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Taping and Covering the Ki61 Combat Warbird
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Taping the airframe
In order to cover the Wing, you must spray it with 3M 77 adhesive. This stuff is expensive and sticky! Find a ventilated area, hold the wing perpendicular to the ground (thats up and down) and spray one side. Then spray the other side, and lean it against a wall to dry for about 30 minutes. Make sure its tacky and not wet, then you are ready to put the strapping tape on.
Applying Strapping Tape
First, make sure the adhesive is tacky and not wet. Second, DON'T STRETCH THE TAPE, JUST LAY IT DOWN AND SMOOTH IT ON! Stretching the tape while applying it will warp your wing and you wil be screwed!
Use 2 inch wide tape for all applications to help increase strength. Make sure to follow the tape instructions (they are pretty good). On my wing (with 2 servos) I just put the servo arms on when the radio controls are at neutral, then push them out of the way and cover them with the strapping tape. You can cut through it later to free the arms.
Follow the same instructions for the fuse. I put extra tape all throughout the wing saddle. This thing is gonna be pretty heavy!
Applying the Covering
Now its time to cover this puppy. Get any color Ultracote you like. Spray the taped up airframe again with 3M77 spray (you don't need too much here). I generally lightly sand the taped areas to increase the covering adhesion. Set your iron to just above medium and get ready to cover.
Make sure you just seal the edges of the airframe your covering. Don't heat shrink anything yet! Wait until (for example) the entire wing is covered and then shrink it with the iron on high. Keep that iron moving! If you have any warps, you can just twist it out and heat the covering to bring it back to shape. Don't cover the areas where your going to glue pieces together, like the wing saddle or the center top section of the wing. This also goes for the tail saddle top section. At this point I cut open the areas I need access to (i.e. the receiver, switch, and elevator servo). After your done, you can cover most of them up with pieces of the Ultracote and it will look fine.
Now on to Prepping the Tail Pieces!
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