EMHW Katana Monokote covering thread

[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.

[zivbit]

gold stripes are 10 cm stripes irones using very-low-heat on top of the blue layer.
careful no to use to much heat as bubbles will come quickly.

After that, I cut the white monokote sticker stripe (1 cm wide) and stick it on the gold contour.

This bring the colors to "life" and emphasizes the color diferences....

That's my son near the wing...

[zivbit]

again..

[zivbit]

now for the top part of the wing:

blue first, then gold, then silver, then the white stripes.
when cutting monokote on the wing itself - use a new hobby knife, and replace blades frequently. I usualy cut 1 or 2 lines, and replace the blade.
that's a recepy to keep nice sharp line on the monokote.

I usualy do 1 wing at time, all of it, and then take measurements and do the next one.

[zivbit]

one wing done, I am dead tired.
final check: wing-elevator scheme check - all OK, they match...
so far everything is going well by the original plan.

Next I have the other wing and the finishing touches, including painting of the fiberglass parts with matching colors....

stay tuned.

[yonatan]

Great job ziv
always nice to see how you give your own touch to your airplanes.
yonatan

[GremlinX]

This is an excellent thread... I would love to see a guy like yourself do a start to finish including the templates and all... or do you freehand and eyeball everything. Great work my friend!