For what it's worth, I ordered a Kadet Senior on 11/25 and recieved it about three weeks later. When I placed the order I was told it would take 6-8 weeks to ship since it was on backorder. I was pleasantly suprised when it showed up early..!

I have ordered two kits and a couple of water rudders in the past month from Sig, all of it arrived promptly.

Wow. That is the first complaint I have heard about the performance of Ultra Coat. I just covered a Falcon 56 with it and it was marvelous. I have used a few plastic covering materials in my day from Solarfilm, Monocote, Econocote and now Ultra Coat. Ultra Coat went around compound curves like MonoKote never did, even before it hit the toilet. Yes it does have a limited colour choice but how many do you need? I will also admit it does not have the shine Monocote does, but for myself I willl stick to Ultra Coat.

Cheers
Gord

i ve used ultra cote for years, never had any success with monokote, has anybody tried the covering from hobby city it is nice and cheap and I saw a few reviews and they liked it. I need a bunch for the nosen citabria i am building. chris

HI I THINK the ONE guy who is complaining about ULTRA COAT must be working for MONOCOAT from my 20 years of using both- ULTACOAT is the easier to use film and will go around compound curves much better -has more fexibility therelooks more like a paint job -used some MONOCOAT just recentlyfound it the same as it always wasbought it at a swap meet-so do not know how old it was-i do not at all care for coverright materialsags on the open bays and does not hold an airfoil as it should in my opinion

umh, probably shouldn't throw my two cents in here as a monokote discussion usually gets very heated. but, i have always used monokote and have not had problems as others complain about. at the risk of insulting people, I truly believe that those who have problems with Monokote are applying it incorrectly. It cannot be applied like you would ultracote. that is, you can't just iron it down with your iron. you must seal up the perimeter and then shrink with a heat gun. after shrinking, then you heat up again with the gun and use a hot glove to press the covering onto the wood making a bond.

do that, and the results are great. do that and it will not wrinkle in the sun. Do it right, and people will think you painted your plane. Ultracote does not have the shine of monokote and that is a well known fact which people accept (but wish it were not true). But, i mean this sincerely, please use whatever covering suits you best, but leave the severe slamming out of the conversation as it doesn't help the cause of the argument.

I suspect that the problem with Monokote is quality control, not (just) a changed formula. Over the past few years I've had some good results and some disasters. The bad stuff even smells different. It doesn't seem to vary consistently with colors, as I've had good results with white, bad with red and yellow. Lots of other people report big problems with white.

Back in the day, it was always good.

Yep. I just went through a tour of the sig factory where the kits are made and they are selling and shipping many. I also just bought some white monokote and its worthless stuff. I would stick with ultracote.

I just heard from Mike at Sig and he said a balsa load is on the boat from South America so kit production should resume within the next couple of weeks. They received a load before the holidays that was unusable for model airplanes.

Also on the rumor mill, Bruce from BTE may start kitting the Venture 60 kit, send him on e-mail to get on the wait list!

Mike

LOL, no I dont work for monokote! I am not one usually to raise complaints about products if they are bad but no other type of covering has given me the kind of fits ultracote has. If you want to hear more specific complaints I had with using ultracote just ask I can list quite a few more. I only wish I knew where you guys were buying your ultacote because maybe it was only bad at my local hobby shop.

David

You are not the only one with Ultracote problems. I have had two ARF's (Taylorcraft 450/Funtana 40) with it on and the stuff just naturally wrinkles very badly. I apply the rec temps for stretching, and the next day new wrinkles appear. I admit that I have not used Monokote for a few years but it always treated me well and only occasionally needed to be tightened up.
Hmmm, maybe its time to go back to the good ole days of silk and dope

[quote]ORIGINAL: davidgeorge212



LOL, no I dont work for monokote! I am not one usually to raise complaints about products if they are bad but no other type of covering has given me the kind of fits ultracote has. If you want to hear more specific complaints I had with using ultracote just ask I can list quite a few more. I only wish I knew where you guys were buying your ultacote because maybe it was only bad at my local hobby shop.

David

i used some monocoat a back in septeber to recover my my kadet senior arf, truned out fine

It does take a little tallent and patience to use Monokote.

Something is definitely up with the product quality issue wise !

I'm a prolific builder : I average maybe 4- 6 builds just through the winter alone, " already at 6" and maybe 3- 4 during the season.
I have alway's been a tried and true loyal Top Flight mono- coat user- been at it 35 years +. It's not in common for me to have 15 to 20 roll's of just the TF stuff in a case let alone the other stuff I acquire.

Lately what I have discovered is that the white : Will not shrink - or limited shrink, and thats with the baffle closed off on gun and even me holding my thumb over that. That's even with me working down tight on the surface and leading the heat in advance to the direction I'm traveling.

Their is a new smell also. I opened a roll of clear today - then made at least 3 trips to the paint storage locker - looking for a leaking gallon of mineral spirits. No -leak's or unsealed jugs. Pretty spookey as I'm a safety nut.

Some times when running very cold there's thin spots on some rolls that instantly blow thru without any warning - the old stuff at leat you'd see it begin to milk out long before found the same to happen on the yellow - they must be thin.

