I'm confused...I am covering the tail surfaces (solid wood) and have read and watched video. The monokote video says to iron down the material to the wood and Faye Stilley says to resist this technique. Deluca, in his book, irons everything down. How should i proceed. The more I read the more confused I get, maybe I should just stucco the whole thing. Any help is much appreciated and thanks for your patience. Dave

Have you considered faux brick?? Seriously though, I have never had any problem just ironing it down. What does Faye Stilley say to do and who the heck is he anyway? Sorry if he is supposed to be someone famous, I just never heard of him. I'll try looking him up. How would ironing it down here differ from ironing it down on a solid fuselage? I am sure there are some who will say to use one of those "pecker wheels" but I have never used one of those either. I just start at one end and iron toward the far end. This doesn't give any bubbles a chance to form and it sticks just fine. Yes, I also use Monokote brand exclusively. Not saying anything bad about the others, just have not used them in 20+ years of flying.
Good luck.

When applying a film covering over a solid surface I suggest the following technique:

Pull the film as tight as possible and tack the film in the center of all 4 edges, not the corners, to keep the film positioned where you want it.

Then start in the center and iron toward the edge(s). Make sure you keep tension on the free corner of the film you are ironing towards to eliminate wrinkles.

I have heard of people using a "woodpecker" (a multi wheel device with small spikes on the wheels) to eliminate/minimize the "gassing out" of the covering. I have never used one of them and I don't have any problems with bubbles.

If you do have any bubbles in the covering when you are done, take a pin a ***** a hole in one end of the bubble and use your iron to iron toward the hole. This will get rid of the air trapped underneath the covering and insure the covering is adhered to the wood.

For future reference you should consider using Ultracote. It uses a lower temperature and goes around corners and wintips substantially easier than MonoKote.

Thanks guys for you input...I guess stucco would be a little heavy.

Just make sure you sand the surface very smooth using a very fine grit sandpaper then vacuum it two or three times to remove the dust. Then go right ahead and apply the film coating. Make sure you follow the instructions regarding heat.

One of the biggest causes of bubbling and bad covering is incorrect iron temperature. Too hot is usually the case. I use an IR temperature gun. Using a good quality iron (one with a really good thermostat) helps a lot. Check the covering manufacturers recommended temps and start with those. Experiment using off-cuts on scraps of wood to test before starting a big job.

Safe Flying!

Bruce88123...Faye Stilley is a 19 time award winner at the Todedo Show and DeLuca was a winner 1976-1978 at the same show. Stilley has two books, published by Model Airplane News, on covering, Deluca has one, I believe. Thanks for your help guys. Dave

Once you have it all ironed down, go over it with a heat gun. Smoothes it out real nice.

Yeah, I looked him up later. Excellent work. I don't follow the shows much. I wasn't knocking him, I just honestly didn't recognize the name.

Good luck on the covering job.

Just on this topic... Is the clear and translucent covering any more difficult to apply than the regular stuff?

Thanks
Dustin

Underlying structure must be in great shape for it to look good. ALL flaws will show through and I mean ALL.

Hello,

DO NOT use the wood peckering tool as it does not eleminate the bubbles and makes the wood weaker. USE ULTRACOTE!!!! This stuff over solid surface is SUPERB !!! Enough said! Dai Phan

More...

The clear stuff is lighter and uses lower heat than the regular stuff. Throw away your Monokote and use Ultracote!!! Dai Phan

I have done it both ways, just ironing the edges then shrinking with a heat gun, and ironing the whole thing down to the solid balsa. Use a scrap chunk of balsa and see what works best for you. Always good to practice first anyway.

The Mustang in the picture I did with the heat gun method. If its a flat surface and you have stretched it out good while tacking the edges then there is not much air under the film to expand anyway.

I have used Fayes method of covering and both monokote and ultrakote since my second plane and I would recomend it. I think you come out with a smoother cleaner look and it it is easier to tight it up later when and it it shrinks and/or stretches in the heat of the summer. Plus you don't have to worry about air bubble as much with his method. They are distributed across the whole surface and you don't see them.