Monocote

Coming from the RC hobby, I was just thinking this week why no one uses monokote. Especially for fins. If you are going to paper them anyway, why not apply some nice mono or ultrakote. It's lite comes in plenty of colors. Granted it's not as cheap as paint but you could still use it for trim and patterns over paint with a little 3M77. I also have a bunch of different colored lite packing tape that I used to cover foam wings that would go in excess of 130mph. It's tough, lite and easy to apply. I think it would be great for covering fins.

What do you experts think? Am I way off base here?

I have used monokote on rocket gliders especially the wings.

In years past I used Monokote extensively on mid-power birds. It worked great and looked fantastic. I would cover the body tube and fins before final assembly, and then cut away any areas that needed a glue bond surface. Some of the prettiest birds I ever made used this method.

Would you believe I searched the forums for "Monokote" late last night/early this morning to see about usage of it for rockets?

I was thinking about using it for a Fat Cat F104 Starfighter I just got since I want to make it up like the one in The Right Stuff movie and I was looking for alternatives to chrome paint, which doesn't appear to have any really good options. I finally decided to just order some Monokote Chrome from Tower and try it myself. It'll be good to hear from others on this since my build will be a long term/winter build.

I used the Monokote checkerboard trim on a LOC HyperLoc 1600 that went Mach 1.1 with a M motor. Stayed on perfectly. I had fiberglassed the airframe which is why I chose the stick on Monokote. I have never tried the iron on Monokote on a FG airframe. I did fly RC years ago and I know the iron on stuff sticks down tight if the surface prep is good especially on paper and wook.

This dual-deploy Wild Child is all Trim Monokote (except the nose cone).





The rocket on top is all Trim Monokote (except the nose cone).



Greg

Wow Thanks for the responses guys. I'm glad I brought this up. Between this and a post I saw yesterday about using a vinyl cutter for decorations, I think
I have enough to jazz up some otherwise fairly plain looking rockets.

Here is a couple pictures of a Monocote 4" LOC Tristar Rockdoc made. He is having problems posting so I put these up for him and he can talk about it

I covered my 3rd level rocket with the iron-on chrome. I used a clothes iron set very low, they get much hotter than needed. I use the stick-on for making stripes, no edges to seal as with paint

Being a long time RC airplane guy, I have several Monokote covered mid and high power rockets. Cardboard tubes and plywood fins.

Works fine and hold up better than some types of paint.

I also trim some painted rockets with Trim Monokote.

I typically cover everything but the nose cones.....

I used Monokote black and white checkerboard for my Scorpion; two wraps just under the nose cone.

bob jablonski said:

Here is a couple pictures of a Monocote 4" LOC Tristar Rockdoc made. He is having problems posting so I put these up for him and he can talk about it
View attachment 268471View attachment 268472

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Thanks Bob for posting the photos. I fly RC planes and have used monokote to cover many of my paper rockets. I use the monokote sheets that come in rolls and have used trim monokote for trim as well as the trim tape. Everything is covered on the Tristar except for the nose and transition. The booster and payload are covered in red monokote, and the motor tubes are covered in yellow monokote. The trick to the motor tubes are that you only want a partial cover of the tubes since they are glued together and a portion of the valleys where the fins will go will have to be exposed for the adhesive. For motor retention I used a 8/32 coupling nut in between the motor mount. I used the fluorescent green dye for the fillets on the fins and to where the notor mont fits the bottom of the booster. I call this my tinker toy rocket since the colors reminded me of the colors of the tinker toy components those of us that remember.

7 1/2" Loc tubing and G10 fins all Ultracote. Just watch your heat on the fiberglass. Also have a 5 1/2" Cherokee "K", several 4" rockets, 3X Mars Lander (J powered) all Monokote or Ultracote other than the nose cones. I used to paint cars for a living and this is much more fun and no fumes or temp/humidity issues. Also easy to repair. I have done all sizes of rockets. Rocks and asphalt are rough on it but they are hard on paint too. The 4" pathfinder in the upper right is painted base/clear 25 years ago.

I love Trim Monokote self adhesive coatings. Used them on plenty of Rockets!

Recommendations on overcoats for Monokote? Clear spray or Future?

BABAR said:

Recommendations on overcoats for Monokote? Clear spray or Future?

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I have never found that it needs a clearcoat. I have 30 year old aircraft models that are still perfectly shiny. Monokote is actually clear Mylar with a colored pigment mixed with heat activated adhesive on the back side. Not at all easy to make a clearcoat adhere well to Mylar film.

You might get decent clearcoat adhesion using some sort of adhesion promoter, but I am far from certain.

I use Trim Monokote on many occasions. To my taste it still requires preparing the underlying surface or you'll get a lumpy effect. Regular heat-shrink MonoKote, I've used on one or two rockets, but at the time, didn't like the result (again, it would require the prep of the surface below). I might be more prone to use it more now, since I'm lazier!

BABAR said:

Recommendations on overcoats for Monokote? Clear spray or Future?

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Why would you need a clear coat on MonoKote??

well, if one wanted to apply water slide decals...a protective coating would be useful .
Rex

Rex R said:

well, if one wanted to apply water slide decals...a protective coating would be useful .
Rex

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Water slide decals are not particularly compatible with Monokote. I suggest vinyl or other stick on markings.

tab28682 said:

Water slide decals are not particularly compatible with Monokote. I suggest vinyl or other stick on markings.

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you could put the water slide decals on, and if they dry ok on the mylar, you could try covering them with clear packing tape (I don't *think* there's Trim Monokote in clear, but I could be wrong)
.

Another consideration is something I've seen but not tried. You glass a tube with a light weave (HG) cloth or a heavier weave with a veil and then while still wet, apply a tube of Monokote over it. As you heat it and it shrinks you essentially get a permanent vacuum bag. Not unlike using shrink tape except you don't remove it. Glassed & painted in one step!