I've had severe adhesive problems with the chrome, ( will not stick) to even a sterile surface - same - lake of adhesive on the metallic plumb and metallic blue. Both are so bad it's gona be the use of both balsarite and or monocoat trim solvent just to keep them on the airframe. My surfaces are sterile - Either denatured or acetone - "no-oil's" period- I hate to do it but you got to do what you got to do. Wait till a sponsored 30% bird blows off the covering, during a show - it might get their attention.

My current Odyssey is using mono cote clear. It feels like lexion sheet. Is "very thick" almost crunchy " which I kinda like" will absolutely not shrink - until you almost light it on fire ! Just at about the time it begin's it may blow thru. Hate to say it but I've almost had to scrub it down ! Normally I can stretch and pull around any thing and my work is seamless - but this stuff is like working with drafting vellum ! I'm actually going to have to use a different type of heat gun - to see if I can get enough heat into it.

Sad part is I gota purchase two more roll's !! and I know it's gona be a wrestling match because I have to shrink over a pretty large see thru wing and I hate any type of seams pulling free or wrinkles or scrub marks trying to get it to adhere. Spending too much money- too finial finish a project - to have it a struggle and poor quality as you reach home plate.

Bottom line : Some one in the Top Flight management made a corporate decision / profit / vrs cost of mfg :. What else is new ??? - heck with end user.

Mfg's of the Ora Cover / Ultra Coat / Century Product's on and On should capitalize !! Drop their prices just a few points / and add some colors and capture the market !

Sorry for the vent guy's- But this profit over quality issues is getting old ! And yes I do build that much !!!!! I just finished a Top Flite 1/5 Corsair " museum scale " for another fellow / guess who's product I trusted ???

OK guys, let's face the facts, ultra or mono has to be applied at the manufactures specific temps and instructions, if you sat down and compaired covering for covering they would bolth have issues, if I had to pick one of the two, I'd go with ultracote over monokote. It's opaque, it's thicker and more durable. Monokote is thinner, transparent( I read a person said they loved the metallic blue, have I got a picture for you!) and it doesn't retain it's tension as well as ultracote. If you asked me about 5 years ago, I would have told you to shove the ultra where the sun don't shine with hot sauce on it. But even the ultracote that goldberg made was better than todays ultracote, thou I am thankfull for the epa and usda stepping in and making it more edible, just ask my cats why?! But from now on, I'll go the route of anything else besides plastic to finish my plane(IE-fabric and paint or glass) for the simple fact that I can't cover an abs or glass cowl in ultra or mono covering, so the cost of matching paint to the cheap plastic gets more expensive than buying koverall and dope paints that will last a lifetime of the plane,...& then some.
This is not an actual statement about painted or glassed models and nor does it reflect the views of ultra or monokote, all statements are subject to verification of personal abuse and use, in the case of excessive abuse, just burn your model, if a trash can, firepit or fire place is unavailable,.. seek assistance from local hobo's that will dispose of the model for you in a timely manner.

Well, no one answered my question,, I'm close to the covering stage on my Extra,,
I'll let you know if I have any issues with the monokote I bought a year ago.

I tell ya,
I've been away from flying and RCU for a while,
but it seems there is allot more complaining going on everywhere I look here,, I wonder how much is valid

Monokote changed the formula about 4-5 years ago, scale olny 4 me, but the best way to tell if it's new or old is hold it up to the light, if the roll says opaque, and you hold it up to the light and cant see anything through it, your good, it's the old stuff. If it looks like it's semi transparent like econokote, it's newer stuff, you might have problems with it shrinking and hiding open areas and covered areas, plus, I also noticed that the really new stuff has what looks like chicken pox on the backside (where the adheasive is) don't use this over other monokote or ultra, the adheasive is actually applied in a bubbled form, and it's impossible to get rid of it when applied over a smooth surface. I'm not bithcing, just warning you about mono of current days.

I have to agree with you, it's generally the same ones most the time. I also took a year or so off from RCU and was surprised how it has changed when I came back. Still lots of good folks on here, you just have to ignore the bitter ones.

My Kadet Senior is two shades of "Missle Red". The colour matching was terrible. Two different rolls produced two totally different colours!

Thanks for the info on Sig kits. I have a 4*60 on backorder.

complaining? I guess when a product has changed, and quality has fallen thru the floor we should be thankfulk and have a corroborree? like h**l especially when it costs upward of $35 o roll for 6 feet? and colour matching? I have 3 rolls of monkeykote white, all same batch number, all totally different, all with that new spotty backside that looks worse than a kid with acne. and it stinks worse that the mens room at a bar late friday nite. It wont stick like it used to, shrinking down is a hit and miss affair as to whether you get a nice finish or a hole, and its a monumental pain in the a** to wrap around compound curves like wingtips etc. It is definately NOT the user friendly covering it used to be, nor is the quality there either. To those who disagree, by all means buy it, buy it all I dont want it ever again. I tried the toughlon covering and was pleasantly surprised, went on easy, took curves well, and shrunk up nicely without looking like melting, and a lot cheaper than monkeycrap to boot.

HI THE color of the film coverings has a lot to do with the way it will worksome colors are just more difficult than others to applyafter reading this thread ULTRACOAT looks like the stuff to usedon't you just love the exchange of info here I DOdesigned to keep us using the best possible products that are available- keeping us abrest of the changes in the market place -just hate to loose a product we have used for so long-write it off to a changing word-and the EPA ENJOY REGARDS TONY