Get one of those Higley trimming tools. Seems expensive, but worth it. It looks like a small block plane with slots in the sole and a razor blade screwed to the top. You run it along an edge with the excess covering in one of the slots, and the blade trims the covering at a constant distance from the edge, about 1/8". When the remainder is ironed down you get a very clean seam.
One thing I've noticed about monokote is that the colors are not all equal in terms of ease of use. I use transparents, and the yellow just seems to go on easier. Trans red seems more difficult. Also, the yellow doesn't show seams, whereas transparent orange produces a darker strip along the overlap. Of course, not an issue with opaques. Black shows your mistakes. White can show dirt along the seams, especially if you iron a white seam with a dirty hotsock. You can dope over it, allowing you to dope the noseblock with a small overlap over the fuselage monocote. This way you'll avoid the nearly inevitable problem of wrinkles on a shaped noseblock. You can get dope to match. Doing it the other way, with monocote overlapping a doped section, doesn't work very well. Dope melts. I recently tried using regular monocote with two different brands of trim solvent. I'm disappointed with the results. I had been under the impression that it makes it easier to avoid bubbles, etc. Not so. I wish I'd used the sticky backed "trim sheet" material, or sign vinyl with windex or soapy water and squeegee. BTW, the solvents are just paint thinner or laquer thinner. Duh. However, my mistake with the trim led me to discover that you can sand monocote. I had a small but nasty wrinkle/bubble combo in the trim layer, right on the wing leading edge. Slicing it off with a razor still left some irregularities that would have telegraphed through a patch. I had a rubber sanding block with 320 wet/dry paper laying there, so I tried it. Worked great - really cut cleanly. In fact, it feathered the edge of the monocote. The patch should look fine. Tack cloth and/or vacuum before covering. Even fine dust will telegraph through. Which reminds me... monocote won't hide a poor sanding job. Have fun. >From: Andy Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Soaring (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [RCSE] Covering my first plane tonight, any tricks you have >appreciated >Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 10:29:10 -0500 > >Going for a monokote covering on a spirit 2 meter tonight >This is my first attempt at covering a plane so if there is anything I need >to look out for >lets hear it. Or any advise in general > >Also anything I might have not done yet as a newbie that I cannot do after >I >cover the plane would be nice to know now >rather than later. >I have already balanced the wing, and cut the hinge slots > >___________________________________________ >Fo' shizzle my nizzle used to dribble down in VA > --- Jay Z > >RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and >"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
