Back in the 80's I developed this method of applying plastic film. Mostly using Monokote at the time. At that time Top Flite did not even have a hot glove covering tool. The heat gun was only to shrink material over open bays. They did not recommend applying Monokote in this way. In fact when I demonstrated it to Top Flite at a WRAM show back then to "complain" about some rolls of covering not shrinking as easily as the "good" rolls and not producing as nice a finish I was told that if I applied it with just an iron as recommended that it would work just fine. Of course with this method wrinkles rarely appeared and the finish looked better. Very few people applied plastic covering that well back then. Now it is pretty common practice and lots of plastic film covered models look really good. Most covering jobs use the piece method with a small overlap. Back in the 80's it was trim colors over solid covered bases.
Not sure when I wrote this but it was a whie ago
Found it with a search of the Internet. But this is the basic method I have used since the 80's. With an added comment from Dean Pappas. Of course now we can use the cutter instead of hand cutting the pieces in this manner. I cut them on a sheet of glass. In fact I still have the patterns for my Brushfire, Atlanta, Desire, and probably several others
If I can add my 2 cents worth on monokoting. I have won 4 past WRAM shows with monokoted pattern planes. Forget about applying monokote over monokote! Pinholes, soap, chemicals are totally unneccessary. To acheive that showroom finish, you still have to go back to the basics, surface preparation. Protect the wood during the building phase and repair all dings as they occur. Final sanding needs to be done with 200 followed by400 followed by 600 grade paper, the wood should be as smooth as the proverbial baby's well you know. I fully agree with piecing your pattern together using about 3/16 inch overlaps. Yes the base material can be cut on the surface of the wing but I prefer to make a pattern out of brown paper, the stuff you mask the plane with for painting. The pattern is taped to the monokote and cut with a sharp blade and straight edge. Expect to go through several dozen blades to cover a plane!! Place small pencil marks on the wood to line up your piece. After tack ragging both the wood and monokote, put the piece into position. My method is to use the iron to tack the edges down and then use the gun and a wad of cotton to seal the rest. You need to leave an open edge to blow the air out. A little practice is required to perfect the technique, but basically start at the far end from the open edge, heat until shrunk and rub lightly with the cotton wad while still hot, pushing the air toward the open end, you will see some of the wood pattern show through but you must press it down (lightly) to adhere it. If you just shrink the monikote you will really get that showroom finish but it will wrinkle. Continue to the open edge, which ideally would be the trailing edge, but sometimes must be the leading edge or wing tip.In that case make sure you have plenty of overlap and pull and heat with the gun and then finish with the iron. This edge must be cut on the wing. As long as you use a straight edge and very sharp #11 blade with just the weight of the knife, you will not cut into the wood or underlying monokote.The trim colors are also made from patterns and adhered to the edges of the base monokote. This does take more time but the results are worth it. As anadditional benifit, you get very little bubbling or wrinkles later on, and any that do appear can usually be reattached with the gun and cotton,unless you trapped air under the monokote, in which case a pin hole would need to be made. I have an Atlanta in my basement, covered with dust but no wrinkles. I am not even sure what year this is from! Try it you will likeit.
-Stuart Chale
Hello Scott, Do just as Stu tells 'ya. That ATLANTA *has* to date from '86, and I think I remember it at DCRC, that year. The way stu told you to steam roller the air out witha cotton wad works (even for me). After watching his technique at a club meeting, I did an LA-1 wing that is now eleven years old. I just gave the plane away, but the wing has no wrinkles. The planes second stab was quickly covered the "normal" way: it was a prune. -Dean Pappas