Hey guys, This is my first covering job. Plane is almost complete, just needs servos installed and aeleroins hooked up! please let me know what ya think

p.s. this covering just came to my mind as kinda like a warbird, and i hadnt seen any "wannabe" four star warbirds so here it is.





srry bout second pic dont know what happend

37 views and not a post... i know theres a lot of wrinkles but i didnt thin it was that bad

It looks fine..good job, but I hope you have just stuck that rudder in place for the photo. If not that is wayyy too much gap.

WCB

Nitro,

It is hard to see in the pics you posted. Don't forget, even after you cover it, you can take your blow gun to take out some of the wrinkles. What brand of covering did you use? Looks like a great job for the first time. You'll find it gets easier and easier the more you do. Take pride in it, I know I did with my first one.....many, many, moons ago!

And as WCB noted, the rudder gap needs to be tightened! If you've glued your hinges, your going to have to remove them and re-hinge, Gap should only be about 1/16".

What motor you sticking up front? If you haven't already, make sure you fuel proof the bare wood up front too.

Ya done good, be proud!

Gary

Not bad at all, especially for a 1st covering job.

Couple of things:

1. Take care of the gap in the rudder. If the hinges are already glued, you will need to relocate them. DO NOT USE THE SAME SLOTS AGAIN, the CA in the slots will prevent the new hinges from getting a good bond.

2. The judicious use of a heat gun will remove the wrinkles. Be VERY CAREFUL around seams as they will pull/lift and watch the temperature. If you are not careful with the temp you can burn/blow a hole in the covering. For those areas near seams (within 1/2" - 3/4" ) I would use the iron instead, just jack the temperature up a bit.

Looks pretty good man..I wouldnt know about covering myself as i am a newbie still pre-covering phase, but i am absorbing all i can from people here. And seeing another newbie having at er' is encouraging. I will be aquiring the help and hands of as many as i can(mostly family--Bro and Dad) for this step as i feel that it will help me out alot. Show us some shots of this baby in flight once you get it going. Peace--Nathaniel

Here is mine, I was happy with it. Not too happy about the "matching" paint I was suppose to have bought for the cowl.

OK nitro, I'll fess up I was one of the 37 views As others mentioned a heat gun could do wonders, maybe it was the camera but the leading edge looks all pitted like you just put the dark covering on over the gray and tacked it down.
The stripes look great, the first time I covered a plane I had to do it Three or Four times before I had the nerve to take it to the field where others could see it.[:-] Your first attempt is light years better than mine was.
gp300, maybe you need a lighter colored primer.

yea the leading edge was really hard for me, it seemd like no matter what angle i put it on or how hard i pulled i could just not get it to stretch out enough. O well thats why im gettin a heat gun for xmas

Hi nitrobasher: I don't know whether you used monocote or ultracote. I suspect monocote. Whatever, on the wrinkles, just take a pin, sharpest you can find and put a hole in each wrinkle. Aim your heat gun (when you get it) at the leading edge toward the wrinkle, hold for a second (just a second) and then fan the heat gun up and over the wing to just past the leading edge stripe, go back to the leading edge holding the gun perpendicular to the leading edge and go up and over again, keeping the heat gun about 1 to 1/1/2 inches from the covering. Pick up the gun about a inch, go back to leading edge and repeat. Use a fan motion. On the wrinkles on the top of the fuse behind the canopy, hold the gun about 1 1/2 inches above the wrinkles for a second or so and start waving the gun back and forth in a fanning motion (about two inch strokes) across the wrinkles. With a little practice, you will see that the wrinkles just begin to disappear.

You did a good job for the first one. Make no apologies. If you did not have a heat gun, you were handicapped.

Take care, and go have fun.

Whoa![X(]

Well now that you've got that 1st covering job out of the way.....

Be sure and get someone to look the plane over for you real good. Make sure you havent got any warps in your wings and to make sure everything is straight and true. Doesnt really matter what it looks like if its well balanced and properly assembled it should fly ok. And you can always go back years from now and admire that 1st covering job...

You can get those wrinkles out with your iron too. I dont even use a heat gun, all I use is an iron and I have no wrinkles in any of my covering jobs. Just ease the heat up a little at a time and you will see the wrinkle get better when you start getting hot enough. When you get hot enough to see a small change, just keep easing the heat up and carefully making passes over the wrinkle and when you get hot enough the wrinkle will suddenly go away as you make a nice smooth slow pass over it. Just start too cool and work up, if you get too hot the covering will melt through instantly. Its a fine line and once you get hot enough to remove those tough wrinkles you will melt through if you sit in one place too long.

Next time try to lay your covering on as smooth as possible and only use heat just warm enough to melt the glue and make it stick but not shrink. You dont want to distort the covering until it is almost completly down and then stretch it evenly using heat only. I try to wrok from the middle of the wing surface in all directions and just tack it down as tightly as possible without stretching it and try not to stick it down too hard on the spars. Then crank the heat up a little at a time and go over and over and over, gradually easing the heat up. I try not to stick anything except the leading and trailing edges down tight until I feel pretty sure that the covering isnt going to have any twists on it.

