Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

sorry if this has been covered already, but I did a rcu search, which sucks.

this mainly applies to a plane thats fully sheeted. I know the fiberglass has the advantage of durability,
but also has a weight penalty. Monokote is hard to get it to stick, but offers lite weight. I've seen both
versions with incredible results. Also, I've seen one example (sorry no pic) where the person cut strips
of monokote to mimic the paneling, when done, the effect was awesome. for mine its getting glassed,
but I was thinking of tryingmonokote.so, what are your guys thoughts on this? thanks.

example of a monokoted P-40.

stang

My Feedback: (1)

For my 2 cents worth, I think plastic looks bad on a warbird. I'd spent the time on glassing and painting to get a better finish.
Plastic is ok on other planes I suppose but not warbirds.

THOR-RCU

My Feedback: (36)

I did a TF P-40 in Glass it does take more time with sanding but the finish you have at the end (:
When i was done the planes weight was a 1.5 pounds over the weight that it called fore... Go with glassing. That my two cents..

spaceworm

If you want the paneled effect, it seems you will need to use pieces of Monocote or use glass then Flitmetal or printers aluminum sheet to get the panels. If you are OK with lines to simulate the panels, then painting is an easier way to go. May I suggest the use of fibreglass or polyester cloth and water based polyurethane (WBU). These are a lot of threads on this later approach, and a search should bring them up. Good luck.

Sincerely, Richard

NCIS

A warbird with out glass isn't a true Warbird!!! After all the effort you take to make it perfect enough for film why screw yourself out of an eye catcher. Others will look at it if it is film and think it is an ARF. Puke

JMHO,

Barry

G-Pete

Done right (0.5 or 0.6oz cloth) there is a very little weight difference.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

G-Pete
well problem is I'm starting to freak myself out a little here. this is my first large size WarBird, and
only the 2nd kit I've done in 20 years. First kit was a Golden(?) P-38, the frame and sheeting turned
out A-1, but I really pooched it when it came to the silk & dope. it was a mess, I've read about every
website on proper glass techniques, but turning theory into practical is the hard part for me.

R8893

My Feedback: (20)

I have weighed test panels, and glass can be done at the same weight as monocoat. And if your model lasts longer than one day in the sun, the glassed model will still look good.

Warbird Man

My Feedback: (95)

If you want it to look right, you gotta paint it in the correct colors. Which means glassing it.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

WarBird Man,
well I'm not sure what you mean. but you can paint monokote.

R8893,
was that with .5 ounce cloth?

Roary m

My Feedback: (67)

Whether you paint or use film IMHO depends on how serious you want your ship to be taken and how much work you put into him underneath. I got into trouble here not long ago for mentioning that I thought Monokote was fine for TF kits, just blasphemy to some.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

well according to TF,they say useclear monokote then prime then paint. DuPont has an excellent tuturial
on how to make paint stick and last on film (plastics). its all in the primer.so its blasphemy to cover it in
film eh? makes me wonder if the same applies to those using wood and fibreglass to cover their bird that
was originally skinned in aluminum. hmmmm lol.

Warbird Man

My Feedback: (95)

I guess it depends on how nice you want it to look.

Yes you can paint monokote. That's how it was done in the old days. But.... A day in the sun and it wrinkles up like a prune. with the
paint eventually peeling off.

Glassing is not that hard to do. But if your dead set against it, I would use ultracote instead of monokote.

Better yet, if you want to use an iron on covering and then paint, I would use natural solartex before a plastic mylar covering.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

wrinkles? that I didn't know.. my Kyosho P-40 didn't have any wrinkles.. but not taking that chance
on this one.. glassing it is then, thanks.

grbaker

My Feedback: (29)

Film covering may not wrinkle right away, but it will eventually (and sooner than later)
Do yourself a favor and glass it.

Todd Jackson

My Feedback: (6)

If you know how to monokote its hard to tell {even wrinkles} wont show.NCIS I didn't know a warbird was glass.HAHA just a joke I thought they were metal....Glass will do better in the long run but I do have a Ziroli Bearcat in monkote that is 20 plus years old and still looks pretty good. Panel line and rivets on Monokote..
Good Luck Todd

jeffEE

My Feedback: (5)

Cover it in Silver or aluminimumumumn and then paint it. If it flakes off a bit, so much the beter.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

other then a good cleaning, whats the trick to getting monokote to stick w/o it wrinkleing later?

poheller

My Feedback: (34)

Like the other guy said you can paint the monokote. Here is 2 pictures the green one is the TF B25 ARF Stock and the other is a TF B25 ARF with Painted Monokote by Mike Barbee last year. it holds up and when he gest a wrinkle he uses the iron to iron it out.
Thanks PoHeller

Todd Jackson

My Feedback: (6)

Balsarite by coverite helps it stick good..

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

ask and recieve. thanks. the two pics above are pretty impressive, hard to believe they are not fibreglass.

Desertlakesflying

My Feedback: (28)

Glassed Birds. We're also going for scale and speed, so the glass helps with strength. The plain white one will be painted like Strega and the other is already painted like Voodoo.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

strength for acro's and those 100mph+ runs is a good thing. I plan on no more then 60mph
and nice scale manuevers.

Whistling Death

I vote for glass as well.
If you are going to take the time to paint the bird I'd would glass it first.
I painted my Hanger 9 Corsair and when the sun hit it the plane turned into an ugly duckling. I am building a TF Gaint Corsair and I will be glassing it so the paint job will be nice.

Experten109/40

My Feedback: (-1)

lots of conflicting data here. some say many years and no problems, others say a day in the sun
and problems. mabey the QC at those chinese factories aren't as good as some people think for
certain ARF's.