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Permalink Reply by Joel Ryan on February 25, 2010 at 9:18pm

Usually most people don't use actual paint, but a film called monokote that is heated to fix it to the plane

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on February 26, 2010 at 7:15am

I have heard of monokote but isnt that used on balsawood planes? Im pretty sure some of the examples I have seen are painted sense you can still see the individual pieces of foam unless what I have seen is how they have come from the factory somehow.

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Permalink Reply by Sgt Ric on February 26, 2010 at 9:13am

If you want to see some wild paint jobs, look at these mods of the EasyStar.

I used Monokote on one of my EZs, but I was not happy with the results...
The Monokote did not shrink and handle like I remember on balsa models I have done in the past, but then again I have heard lots of complaints about Monokote's new formula, (which is mandated by law since the old chemicals may have been carcinogenic)

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on February 26, 2010 at 9:23am

Yeah I have not had the chance to do any work to a balsa plane sense I am JUST getting started in RC flying but I too heard the same thing about the new formula and because of the new chemicals the Monokote tends to wrinkle more and and not quite act the same as the old formula. I thought I heard that there was a second good alternative but I dont recall the name off hand.

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Permalink Reply by Wayne on February 26, 2010 at 9:47am

Wow you know your coverings. I think the other good one I heard to use was Ultrakote but I could be wrong. So do you know if standard flat spray paint is ok to use on this plane?

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Permalink Reply by Peter Seddon on February 26, 2010 at 9:53am

The difficulty is that the foam is 'greasy' and requires very careful surface preparation and priming.

Try searching on RCGroups.com as there are quite a number of messages there.

regards Peter
ps I used acrylic but did not prime properly and it flakes off!

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Permalink Reply by Sgt Ric on February 26, 2010 at 10:14am

There are many kinds of coverings available these days.

There are the iron-on fabrics such as Solartex (Colortex) and Super Fabric, and 21st Century pre-painted fabric, Nelson Lightfab, and Super Coverite.

In Mylar, there is MonoKote, UltraKote, TowerKote, EconoKote, Oracover, and Nelson Litefilm.

Next there are iron-on synthetic tissues, Litespan, Airspan, and Black Baron Coverlite.

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