The only place you should have to pull and stretch monokote type covering is on compound curves like a wingtip or around the cowl area.

Wrinkles come with age, and I have more than my share! Using iron-on coverings, and getting the wrinkles out is a learned skill. One I have spent years and years trying to perfect., with limited success. Hence, my main reason for buying an ARF.

Your first iron-on covering looks better than mine did! I had been using silk and dope for years, with some pretty good results. It took nearly a year (silked three models during that time) of my wife threatening to murder me for 'stinking up the new house', before I tried monokote a second time.

One of the more difficult tasks is putting a trim color over your primary. You didn't say if the black is iron-on or sticky trim. Please comment on this so the guys with skill can offer specific hints.

My first covering job, as shown here, was fairley easy to do. If you use abit of common sense, and think ahead of whats going to happen, its hard to get any wrinkles. I have non because I took my time, thought ahead, and I used the highest setting on my iron, so everything stretched really good..

heres what I did to the bottom of my wing.

You did fine, especially for your first time.

When you get your heat gun be aware that you can burn holes in the covering. If you hold it in one place too long the covering will melt.

The good news is that if that happens or if you punch a hole in the covering accidentaly, Monokote is super simple to patch.

Don't try to make it perfect. I have been doing this for a long time and have airplanes with wrinkles in the wing tips. I just live with it! You have something to be proud of.

The trick to momocote is to STRETCH it as tight as you can in all directions, don't just lay it on a surface and iron it down. iron a spot in the middle of the leading edge, then PULL the monocote tight and tack the end of the leading edge, and do the same to the other side- keep doint this to all edges- little tacks and stretch and smooth as much of the wrinkles out as you can. You can reposition the tacks as you stretch out the covering, and once you get it all stretched out as much as you can, you can iron down the seams, and then progress to other areas like the rib caps and so on. I don't iron the whole thing down, just the edges and keep everything as tight as possible. Then , just go over lightly with a heat gun to tighten it up tight as a drum. lots of other tricks on applying this stuff, but with practice you can get a covering job to look like you painted it on.

Your fist attempt looks pretty good. Real close to a color scheme I did a few months ago. My first covering job took me a while to do, but it was worth it in the end. Unfortunately back then (18 year ago) I didn't know about CG and reversed ailerons, so my covering job only lasted about 5 seconds from takeoff.

For future reference, to get an EXACT paint match you need to have it custom blended. Auto paint is excellent, but $$$$$$.

I use latex (about $10 per QUART ) and after the latex has cured, clear coat it with water base polyurethane. Definitely good to 10% nitro and I have read reports of no problems with 15% nitro.

I'm going to take a guess here. Did you use lustercote? It looks like you used missle red monocote, and true red lustercote. Two different colors. I used missle red lustercote on my cowl, and it matches the missle red monocote perfectly!

here's a pic of my fourstar I built.. it was my first real covering job. (also did the wing on a duraplane, but I don't think that counts...) it came out pretty nice but I made a mistake and left the bottom all black (thinking it looks black in the air anyway..." so I have added neon yellow and red trim on the bottom of it to make it very visible. I almost finished it a couple years ago and I'm nearly ready to fly it. (past 2 years I had 2 jobs, no time for r/c)

Here is my first covering job. I Somethin Extra using Ultra Cote - Pearl Green, Pearl Black, and Pearl White. Not the cheapest way to go, but it looks good in the sunlight.

Pretty good nitrobasher... Think of it this way, It just gets better with
more planes:-)... But follow the advise on your rudder unless you just
have it on for the pics....

Don't tell whoever this( Mom, Wife, Boss).... I only have a heat gun
and I have not had the greatest results with them.. I usually go a little
to long getting the last wrinkle out :-(.... But... I stole the wife's iron a
few times... And man I sure like it a lot better.. I tested it on some of
the covering that you trim off from the wing/stab, to get the iron just
hot enough to stick, but not too hot.. I start by heating the iron with
a drop of water on it and kept increasing the temp. until the drop of
water starts to boil... then I covered the iron with a thin cloth and
lightly go over the wrinkles quickly and it removed them all!!....:-)
So now when I here.... " D_M it RON"..... I have to find a way to sneak
back into the house and get the iron back in it's place:-)

I hope whoever... Was not to upset with you spilling the stain on your
plane and floor(second pic:-)

I'm in the asme boat as you gp300. I used lutrekote dark red and monokote dark red and am disapointed in the outcome. This isn't my first covering job, but it has been about 8 years since the last one I finished.

Here is my first covering job. I can't take the credit, though. It was a joint effort between my dad and myself. He's pretty good at covering (although this was only his second complete plane to cover). It was my first. Together, I think we did a pretty good job.

Her is my first real covering job (small electric was my real first) and you have to see the pilot in my ME109 which gives me a idea for a new thread, What to name the pilot ????? great covering jobs too guys

Dauntae