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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Dick Pacini on October 23, 2011, 02:46:37 PM
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What is the most popular method of covering a plane with one of the plastic iron coverings? Dope and paint the fuselage and cover the wing and tail? Cover the whole plane with iron on? It seems to me that if one goes the iron on route, it is to get away from dope and related issues of cost, odor, spraying, etc. Still, some prefer to paint the fuselage and iron on the rest. It might make a difference of profile or full fuselage. What is the most desirable method?
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"Most popular" method is easy to answer. "Most desirable" is going to get you at least as many answers as the number of people you ask.
I just don't see the point of coving a profile fuselage with plastic covering. They're really easy to paint, so why not go that route? If you use Minwax Polycrylic as a base coat, then Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel on top of that, you can get a pretty nice finish. I've tried Minwax as a first coat followed by Minwax mixed with talc, and I've tried Minwax as a first coat followed by acrylic primer from Miller Paint (which is astonishingly way easy to sand, and also easy to see when you've sanded through). I haven't gotten any air miles on the plane with the acrylic primer, but if it doesn't all just fall off the plane I think it's a winner.
Rustoleum enamel smells a lot less than dope, and it comes in rattle cans. At some point I need to just buy a compressor and do the job right, but until then it's letting me get models in the air.
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Dick,
Covering the fuselage with a plastic film is very difficult due to the mutiple seams required. You can never get the nose area seams to stay intact due to fuel and wind blast. I have covered many wings with iron on film and always paint the fuselage. The tail section is covered if open bay, but painted if solid sheet construction. I always cover the open bays before painting. I de-gloss about 1/8 inch of the wing to fuselage seam (same for tail section) and paint that area with the fuselage to create a paint seal to the seam. The other area of concern is the leading edge of the wing flaps. I roll a piece of covering around the leading edge to double seal this area. This method has worked well for me for years, but covering the fuselage will lead to fuel soaking issues that you simply cannot repair.
Paul
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Profiles are tricky with film, mainly in the engine area, as you would need to cover over the engine mounting area and keeping film well attached there is a pain. It can be done but certain methods have to be followed. You will have to paint one way or another to fuel proof the engine mounting crutch on a profile, so it may be just better to paint the whole fuse.
Full fuse models are another animal entirely and I use film for the entire airframe.
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What is the most popular method of covering a plane with one of the plastic iron coverings? Dope and paint the fuselage and cover the wing and tail? Cover the whole plane with iron on? It seems to me that if one goes the iron on route, it is to get away from dope and related issues of cost, odor, spraying, etc. Still, some prefer to paint the fuselage and iron on the rest. It might make a difference of profile or full fuselage. What is the most desirable method?
I think iron-on for the wings and tail, and paint for the fuse, is generally the most satisfactory method. There's no reason to use dope, use an two-part epoxy or polyurethane (Klass-Kote highly recommended). Dope, at the best of times, is fuel *resistant*.
Finish-sand everything, and then cover the wing and tail. Apply the fillets over the edge of the film. Then mask off the wing and tail and finish the fuselage.
Brett
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There is a fairly recent article by Alan Brickhaus on "Finishing the Olympus" in Flying Models that outlines a film/rustoleum finish. I never used it but there is a lot of info out there.
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i have done both and each method has it's own quirks.
- Monokoting a fuselage is most difficult around the area you need covered the most, the engine mt area. I use balsarite around the engine bearers and all of the plywood parts of the fuse(the doublers).
This helps with Adhesion but is also supposed to be fuel proof.
I build the front of my planes in a different manner as well.
I either use an open eng mt area like on the ringmaster and flitestreak
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I cover the engine mts and the inboard doubler in the engine area before I glue these two pieces together. The Covering is easier to do this way.
- the gaps around the wings and the stablizer come next and once again I use Balsarite to cover these areas and then overlap the monokote.
You can also dope your fuselage first as well - about three coats will fuelproof the wood without causing the covering to have any issues .
When I do paint my fuselage first, I use thinned elmers glue as my dope and put about three to four coats on before painting with a store bought enamel.
This I find the easiest to do, filling the gaps around the wing/stab are where the difficulties occur.
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I've tried Minwax as a first coat followed by Minwax mixed with talc, and I've tried Minwax as a first coat followed by acrylic primer from Miller Paint (which is astonishingly way easy to sand, and also easy to see when you've sanded through).
The Miller acrylic primer, is it a lacquer type product ? Aerosol package ?
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Dick,
one of the mot beneficial reasons to iron on film ( I prefer Ultracote) the wings and tail, aside from it being pretty straight forward, fast, and simple,, is that you can control the weight of the finished model much easier. Film is very consistant in weight ( though some colors weigh slightly more than others) and the wing is the largest surface by far. As such, it is the most prone to weight gain during finish. Especially when you have open bay wings..