Arrrgh.. Guys, I'm really frustrated. I think I've spent soo much money in Monokote, I couldve bought a new plane.

Its really frustrating and its to the point that I really dont have the time to mess with it anymore. I have a 40 size Extra 300s that I'm trying to recover. How much would be a fair price to have someone cover it for me?

Instead of paying someone to cover it, you could have someone teach you to cover it. I taught a friend in about an hour. Covering is a slow and tedious undertaking. So, don't try to rush it. There are some good "how to" books also. I should think 50 bucks is a fair price to cover a 40 size plane.

Well, I cooled off a little bit from my frustration.

I'll say, the wing came out decent. Could be better, but not bad. The problem is the fuse. around the elevator and rudder. Geeze, its a pain in the BUTT!!!

I do have one question though. On the fuse, it was red - white - red.. Well, its one piece of red, one piece of white, on piece of red. Why do this rather than just laying red down all the way around and then white accent strips??

Less chance of bubbles under the white. As Kingwoodbarney said, It just takes time and practice. Try not to do too big a piece at one time I.E. the whole fuse in one piece. If there is someone close by who can cover ask them if they would like to help (teach) you how to do it. Good luck.

Cheers.

Just some of a Cap I covered for a friend. All seperate pieces including the strips in black.

You're not the only one that gets frustrated with it... my covering jobs have slowly (very slowly) been getting better and better... (now they look like a drunken pig did them instead of a drunken pig with three feet did them).

One suggestion... find the person whose covering job looks like it is a retouched magazine picture and ask if you can sit in on their next covering project... you can learn a lot by "holding the flashlight" while someone else does it

Sure do wish you were closer as I have given many classes on covering. It really isn't that hard if you just take your time and think through each step. It takes about as long to do a good covering job as it took to build the plane. Please don't give up as we all had to learn and doing it is the best teacher.

Hi

After spending years and years experimenting with different materials and tools here are some helpful tips

1 You need the best iron, i mean one which holds the set temperature continously. I have seen a lot of cheap irons fluctuate which will cause the material to react differently. I use the Coverite black baron
2 A temperature guage
3 A trim seal iron
4 A heat gun

It is also important to use good material, in my opinion Monocote and Ultracote are great to work with.

When ever covering the wings always do one pannel at a time. Start with the bottom right then the top right then the bottom left then the top left use one piece per pannel makes the job looks professional.
The whole trick is to hide the seems. Straight cuts makes a hugh difference.
Joining the pieces in the middle always stick out as a soar thunb.
When covering try to keep the material as taught as possible.
Always do the edges first stretching it as you proceed. Then when the whole piece is sealed increase the temp where the material starts to shrink.
if you need to shrink it even more then increase the temp more.

Once you shrink the material at a certain temp, if you need to shrink it even more you will need to increase the temp this is where a good iron comes in handy, follow the manufactures instructions for temp settings.

There are several more tricks to the trade a good video will often help.
Hope this helps you

The biggest trick is when you feel lazy just stop and come back and finish it later.
If you need further help email me i will gladly help you.

Zain

I'm lucky, I guess. I have only used Monokote, and have hardly ever been frustrated with it. Tedious? Yes. But I tend to excel and tedious undertakings. I think alot of people's problems with Monokote, is they are afraid of burning through. I use my iron at 3/4 to full temperature, and when shrinking with the gun, hold it 2-3 inches above the surface and move slowly. Monokote can handle ALOT of heat. Practice with a scrap piece until you burn it up. This gives you a good idea of when you need to stop applying heat. The following picture is my second full covering job. I covered a Super Sporster 60 as my first, and have recovered a crashed set of Four-Star wings. This covering jpb took me nearly 100 hours. The white base alone took at least 30 hours, and that is a single color, just to give you an idea. The Skybolt on my workbench right now, took 3 hours just to cover the bottom of the bottom wing. It takes some time, but be patient and you will be rewarded with a great sense of pride.

100 hours may seem like a lot of time to cover, but when everybody gathers around it in the pits, and ohhs and ahhs, it is worth every second. Not to mention you can have a one of a kind bird.

Experiment with the trim solvent, too. That stuff is awesome! Oh, and a side note: You can use trim solvent over the top of the solid Rustoleum paints. Use a Q-tip, and go lightly. If you scrub, it will come off, but if you go lightly, you can get monokote to stick to this paint! Clear coat with Minwax PolyAcrylic, and you have a bulletproof finish! Keep at it!

