MarkGrabowski

Just checking to see what's the latest experience with Monokote... I know there were many who had issues with recent year's production runs having poor results..
Wanted to see what's the latest experience folks have had...

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

I bought 3 GP Venus planes last year and could never seem to get it to shrink. It would get hot, bubble, turn dark, but never shrink. No idea if what's on the planes is the same as what's in the roll.

I won't Monokote as I find Ultracote to be a far superior product. This is just my personal experience. Although just realized there may be a significant difference between a pre-covered plane and applying the stuff yourself.

woodie

Haven't used Monokote for years, switched to Ultracoat. However, I hear a lot of complaints at the flying field about Monokote. Not shrinking, etc.

Woodie

stuntflyr

I still use it, old or new. One thing about the new stuff is that it stops shrinking after a certain amount of heat and pulling. It's done. On ARF's it may be that the person covering it has gotten it to that point. I have two ARF's covered with Monokote and they still respond to heat when cleaning up the wrinkles. I have some Viet Nam ARF's that use Orocover and they respond like Monokote used to, by shrinking nicely with a bunch of heat.
 I'm not that good at film covering but so far I haven't switched to anything else.
Chris...

MarkGrabowski

Hmm, that's too bad as MK has some cool colors. Say, is TowerKote relabled UC or MK?

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Tower is affiliated with Monokote (Towerkote, monokote, econokote). Ultracote would be Horizon.

anders12

I used Monokote to cover my Wind S Pro last spring. There was a big difference between different colours:

Missile red: felt like "old" Monokote. God shrinking and easy handling overall.

Cub yellow and Orange: not quite as in old days but OK.

Royal blue: a bit more difficult but could be shrunk, but not very much.

Jet white: very difficult to use. One had to use very low temperature to shrink, otherwise the film just bubbled and expanded. I managed by streching it in place.

The rolls where purchased in sweden. Hopefully the white rolls where old stock.

Anders J
Sweden

scigs30

My Feedback: (8)

To be honest I think I am the only one who does not notice a difference between Monokote from the late 80s to now. Of course I haven't built RC since the early 90s until recently. Monokote was never super easy and took some work to get a nice finish. I just used 2 rolls of Cub yellow on a Electricub and it went on fine. I put it on as tight as I can get it, then shrink it with a heat gun. I remember back in the late 80s putting many heat holes in my finish when I first started out. Heating Monokote is real tricky, not enough and the wrinkles get worse, too much an you have a hole. I carefully watch what the Monokote is doing when I heat it. First it turns color, then wrinkles, and in a blink of an eye the winkles start coming out and that is when I pull away the gun. Trust me this happens pretty quick. It almost sounds like there is a quality control issue between rolls of Monokote. I just used Ultracote for the first time and I really liked it. I am still working on preventing the seams from pulling away and a gummy mess when I trim the Ultracote. Thanks to this forum, I am getting the help I need. The things I do like about Monokote over Ultracote is the seams with Monokote are smoother and they don't pull apart. I can tell you that I was surprised when I saw the Ultracote shrink, nothing like Monokote. You get a bad wrinkle with Monokote you have to recover or live with it, but not Ultracote. I never remember Monokote shrinking like Ultracote does. Any way when it is all said and done, both coverings look great, but Ultracote is probably easier to work with. Afer I am done with my Herr Cub, I will start on my Midwest Aero Lectric build and I am torn between Ultracote or Monokote.
Here is my Great Planes Cub covered with Monokote Cub Yellow


And here is my Herr Cub with Ultracote Cub Yellow