progress over the weekend. Saturday was not a good day for flying, so I spent that time working on the Butterfly. I got the servos, fuel tank installed. Finished the top hatch, installed the wood windshild blocks and joined the outer wing panels. Sanded evreything down and fuel proofed with doop again.

Still need to install pushrods and landing gear, then cover. Looking like I just might be able to madian it this weekend!

ejam

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Today I set the tail on and got it straight and marked lines for covering/gluing. And again, I was looking over the tail, and felt that it was alittle on the weak side. So tonight I am going to add some support ribs to it. I took some pictures lastnight. Will try to post them tonight.

liftdump

That's about where I am. The build is done....just inspecting, gluing, and sanding. As far as mods go...I am going to add three or four sheer webs to the outboard wing panels. I will try and get some pics on soon.

My wing was 1/8th to big for the saddle so I had to trim the rear window slightly, came out nice -glad that was over with. I didnt think to trial fit into place when I was gluing the windows on! [&:]

ejam

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Well I ended up with everything lining up perfect. The wing sat in the sattle nice and snug, the wings laid out on plans are even and right on the lines. My problem is going to be covering. I started the tail today and have some rinkles. I may be able to heatgun them out.
I have desided to go with bright yellow ultracote on top of fuse, tail and strips on under wing. Transparent blue ultracote on sides of fuse, elev. blue, rudder blue, bottom of fuse yellow and about 5in. yellow on wing tips.The wing will have yellow at the root ribs where sheeting is, then blue all the way till tip of wing where yellow is. Thought that might help make it easy on me with nice straight cuts. I think my son wants to add some army or navy sticker as well since it is his plane!

ejam

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Here is a picture of it as of this past weekend. Tail is coverd and strating the fuse.

Mode One

Back on page one I refered to a wing folding on a Butterfly I built. To clarify, the failure occured at the polyhedral break and was caused by excessive wing flutter. The airplane was powered by an O.S. .25. Although larger then required, full power was only used when climbing, the rest of the time the engine was at 1/2 or so throttle.

liftdump

I was surprised to see no sheer webs for the outboard panel. After reading your page one post I decided to add some in for sure. I used 1/16 balsa and the weight change will be negligible, but the strength much better -I did this earlier today and it really stiffened the Poly -wing up. Thanks for your post!! pictures soon. putting balsarite on tonight! Outta town again soon- will start covering next week.

I had a friend who also had an OS .25, never had any problem,s flew it around in a manner similar to what you said.

-M

ejam

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Picture update

Quigleywins

Looking real good

ejam

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Hey, thanks. Im getting a little better with covering as I go along. Yes temp is your friend. It is very important knowing what temp is. On my iron, there is no numbers, so I used my digt. therm. to find the right 220 for Ultracote. Then after it has all adheired to wood, set temp higher,about 235 and run over again to take wrinkles out.

My covering is not perfect, but is getting better!

I am thinking about adding some web pieces to the outer wing panel, and maybe sheet the two outer rib areas to make it easier to apply the yellow covering at the tip.

liftdump

Looks good -I like the trans blue!!! Ok, I have some pics now....
Gonna put balsarite on tonight -I'm ready to start covering.

I chose to put in the antenna guide tube.
I added some sheer webs to the poly panels.
I put in a refuel valve due to the location of my cylinder head against my engine mount. I will not be able to get my fingers in there to pull the fuel line off.
I used a four oz tank
Added 1/4oz of weight to the outer most inboard wing panel W4 wing rib to balance the wing longitudinally before covering.

ejam

My Feedback: (1)

Cool, looks like we will be finishing up close to the same time. I am throwing the idea around to add sheeting and wed to the outer most part of the wings. But then I may not finishing her till late sunday.

Does the web panels help out that much?

liftdump

They help quite a bit, and at really no weight cost. Also only took me 15 minutes. You can see the few I added to the poly panels in the pic from behind. I am traveling next week so mine wont see covering till a week from this Saturday. I am thinking about some transparent colors now after seeing how nice your rudder looked.

ejam

My Feedback: (1)

Well I have been working away on the butterfly this evening. Doesnt look like it though

I took my yungest son to a hobby shop that we have never been to till today. Its an hour away, but well worth the trip. I was amazed at how much rc aircraft planes and supplies he had. I will be doing most all my hobby shopping at his store, its a mom and pop owned shop! And the owner took his time to make sure I had what I needed, very nice people!

Here is an update pic.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Good color selection!

Murdoc

Looking good! I just love the looks of the butterfly! How is it to build? I really wan to buy one, they are on sale at my lhs. I have built a dyaflite daydream, it flies very good and the build was so much fun. But I dont want to throw myself into a build that is beyond my level of building skill, so a little report on that one would be nice
Here is a pic of my daydream

liftdump

You will not have any problems with this build if you already have one kit under your belt.

There are a few steps that take some extra patience but nothing difficult. I was not impressed with the quality of wood in my kit. I had knots on my fuse sides and unfortunately due to the warp of both sides I had no choice but to put the knot on the outside. My plans were a little yellowed around the edges. I think I got an older kit. This is one airplane that has been on my build list for a long time. Glad I am finally adding another to the Butterfly population out there!!! MONOKOTE NEXT WEEK -WHOOOOHOO

ejam

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Murdoc,

The Butterfly is a fun build. There are a couple steps that were questionable, but that could just be me. All my wood was of very good quality. I have only built 3 other models befor this one, and they all were small scale Guillows kits. Everything matched up to the plans exactly. The only thing that I dont like is the landing gear. I will probably change the landing gear to the aluminum type that bolt on from the bottom.

I say go for it and buy one, I will probably get another one and add lights to fly at dusk and try a .20 or .25 on it.

What is the price at your lhs? I bought mine at tower hobby for 69.00