Originally Posted by
jester_s1
I've done a repair like this before. It can be done in one piece of covering. The trick is to use your heat gun for application and stretch the covering at the same time you are shrinking it. Iron the covering down without shrinking it on the flat part of the wing, stopping where the curve at the leading edge starts to tighten. Then you can pull on the covering at the front to stretch it as you use the heat gun to activate the adhesive. That will pull most of the wrinkles out of that annoying section between the spar and leading edge on the wingtip. Then use the same pulling technique to adhere the covering to the edge of the wingtip by wrapping the covering around and pulling from the bottom while heating the top. You'll need to aim the heat away from the first seam you made, so you'll need a glove to protect your hand. Once it's stuck all the way around, you can keep using the heat gun to wrap the covering around the radius of the wingtip. The last step, if needed, is to use the iron at shrinking temperature to shrink out any looseness that remains over the open structure.
Jester,
I'm trying to envision what your describing in my mind. I have stretched MonoKote to apply it multiple times, and one thing I know for certain is that when you stretch it you distort it. If I stretch the covering towards the leading edge while its tacked to the flat area of the wing the seam from the new piece of covering will distort, and no longer be straight. It's like stretching pin striping you can stretch it, but the stress on the material makes its line uneven. Maybe you could do it as I'm certainly no expert, but I believe the real issue here is the amount of shrink I have to work with. The leading edge taper is tight with a radius bend as well. I thought even pulling the covering diagonally towards the leading edge while being heated would work, but I simply can't produce the amount of shrink required to tighten the covering, while pulling, and trying to keep the covering from attaching itself to the wing to soon.
Honestly it should never be this difficult. It could very well be my technique, but judging from all the hundreds of posts on how difficult this covering is to work with I might as well try Ultra Coat. I've spent at least 6 hours trying to accomplish two wingtips, and could have literally built a new wing in that amount of time. I think MonoKote is fine for flat surfaces, and typical wingtips where the compound curve isn't quite as extreme. I had no problems applying it to other surfaces, it's simply not modeler friendly in this case.
A roll of covering for $16 is well worth my time, and effort to see if it's a matter of skill, or product.