I'm a little embarrassed to write this....but I'm having trouble with some Monokote. I've probably covered 40-50 models with it, but haven't used it in about three years.

I'm having trouble getting the wrinkles out from a solid surface (stabilizer, balsa sheeted wing, and vertical fin). I have followed all the old rules (each end pull taut then each side to make a diamond, proper iron and gun temps, etc.). In fact, the surface looks pretty good before any heat is even applied.

The problem is that after I apply heat....the wrinkles come back when the surface cools. I finally poked holes in a test piece that I covered and applied heat to take the wrinkles out. I then used a wet rag to gently apply pressure to make the covering stick to the surface in hopes that the Monokote would stick directly to the surface. I greatly dislike doing this because you can see the wood underneath. It worked to some extent...but some of the wrinkles came back...just not as large.

There is no doubt I'm very picky....but this model looks worse than the first one I ever covered! Has Top Flite changed their formulation in the last few years?

Since I've gotten rid of the air between the Monokote and the surface...what an I doing wrong? I'm not using anything to put holes in the balsa before covering, but I never did in the past.

Ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like you did everything right. You may want to consider removing that piece and starting over.

Could you be using too much heat? Over a solid surface, you just want the Monokote to adhere, not shrink. The Monokote adhesive is activated at a lower temperature than is needed for shrinking. So, you may be causing the Monkote to shrink before it is stuck to the wood - causing the wrinkles.

on solid surfaces I work from the center out. I use a medium hot iron with a sock. pull hard...iron down... heat/adhere at the same time. if you pull hard enough, it will never wrinkle/bubble in the future......