I want to put a starburst paterern on my combat Balsa USA stick trainer. Figure it’s a good plane to practice on since there’s a good chance it won’t survive the weekend.

I know there’s a good way to put monocoat on top of monocoat without bubbles with Windex. Can someone go into detail on how to do this? Thanks!!!

The way I do it is just spray the windex on the wing and then on the trim piece.
Then just stick the trim on and squeege out the air bubbles with an old credit card.
Let it dry overnight and the next day go back and iron ONLY the edges down with a
low heat setting (you dont want any shrinkage)
So far it has held up well for me.

Regards,

Tim Hudson

Put the base MK on as usual, and shrink it if it's over openings in the wood. Cut the starburst pattern out of MK. Spray the base with windex, and apply the pattern. Use a paper towel to squeegee out the windex as much as possible. Then, I take an old credit card and use it to squeegee out the windex, until you can't get any more moisture out. The credit card will make little tiny scratches, which nobody will see, but if you're fanatic, cover the edge with a thin cloth or something.

Let dry over night. The next day, with your iron on a lower heat than normal, press down the edges of the pattern to seal it. Another approach is to take a Q tip and spread trim solvent over the edge (it will seep in and seal the pattern to the MK). The down side of the trim solvent is some colors bleed, and you'll go nuts trying to clean up the bleed without causing more. Some will say you don't have to do anything to seal the pattern on to the base, but if you experiment, I think you'll find that with a little difficulty, you can peel the pattern right off if you don't apply heat or trim solvent.

It's pretty simple. After you decide on the pattern and cut it out. Spray both pieces where they contact each other. Then lay it down one piece at a time and squeegee out out the bubles. I like to use a damp paper towel. Some guys use a rubber squeegee or the edge of a credit card. Just don't push to hard. It can shift around on you.

The key to making this pattern look good is the spacing. Make sure all you triangle shapped pieces are the same. For example from the point measure back 5". If this mesurement is 1" for example then make sure the space between it and the next stripe is 1"wide 5" back. I hope I explained that correctly.

David

sounds great guys. Thanks for the advise!!!!

One quick bit of detail, make sure to get the windex with ammonia. The ammonia will activate the backing slightly making it stick better. I use a piece of scrap balsa as a squeegee. A credit card makes scratches.

Nickbee: Here is a complete alternative to using the MonoKote.

If you have a computer and a printer, try designing what you want in any program that will give you the shape that you want and simply print out your end product the size you'd like it on any surfaced paper (media) you want and take it to your local laminating shop. Ask them to cover it with a thin laminate and also have a permanent adhesive backing on it. Make sure that you print out several differnt "shapes" on the same printing paper. In fact, print out as many as you like. The laminator won't charge you much more than $1.00 or $2.00 for an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. Some "print" shops have the equipment to actually cut out your "shapes" for you.

Just an alternative idea. Best of luck.