I started by covering the sides in opaque red MonoKote. I cut the first piece for the RH side of the fuse, seal it down around all of the edges, and trim away the excess. I then shrink it with a heat gun, and use the iron to seal it down to all of the stringers and other structure. It's not as pretty as just shrinking with a heat gun, but it's WAY stronger when the covering is attached to all of the structure...the covering becomes a major source of strength in the airframe.
I didn't want to unplug the elevator servo and fish the wire in an out of the fuse, so i just worked around it.
Here, the elevator servo box is all covered around with the edges sealed down into the fuse, and the servo back in the hole. I didn't install the screws yet, I've still got to cover the bottom of the horizontal stab.
Moving forward on the fuse, I covered a few more bays on the LH side. I like to cut the material to size, seal it down all around the edges while gently pulling out mild wrinkles, and trim the excess away before shrinking it.
Here you can see where i applied a little bit of white to clean up the old covering scheme without adding additional white over the full length of the fuse.
Getting ready to cut and install the white on the LH side...
White trim added here to round out the edges of the original white.
The lower portion of the LH horizontal stabilizer is covered. I still have to iron in a 90 degree fillet at the junction of the stab and fuse to help keep fuel and oil out...
Here's a closeup of the hinge line after sealing with covering...
This is moving along pretty nicely, hopefully more tomorrow on this project!
Dave
http://www.RCDave.net
