Hey David,
I think the reason the covering has pulled away from the edge (in the first photo) is either because you didn’t stick that part down too well before you started to shrink the covering,….or, you didn’t dust the wood before you tried to stick the covering.
Always best to dust off the wood you are going to cover. You might have got a coating of sanding dust on it after you’ve sanded smooth all the parts of the airframe and the glue on the covering simply stuck to the dust, not the actual wood itself.
In addition, as Alistair said, you have almost certainly had the iron too hot for the type of covering you are using. It takes a little time to establish the correct temperature for each type of covering. Take your time and turn up the heat gradually, leave the iron for a few minutes to come up to temperature and try it on the covering. If it hasn’t pulled the covering tight then increase the setting a little more and repeat.
Finally, covering compound curves is a very tricky job. I’m crap at it.
(Tips of the wings, tail plane, top of the fin and the nose are all difficult.) The ability comes with loads of practice. Someone once told me that until you can completely cover a cricket ball with shrink covering and not leave a single crease should you try to cover a model plane! I’d never get a plane in the air if that were the case. :lol:
Cover compound curves a little bit (2mm) at a time and pull the covering tight as you stick the covering to the curve. Failing that simply cut the covering and stick it overlapping a bit at a time.
Now that you are learning all these difficult parts of a build you will never look at another home built model in the same light again. Next time you see a model look at the compound curves and see how well the builder has covered them. It’ll give you an idea of the builders skill level. Ha! :lol:
L. Keith
