catracer343

Thanks Lomcevek! I owe it to you! I did a 3D American flag on the topside of the wings with Ultrakote...12 hours worth of fiddling with my trim iron, but it all came together in the end.

MrFahrenheit

Brilliant! Thanks for the great info.

@catracer343: Wow! Really nice work there... some of the best I've seen.

deckerv

My Feedback: (21)

A small pic of the first try at this technique for me It's the University of Rochester Yellow Jacket bee on my Florio Flyer Suntwagon

Bob Paris

My Feedback: (13)

Hay Good Buddy,
That was an awesome tip and I've been using Super Monocote since it was known as just "Monocote." I can't wait to try it out on the model I'm building now...!

Soft Landings Always,
Bobby of Maui

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

excellent video....thanks!!

emilsanto

My Feedback: (39)

wow you should have done a video on how to do that
great job

ScaleRCpilot

My Feedback: (1)

Very well done! This procedure would work well for making insignias for our Scale Warbirds. Also noseart for say a B-25 or B-17 Bomber.


Thanks much!

SR/CP AKA: Rocknranchman (youtube)

albsurfer

My curiosity was peaked after reading this forum and seeing the video that used a complex pattern template that was free-hand cut on glass. I had read a couple of other forums/posts about cutting patterns and sealing monokote and ultra-cote. Why can't you do it on a standard cutting mat?

After cutting a test piece of monokote on my cutting mat last night, I cut it into 4 squares, peeled the backing off, and used 4 liquid mediums to cling it to my cutting mat. I figured I'd do a simple template cut on each and try the Glad “Press n Seal� method to lift and transfer them to a clear piece of monokote. Water, alcohol, Windex, and Arm & Hammer Multi-surface “green� cleaner all got the test squares to adhere to my cutting mat. Water was a little difficult.

Using water to hold monokote down didn't last through this morning on the mat. The best cling was standard drugstore alcohol, and the two cleaners held the same. Cutting the patterns was fine with construction paper. I tried 20 lb bond copying paper, but it tore too much, but just a little less than regular paper. They all lifted fine with Press n Seal and transferred to a test piece of monokote. I used my covering iron to seal them down and a little Top Flite trim solvent to get the edges. It's now 6 hours later and they are all holding fine in my garage which is 94 degs right now.

picard1

My Feedback: (2)

For me cutting on glass leaves a crisper line than using a mat, but mostly there is less drag on the tip of the blade. Just a feel thing...

albsurfer

I haven't done a full monokoting since I started this hobby in 2006, just patching, no designs or trim. I figured I'd see if the mat would work, and if it really mattered if you used Windex or not. I didn't do anything complex, and I'd bet the mat could easily be a problem on a complex design with small pieces or intricate lines. I just used a 2x3" killer whale design for the test. I did have a problem doing the eyes and I wasn't sure if it was the mat or the construction paper causing the problem. The blade seemed to grab a little during parts of the circle and the eye oval. The rest seemed to have good edges, but I did have to press down a little during the cutting to get through the monokote.

mirwin

My Feedback: (1)

albsurfer,

A couple of tips for you:

- Change the blade as soon as you feel that it isn't cutting smoothly. On a complex job, I'll go through 4 - 5 blades.
- Second: After applying the monokote to the base monokote and after you've squeegied all the liquid out, let it sit for at least 12 hours before sealing the edges with the Trim Solvent.
- ordinarily, you don't need to use any heat; it'll stay there till the cows come home. I have an 8 year old Super Skybolt and the design is as tight on all edges as it was the day I laid it down.

Mike

albsurfer

mirwin,
thanks for the advice. I'll try it out on my plane. I'm going to do the base coat tomorrow on a good share of it, then cut big trim pieces and put them down. I used the trim solvent on a couple of other planes I purchased to hold down the stripes when they tried to peel off after a few flights. It works good.

I have a wing left over from a Phoenix Models Tucano 40 that I've been stripping down for wood. I noticed that they used a woodpecker tool to make holes in the base covering and wood everywhere they laid down trim pieces like you have on yours so it would vent through and not create as many bubbles. I have read that this helps prevent bubbles when using heat, but have also read that it's unnecessary when heat is not applied. I'll try your method out because I don't really want to heat up the monokote twice.

Thanks to everyone for their comments on this subject.
Thanks to lomcevek1 for his video. I'll post a picture of my PRIMO after I'm done covering it. It won't have a nice design as yours, though. I do like the Swany Primo finish on his site, too.

padlock

My Feedback: (1)

Ive tried several brands of window cleaner and pure ammonia. None of these products activate monokote glue. I do not know where this got started but it does not work.

sbdwag

albsurfer

Sorry guys, I forgot to post a picture after I finished.
The windex only helped hold the monocote stay down on fairly flat areas. The monokote peeled up from the aileron chamfers when it dried. I used the trim solvent to hold a lot of it down, but I still had to use an iron on the trim pieces to keep it down. The blue gave me the most trouble. It could be that this monokote was pretty old, since i got it from someone else. I've talked to a few guys at my field since then and was told that Monokote on monokote is pretty difficult to do without high heat on it after sealing the edges.

Here's a couple of pics. the top & bottom of the plane is different, but same colours.
Left is the top of the plane. Right is the bottom.

deckerv

My Feedback: (21)

My Florio Stuntwagonfinished with this technique

albsurfer

deckerv,
I like it. Looks great.

rye

My Feedback: (10)

hi deckerv
can you give me the detail on how you did yours with two colors thanks rye

deckerv

My Feedback: (21)

Thanks!!! Pretty much did what the others did.. but for the yellow, I just cut the rough outline of the entire area. I put the yellow down first, then the blue on top of it. The metallic blue monokote has all the detail.

Can get closer pics if you'd like

skeeter_ca

How do you use Trim Solvent. I had some pieces that would not stay down and bought some trim solvent. It didn't work worth a darn. I put it under the piece. Over the piece. In the crack. Held it down. Ironed it down. and if you used it to much it would make the color run. Nothing worked.

Also someone brought up that windex does not activate the glue. I've used windex to help lay down and position the Monokote trim sheets but i thought it was just to help keep it from sticking so you could position the piece then squegee out the windex and it sticks.

skeeter

albsurfer

skeeter ca,
yeah, the whole thing about windex activating the glue is BS. I dip a q-tip into the trim solvent, then swirl it against the inside of the bottle opening and make sure none is running out. I lightly swab it around the edges of the Monokote I want to stay down after that. I wipe the edge i just swiped with a paper towel to get the excess solvent off immediately. I experimented with a bit on a wing from a crashed plane after my first attempt didn't turn out well.

Sometimes it doesn't hold it all down correctly, so I have to use the trim iron on those areas, but make sure it's dry first.
If you have to iron Monokote on Monokote, TURN THE HEAT UP HIGH!!! A guy in another forum gave me that advice and it works. You just have to put up with a few minor bubbles. You can always take a needle and pop the small bubble and iron it down quickly.

Good luck.

tacx

My Feedback: (1)

I lay down my Monokote over Monokote with alcohol. Works for me.

skeeter_ca

I saw some vague mention of Ultracote. Has anyone used this method with Ultracote and if so what modifications to the method did you have to do?

skeeter

cublover

My Feedback: (47)

nice!!! learn something new everyday....

lomcevek1

It has been a while since I have flown but it is nice to see this thread is still alive and kicking. When I made that video I never anticipated this much interest so Thank you for watching and I am glad if it was able to help.

Plenty of gorgeous airplanes out there.

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

I'd say that we should do what we can to keep the thread alive and have some subscribers show what they've been able to do with your video, to give other guys similar ideas.

Bob