Kimhoff

My Feedback: (22)

I am ready to cover my Sig Craftsman Kit 1/6 scale Cub. Can anyone tell me where to start and give me some tips? I am really struggling with what to d with the tail feathers. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Campy

My Feedback: (1)

If you have already glued the vertical and horizontal stabs to the fuselage, cut some small pieces and do the fillets first. These are the pieces that will go where the horizontal and vertical stab meet and where the horizontal stab and the fuselage meet. While you can apply/adhere them with a regular iron, I would strongly suggest using a trim iron for this. It can get into small places much better than a regular size iron.

Next you cover the UNDERSIDE of the horizontal stab, then the top. For the fuselage I suggest doing it in 4 pieces (or more if needed ). Do the bottom of the fuselage first, then each side and finally the top.

You want the seams to overlap by 1/8" to 1/4" (depending on what you are using for covering ) and the seam edge should be down. For your wings you cover the bottom first, then the top. You want the seams to be on or below the C/L of the leading edge and orientated so that the wind will not catch them ant try to lift them up.

If you have not glued the vertical/horizontal stabs to the fuselage, cover them first, then position the horizontal stab on the plane and draw a line outlining the the fuselage on the horizontal stab. CAREFULLY cut the covering away 1/16" INSIDE the lines you drew so that you can glue/epoxy it to the fuselage after the fuselage is covered. BE CAREFULL WHEN CUTTING. All you want to do is cut the covering and not the balsa underneath it.

When you apply the covering do the following:

Set your iron to low (or the lowest setting needed to barely melt/adhere the adhesive surface )

Tack the longest surface in the center first, pulling it reasonably tight/snug. Next, go to the middle of this piece and pull and tack, then each corner. After this, go between each tack and pull and tack. This should give you a pretty snug, reasonably wrinkle free application of the covering.

Once everything is tacked to your satisfaction, turn your iron up to the LOWEST TEMPERATURE NEEDED TO SHRINK THE COVERING and seal ALL the edges down. After that is done, use the iron to shrink the covering. Do the next piece/other side the same way.

You want the iron at the lowest temperature needed to shrink the covering for a couple of reasons.

First, the coverings are temperature sensitive. This means that if you shrink the covering at 250 degrees and at a future date you need to reshrink it, you HAVE TO USE a higher temperature to get it to shrink. There is a maximum temp at which the covering will not shrink any more. This is why you need to get the covering reasonably snug/tight when tacking it down.

Second, by using the lowest temperature needed to shrink the covering, you minimize the possibility of warping the surface when shrinking it down.

You want to use an iron for your shrinking. A heat gun, while faster, frequently gets the covering to hot, especially if the person is inexperienced in covering.

FWIW - I have found that low temp coverings are USUALLY the best bet for covering. The low temp minimizes the possibility of warping, provides a good heat range for shrinking and can also cover foam without melting it.

For your Cub, I can highly recommend SolarTex fabric covering. It is low temp, and unlike Coverite, does not require BalsaRite for proper adhesion to the airframe. In addition, SolarTex is lighter in overall weight than Coverite, yet just as strong.

Hope this helps.