Not to sure if you have seen this video but here is a good start

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...?article_id=67

Covering is definitely something that requires some practice. I learned how to recover by recovering my trainer after I had been flying it for a couple of years. When I did it the first time it was a total mess. I ripped it all off and tried again. I ended up doing it 3 times before I thought it was acceptable. All I can say it keep practicing. As others said above, it takes a long time to do a good covering job. Most of the time it can take 3-5 days just to do the wing. The GP Slow Poke below (the one with the Stl. Cardinals on it) took me about 2-1/2 weeks to cover. My Hog Bipe below took about 2 weeks. And the Something Extra was about 3-1/2 weeks.

RCU member Minnflyer has done a pretty good how-to on covering that can be found in the RCU Magazine. Check it out at [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=67[/link]


Hope this helps

Hi!
You don't cover the airplane with the stab and fin mounted...do you??
This should never be done!! Do them separately and you will find it much more easy.
Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

How can I remove the stab and fin after they have been installed? I bought this airplane from someone else. I didnt like the covering on it so I wanted to change it. So, that means, it was all put together.

It can be done with it installed but it will not be as easy if it wasn't installed. Just take your time. Removing the stabs will be allot more work and possible damage that just covering with them on.

When going around curves and compound curves just do what the video shows and heat a small area, pull it tight and around the curve, then move to the next area and continue to work it around. Do not worry about the big wrinkles. Once you get the covering basically on, then hitting the big wrinkles with a heat gun will make it look allot better. If you get small wrinkles going around a curve, just cut a small slit in the wrinkles and then overlap the covering and it will all come out flat.

I practiced with a bunch of scrap pieces of would. I cut holes, curves and compound curves in the scrap and went to practicing. You will obviously waste some covering but it's worth it in the long run. Waste a foot now or a whole roll later.

I guess my biggest problems right now are, first, not know how much of one section on the fuse I should do at a time. Second, trying to figure out how large a piece of monokote I need and what angles I should cut it at. Do you cut a large piece of monokote and then cut it while in on the fuse?

I'm confused..

Ken, who makes that American flag covering?

I have only do a few planes but I did the fuse like this. Make sure the blade in your Xacto knife is brand new. I cannot be dull or all you will do is tear the covering.

I cut one piece of covering big enough to go over the entire side plus a little extra. I htne tacked it down around the edge of the fuse. Once I had it all tacked down and I then went back and carefully ironed it down the rest of the way. Once that was done I trimmed it so the I had an overlap of 1/4 inch or so on both the top and bottom. I then iron down this overlap.

Now cut a piece for both the top and bottom and iron them on. Once everything is iron on good then seal the edges with clear nail polish, or trim solvent, then grab the heat gun and shrink out the wrinkles.

As I mentioned, this is how I did my SiG Something Extras and it worked well but others may have better ideas

Should I do the stab and fin first before doing the above since they are already on the airplane?

Liberator,
I made the flag. RCU member Termagator posted a how-to on doing a 3D flag. It's really fairly easy to do. You can find the thread at
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_603331/anchors_603331/mpage_1/key_flag/anchor/tm.htm#603331[/link]

bobbykokinos,
I guess I'm the oddball on here, but I prefer to cover my tail feathers after they've been put on the plane. They're fairly easy to cover. Cut a strip of covering about 1/2" wide to seal into the joint between the surfaces. Crease it down the middle, then remove the plastic backing and seal it down in the joint between your 2 surfaces. Now when you cover the surface you but the monokote right up to your joint and seal it down. Another way to get stripes is to cover one piece of your main covering and place your stripes using the "windex method" for applying monokote. If you will look at the 3D thread I posted above it explains how to apply monokote with windex.

Hope this helps.

Ken,

Thanks, I found that post right after I asked that question. Nice job on yours! That is pretty impressive.
I have only tried to cover one item, and it came out ok. I really want to get into some scale stuff, so I am trying to locate some different covering materials to use on warbirds mainly WWI and WWII stuff.

Tom

bobbykokinos,
Ken's method of covering the control surfaces works like a dream. I did this on my last job and am very pleased with the results. I will now cover all my planes this way.
Just remember to take your time. I spent 30-40 hrs covering the Tower trainer. Now the bad news. I crashed it the next day. Oh well, I need something to keep me busy.

Well, not knowing what I was doing, I cut the elevator and rudder off at the hinges. I know this was probably stupid. But, it wont be hard to reslot and hinge them, right?

Not at all...

Below you will find some pics that I took while covering my Extra 300-these should answer most of your questions

Some more.

And the final result. I joined the two piecies together on glass before covering. I will be willing to answer any questions that you have about pics. Good Luck!