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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: Jim Morris on September 19, 2022, 04:08:46 PM

Title: another finishing question
Post by: Jim Morris on September 19, 2022, 04:08:46 PM
Well, I have a question about what and how to finish this airplane. A little background. I am not a very good builder or painter who flies better than I paint. I have very little patience. Airplanes in the past were monokote or ultrakote wings and tail with silkspan flaps, elevators and fuslage painted with Lusterkote. That was my system. Now no more Lusterkote, and the plane is a 60 size ship with foam wing core sheeted in balsa. My original plan was 2 coats thinned nitrate, then dope on carbon veil, then paint with Rustoleum primer, sand off then Rustoleum color. I got to thinking this might be alot of weight on the wing. I was wondering if monokote or ultrakote would work good on a fully sheeted wing covered with carbon veil first, or would the sun make it bubble up? thank for any help.
Title: Re: another finishing question
Post by: Dennis Toth on September 20, 2022, 04:06:47 PM
Jim,
The short answer is yes, the Mono or Ultra will work on the sheeted wing, Rustoleum on the fuse. Allen Brickhaus did this all the time (his wife was sensitive to dope fumes). You can probably find a write-up for his method on this forum or at Flightlines website. For the sheeted surface you can go with EconoKote (or other light film versions) and same a little more weight. I always gave the sheeting one coat of "Balsarite for Film" before applying the film. Make sure you sand the sheeting very smooth and use a tack rage to remove all sanding dust before applying the Balsarite for Film and again before applying the film.

Best,    DennisT
Title: Re: another finishing question
Post by: Jim Morris on September 20, 2022, 05:22:28 PM
Jim,
The short answer is yes, the Mono or Ultra will work on the sheeted wing, Rustoleum on the fuse. Allen Brickhaus did this all the time (his wife was sensitive to dope fumes). You can probably find a write-up for his method on this forum or at Flightlines website. For the sheeted surface you can go with EconoKote (or other light film versions) and same a little more weight. I always gave the sheeting one coat of "Balsarite for Film" before applying the film. Make sure you sand the sheeting very smooth and use a tack rage to remove all sanding dust before applying the Balsarite for Film and again before applying the film.

Best,    DennisT
Thanks Dennis. Does this mean to just for go the doped on veil?
Title: Re: another finishing question
Post by: fred cesquim on September 21, 2022, 11:57:41 AM
Thanks Dennis. Does this mean to just for go the doped on veil?
i would monokote over the bare wood, you donīt need the extra weight and strenght of the carbon veil if you do not paint over the wing sheeting.
in fact monokote neets some space to breathe the fumes and bare wood will help on that
i have made a lot of models like this and never had an issue.
these 2  have the wings fully monokoted over bare wood, both still flying after some 15 years, both went to international competition so they had a lot of stress on the airframe and hundreds of flights.