paint on monocote

Is there a way to get paint to stick to monocote/monocoat? Such as roughing up the surface with 400 grit sandpaper or steelwool?

That or you can by an 'etch primer' such as Prymol.

OUGHT to work. People (notably, Phil Cartier) have painted over other plastic coverings. The trick, I've heard, is to scratch it up with steel wool.

You cannot use our "dope" type of paint on the plastic films. Those paints are hard and will not take the abuse of the temperature changes of film as it expands and contracts. After a while the paint will "pop" loose from the surface. I have had no problem with "softer" paints, such as Rustoleum or X-O-Rust (from a True Value Hardware store). Also Formula-U works fine. The MonoKote paints will also stick and move with the changing temps of the film coverings. I have not used Century 21 type paints to know much about them.

Jim and Allen,

Current butyrate dopes probably cannot be used on Monokote - agreed.

About 22 years ago I knocked out a .15 profile covered with clear Super MonoKote, painted with AeroGloss. Tricks used: mucho plasticizer (at that time, castor - Flex-All was years in the future), a wet wipe with neat acetone and NO touching anything except the light - sprayed - AeroGloss.

This is history, as AeroGloss isn't reliably available any more, and if you find it you have no idea what it will do... Apparently, the straight acetone micro-etched the clear $Kote surface - it looked like a very stretched oil film on water, some prismatic color effects to light grazed across the surface... The AG paint DID stick, and after two decades, plus, MOST of it is still on the model. Pretty advanced case of dandruff, tho. Still a great flying model...

Masking was not a good idea... Adhesion was adequate for handling and flying, but tape? uh-uh.

That Left-hand Shaft Fox powered AA, Sr., I flew at several VSC was also AG painted clear $Kote. Advantages: light, great finish (if you prepped the wood for a good $Kote job), quick. More puncture proof than silkspan.

I have used scotchbrite pads for years. Easier to control if you are using against the edge of something and is sharper than steel wool.

I have used ultrakote spray paint on my ARF Nobler last year when I put it together to paint the tips white. It works great and still holding up great.
Ryan

Scotchbright and Rustoleum on my Ultrakote.

thanx guys...cross ur fingers for me lol....jim

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I've used Krylon,Perfect,Lusterkote, Rustolium, and others. They will all stick to Monokote as long as you break the shine off and then make sure that the surface is absolutely clean. Done right it should last the life of the model,however long it is.
Dennis

Krylon has a new paint out that is formulated for plastic, it is called "FUSION".They have a pretty good color selection in both simi-gloss and gloss. I have tried it on some Monocoat scraps then soaked them with fuel.It held up well until I got to the 60% nitro then desolved. I haven't used it on an airplane yet but so far it looks promising.

Mike, how do you think "Fusion" would work on "OZ-Cover"? I got some OZ-Cover Lite from Art Grabow in Everett for the Brodak OrientARC. Also, where do you get Krylon "Fusion"? Freddie's? Steve

Steve,I'll try it on some and see. Ya Freddies has it.