Damn...I hait MonoKote. I've coved 8 planes with untracote and it works beautifully. I got MonoKote for this plane and can't get it to tighten down.... lots of wrinkels. Does Ultracote make a color thats close to monokotes cub yellow. Untracote cub yellow is much different. Or maybe some of u guys have some tips to using MonoKote. Very frustrating now. Thanks

I've been reading a lot of bad reports about MonoKote - people are saying it just isn't shrinking down like it used to. I've got two Great Planes planes 'expertly covered in MonoKote' and they are the two worst covered planes I've owned.

I disagree. I'm in the middle of covering a giant scale Christen Eagle with Monokote and it is coming out beautifully. I've used the Cub yellow quite a bit and never had any problems. Yes, it is a little trickier than Ultrcote but both have advantages and disadvantages.

One possibility is that you got a bad roll. Another possibility is that you are not using enough heat, Monokote sticks and shrinks at higher temps than Ultrcote if I'm not mistaken. I've also noticed different colors behave differently but the basics like Cub yellow all behave well in my experience.

Following the instructions packaged with each roll should get good results.

As for GP ARF's with Monokote, I did have a Venus 40 that arrive looking like a prune and many of the tight wrinkles over sheeted areas would not completely come out.. My TF P-51 arrived a little wrinkled but came out nice with a little ironing and heat gun time. The rest have all been absolutely beautiful, especially my Super Skybolt and Cherokee.

I performed my first ever covering job with Top Flite Econocoat three years ago and it looks like I did it yeasterday - absolutely sag and wrinkle free. I used Econocoat because it was recommended in a "How To" article I located on the web. I think one of it's positive features is that it applys with relatively low heat. My first attempt came out with perfect results. I'm not changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. just F.Y.I.

Bill

Here are some of the Monokote covering jobs I've done over the past few years and ARF's with nice Monokote covering...

Monokote works just fine in my opinion. I also have covered planes in Ultracoate with great success. Neither is worse than I other I don't think, just a little different.

As I recall, MonoKote has very specific directions for setting the temperature of your heating iron. It is hotter than required for some of the other coverings. My suggestion is: Read the Monokote directions and follow them.

Here's the progress so far with Monokote on the biplane. I know it isn't a traditional Christen Eagle scheme but the thought of cutting all those multi-colored feathers doesn't sound like fun.

There isn't a wrinkle or sag anywhere on it so far. What I do is pull, tack, pull tack, pull, tack and so on to get the covering fairly snug. I don't pull too hard but just enough. Then I take an iron hot enough to activate the adhesive but not shrink the film and stick the edges down. Next I use a heat gun to tighten everything up. finally I take the iron again and stick everything down to the wood and touch it up with the heat gun if needed. Works great for me.

These videos are also pretty good: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4385133/tm.htm

Here's something to try. Using a scrap piece of material: set your iron down on it for a couple seconds, if the heat is right the yellow will get just a bit lighter. If it doesn't: turn up the heat till it does. I've found that this usually works well on yellow and red, probably others but that's the ones I remember right now. ENJOY !!! RED