bigox 25

how do you get that seamless look when covering a plane on the wings and body? i use ultracote but all i ever do is patch thte wings. now i have a whole sig somthin extra to cover and i want it to look nice
btw got any good color scemes?

nickj

Practice, practice, practice.

Whole books have been written about covering, but some basics:

Use a very sharp x-acto blade. You'll probably go through a couple.

Know the proper temeperature settings for tacking, stetching, and shrinking, using your particular iron and covering film.

Cover the bottom surfaces first (bottom of the wing, bottom of the fuse) so the overlaps (seams) are mostly out of sight.

Spend most of your time on the edges. The SSE has some sharp corners (alierons, tail), so you'll need to do a lot of stretching. Wing tips are flat, so you'll need to do a lot of slicing of the overhanging edges

RCKen

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RCU member MinnFlyer has done some great how-to articles and videos on covering. check them out as they will go a long way to getting you started.

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=67]Minnflyer Covering how-to[/link]
[link=http:////67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov1.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video, part 1[/link]
[link=http://67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov2.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video. part 2[/link]
[link=http://67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov3.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video, part 3[/link]

I hope this helps

Ken

bigox 25

thanks i think that will help a lot

MinnFlyer

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BTW, With a little luck I am going to cover my Ultra Sport 40 this weekend. If and when I do, I plane to shoot the whole covering process and render it down to a few videos that will be more "In Depth".

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Mike,
Cool, will be glad to see those videos. Let me know how the US 40 flys. I have a buddy at our field that is building one too, and I'm interested in how different/similar it is to the US 60/1000. I know one thing different, he said that the 40 has an actual cowl in it. Can you imagine that??? A cowl!!! No carving huge blocks of balsa down!!!!!

Ken

horace315

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here is a post i answered with some photos of a se i did.hope this helps.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_33...tm.htm#3324839

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Ken, this is my lightened version of the original US40 that I'm working on, not the US40+

Almost ready for Covering!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Mike,
I'm considering building a US 1000 this winter. Do you think that what you did to lighten the US 40 can be applied to the US 1000 too? It would be nice to trim some weight off of it. I'm going to put a YS 120 on it, so every little bit will help.

Ken

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I would imagine that it would help - But making ANY changes can result in ruining a good thing. The original US was designed (As you know) before the advent of 3-D.

It was built STRONG, not light, so it was a fairly heavy plane, but that gave it some excellent flight characteristics.

So I'm hoping that the mods I made will help, but till I fly it, I won't know if I made it better, worse, or just different. (I'll be sure to let you know!)

The main things I did were to build up the tail feathers (And make the control surfaces larger). I also cut out the rib centers, and I used 1/8" balsa "Girders" in place of shear webs (That can be seen in the pic above), and I cut lightening holes in the fuse sides, and used 1/16" sheeting (instead of 3/32) on the wing and turtle deck.

Also, since both of the previous 2 I built required tail weight, I placed the rudder and elevator servos in the tail (You can see the rudder servo cutout in the pic)

So all in all, it's hard to say if the US 1000 will benefit from the same changes. If it needs to be lightened, then it probably will, but then, You're the only one who will know if you like it better that way

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Mike,
Well, I definitely don't want to fly 3D. Just looking to have a little more power if I make the plane lighter. But as you say, it may not be worth the extra effort. From everybody I've asked the YS 120 has plenty of cahones to pull the US 1000 around. Who knows, we'll see.

Please keep my posted on how your efforts here go when you get around to flying it. Do you think you'll get it in the air before you have to shut down for the winter?

Ken

MinnFlyer

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Sheee... Um, I mean "Shucks" I sure hope so!

I wish you lived closer, it would be nice to have an extra set of hands to shoot that video!

Safebet

My Feedback: (12)

Hi RCKen and MinnFlyer: I am getting ready to cover my first plane, a Contender, with Ultracote.

I have reviewed the Covering Basics - Parts 2 and 3, but I am not able to get a link on Part 1.

Could you please get me the link. I have searched all videos in the RC Universe library and cannot find
the videos. I think they were done in 2004 and the list only goes back to 2005.

When I click on the link, part 1, nothing happens. Parts 2 and 3 I have saved to my
video playlist.

You guys are so helpful and I read your threads without fail. Thank you both for being
such an asset to this forum. Your tips and hints are very helpful.

Thank you

Jim Vines
AMA 821369

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Jim,
Sorry it took me a bit to answer you. The last few days have been kind of crazy for me. here's the links to all of the covering resources that Minn has done'


[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=67]Minnflyer Covering how-to[/link]
[link=http://67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov1.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video, part 1[/link]
[link=http://67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov2.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video. part 2[/link]
[link=http://67.18.81.100/rcuvideos/magazine/reviews/352/cov3.wmv]Minnflyer Covering video, part 3[/link]

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

One of these days I'm going to get around to putting the Stars on my UltraSport and finish up the BIG covering article I've started working on!