EMHW Katana Monokote covering thread

[Boogie]

Did You cut the stripe out of one piece of monokote?? That is a waste if so.

[zivbit]

the stripe is made of monokote sticker and I used a stripper to cut it straight.

[JeeUm]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Boogie
	Did You cut the stripe out of one piece of monokote?? That is a waste if so.

I'm confused Boogie, waste of time or material?

Ziv, gotta say before the white stripe I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now I'm sure, I love it. Definitley different and unique.

The one thing I see about the plane that I personally might not like is the half cowl, won't that make it kinda of difficult to work on the engine?

[zivbit]

Hi Jeeum,

on the contrary - half cowl means that each time I open the canopy to install the wings I get a good look on the engine and instalation and I can check everything in place before flights.
I do not mind this at all.

That is how all new katana's even from Krill are designed. the European way....

Cheers,
Ziv

More work tonight - I will post pics tomorrow.

[JeeUm]

Thats a big "Duhhh" on my part, that makes perfect sense. That is a great idea, for some reason I wasn't thinking removable with the hatch.

[madmax]

DAMN ZIV!!!!!!! That's awesome!!! A ton of guys here, myself included, will definately benefit from this thread, and from your technique.. THANKS!!!!!

[Boogie]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JeeUm
	I'm confused Boogie, waste of time or material?

I was thinking about the material rather.

[zivbit]

Moving on with the fuse:
I decided to close the canopy and place a pilot there.I contacted Paul from NOLIMITZ and got the Redbull pilot since the colors match perfectly....

Besides Redbull "gives you wings" so......

Here it is.

Paul - U the man!

[zivbit]

a little to big pilot , but looks cool anyway so...
fuse almost done.

[snap a saurus]

Ziv, nice work, one question, did you treat the wood before covering and if so what did you use?
Monokote is known to bubble in hot conditions, thanks.
Elie

[zivbit]

Hi Elie,

I did not treat the wood with anything but good sanding and some filler in rudder-fuse joint. nothing more than that.
You are right - monokote tend to bubble in hot temp, this is why you work with low temp on balsa.
Balsa - Low temp
Hard wood - higher temp (sticks better)
fiberglass - high temp (if the fiber is air-through)

When you do layers - you have to use VERY low temp, otherwise impossible to work without bubbkes. this is where oracover is superior.
The problem here is that oracover is no where to be found in good variety so I stick to monokote.

Most important - use heat blower (I use the B&D 1800 watt one) to go all over the surfaces after you are done, locate the loosen spots, and tighten them with the iron.

Cheers,
Ziv

[snap a saurus]

Hi Ziv
I guess the trick is how you do it and the temp setting, my experience with covering is very limited that's why this thread is important to me, thanks for sharing.

[zivbit]

OK guys,
here is how it looks when the stabs are placed together.
you start to get the look of it.
sometimes the color scheme looks nice on the drawing paper but in real its not so hot.
not his time.... I think I will keep this one!

[zivbit]

OK guys on to the wings:
first make sure that the wings are properly sanded and smooth.
When you iron the monokote well onto the surface -it shows everything! every little hole or scratch to the balsa - pops out.

Here are the wings before .

[zivbit]

I first do the bottom side.
Transparent colors always first, because when you over-lap the second color, you would not want to see the seam under the layer. darker colors always on top.

Transparent blue on the open spaces ribs, I cut it in the right design as shown with the round corner on the wing, then I iron the sover layer, using the bottom layer edge as a marker.
I iron 0.5 cm on top of the bottom blue layer, and then use a sharp hobby knife to cut the silver top color on top of it.

carefull not to press the knife to much as it will cut both layer and get to the balsa and leave it exposed. then when you use heat blower the 2 layers will separate from one another.

after that - on to the gold stripes.