I have a Pica Waco that is finished with Cream and Missle Red Monokote. I managed to find a can of the now discontinued Cream LustreKote and painted the aileron skins with it to match the rest of the wing. Everything turned out great, but now that I have been flying it for the last month the tops of the ailerons are turning a dark brown. The undersides remain unaffected. I am thinking that this is a UV issue or something. Does anyone have any suggestions as far as a UV blocking clear coat or something? I have already repainted them once and the problem has returned.
Red.

Sorry, I don't have a clue but I just wanted to say this is nothing new. I once painted a cowl a nice LK blue and it didn't take long to go so dark it looked black. LK has always had a quality control problem. Even today you will find a lot of problems. Last can/s of Cub Yellow came out of the can orange?? Not an orange tint but orange?? Try to find a match in a different brand.

Take a look at Nelson's Paint. They have exact color match for just about every Monokote and Ultracote. The paint is fuel proof providing you use the crosslinker. FWIW - I have not had a problem with Nelson's Midnight blue, yellow or white fading/changing color.

Campy - are you referring to Nelson Hobby Specialties?

I used glossy white Lustrekote on my T34B and now the white on all of the control surfaces is changing to a rust color. Of course, I will never use LustreKote again. I am considering putting white ULTRAcote over the entire plane. What should I do to prepare the surface before applying Ultracote? Sand with light sand paper, remove every last speck of dust, then cover? Should I use something more aggressive to prepare the surface? But I gotta be careful because I don't want to put something on there that will turn the old Lustrekote to goo.

Thanks
-oliveDrab

OD - I'm gonna ask a kinda dumb question here - are you planning to repaint the control surfaces with Ultracote paint? Or, cover the painted control surfaces with Ultracote film?

If you're going to cover the darkened painted surface with white Ultracote, apply a bit of film on a control surface asis. Do a perimeter-only patch to see if the darker surface "bleeds" through the white. Reason being is that the lighter colored Ultracote films are a bit transparent - maybe 10 - 20%. Not much but it can be noticeable especially when overlapping a darker bit of film (e.g. white over blue). Also, use a low heat for this test as Ultracote adhesive will hold with low heat (but not aggressively). If you turn up the heat the adhesive will get real tenacious and you will have a hard time removing the covering from a painted surface. Much harder than using the same heat on clear, unprep'ed balsa.

HTH

Thanks for bringing up the translucency of light colored Ultracote (see attached yellow Ultracoat). I competely forgot about that....my old-timer's disease is flaring up again.

Red,

I have a Pica WACO in exactly the same colors. I used Helson's paint and it has held up perfectly for over ten years. It's a great product and brushes on very smooth using a foam brush. It's criticized for it's cost, but it goes a long way and you don't need thinner, reducers, etc. So in the long run, it's actually not that expensive.

Paul

I'll keep them in mind for the next time, meanwhile I went to Home Depot and took along a piece of the cream Monokote. They matched it perfectly and I was able to buy what they call a sample. The cost of a sample is $2.99 and I think it's something like a 1/2 pint of Martha Stewart Eggshell finish, more then enough to do what I needed. Looks great by the way.
Thanks Martha!
Red.

I'm done with LustreKote. The clear turns a dirty dark brown in one season.

Yep ... that's what happened to me.

I wish I'd known about this sooner!
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