cover all major assemblies - jig and align and mark out where the fuse goes on the main wing ans stab - remove the monocote from the joint area - glue and re-jig.  DONE!

It is a LOT easier doing the 'cote first - trying to put film on a built model is a PITA

Thank you for the help gentlemen.  Now if you don't mind, explain how you jig the rudder Wynne.  I have the stab jigged okay, but still trying to figure a way to get a vertical stab to be vertical.

Steve

Absolutely do what Wynn says....you'll hate yourself otherwise.  Don't ask how I know this! LOL

As an alternative, get the wing glued into the fuselage, make nice fillets, paint the fuselage and the first inch or so of wing, then Monocoat the wings.  You should still finish the tail first, unless they're sheet and you paint them with the fuselage.

Whatever you do, make a firm decision and stick with it.  And when you do get around to gluing in the wing and tail, use slow glue so you can double and triple check everything before it starts to set -- nothing sucks worse than getting everything glued together with CA then realizing it's out of whack, although trying to rip apart a plane that's held together with half-cured five-minute epoxy comes close.

Peter that's incredible!  I am really struggling with the basics but like everything else I have done, persistent practice will eventually pay off.  I have started over many times on the stab, elev, etc. and find that after a couple of months I still don't have a plane that I can fly.  I am considering buying an ARF just to get into the air while my building moves out of the clumsy stage.  Thanks for all the great input.

Peter that's incredible!  I am really struggling with the basics but like everything else I have done, persistent practice will eventually pay off.  I have started over many times on the stab, elev, etc. and find that after a couple of months I still don't have a plane that I can fly.  I am considering buying an ARF just to get into the air while my building moves out of the clumsy stage.  Thanks for all the great input.

If you haven't flown much, go ahead and fly the model 'ugly'.  If you're going to prang it anyway, it won't stay pretty long.

(and laugh at me -- I'm still crashing regularly, yet I'm rebuilding a gift plane so it'll be pretty.)

The way I finish they would have to be in the next county. Or better yet maybe blind judges, then my terrible pattern would kill my score.

Steve

Bob has good suggestions. There is a caveat with RC guys though. Most of the RC covering jobs these days are over balsa skinned foam wings. These are orders of magnitude easier to cover than open bay structures as is common in CL. Doing a good covering with film requires a degree of physicality. To do a proper job you have to get intimate with the airplane very much like when you are sanding the airframe. You can not just stick it in a painting stand and cover. For most of my covering tasks the model is in my lap and I and I am heating and stretching and sticking.

If you are covering in film and you don't have the feeling that you can use a pair of extra arms you are not doing it right. Because of the physicality required to get a top notch covering job in film, it is easy to accidentally iron in a warp on open bay ribbed wings. This is where experience in film coverings helps a lot. Nice thing is that a warp is equally easy to remove but could turn out to be a exercise in frustration.

Mistakes are far harder to correct. Cut something the wrong size or shape you can not just do a touch up spray job, the entire panel has to be removed and you start from scratch.

It is a myth that getting a great finish with film is easy and any dunce with a clothes iron can do it as some individuals would lead you to believe. While it is not as time consuming to get it covered to a given color than with paint. To get a outstanding finish and graphics scheme done in film is far harder. What would be your masking in a paint process is your actual covering, and unlike masking it has to stay on and add as little weight as possible. Like I said before any mistake and the entire panel has to be removed and replaced. Once it's down it is down. you can't sand away seams or irregular lines, it has to be as perfect as you can make it the first time.

On rule of thumb is be prepared to waste a ton of material. You can not achieve results being frugal or stingy with the covering. Trying to do so makes things a whole order of magnitude more difficult. Allow a full 2 or 3 inches excess covering for any surface. You need something to grab onto and manipulate. In certain areas I'll give up to 4 inches of excess.

This is not going to be cheap but then neither is a top notch paint finish.

If you keep an eye on the Pathfinder LE build thread in the building techniques section. I'll be giving a step by step film finishing tutorial on the plane. I'll just have to figure out how to snap photos while I have my 4 hands full with the iron, monokote and model.

Folks should copy Peter's post, frame it, and hang it over the wotkbench. All but the simplest  covering jobs require extreem attention. Even the simple one color jobs will benifit from the advice Peter has offered.