Marc,

Thanks! Great question. [&:]

What I do is get some large sheets of paper and wrap them around the area to be covered on the plane, taping them in position with masking tape. I have connections at a local printing company, so I can get large rolls of scrap paper easily. You can use rolls of butcher paper or even the backside of gift wrapping paper. Once you have it taped into position, you "draw" your designs onto the paper, right on the plane with a pen or marker. This allows you to position the intended graphics over the compound curves.

Next you just pull the paper back off the plane and tape it down on a table over your covering material, and cut right through it with a razor knife into the Ultra/Mono cote. It's kind of like tracing, only backwards. Lay your master sketch on top and cut through it instead of laying it underneath and tracing.

This procedure gives you accurate templates that consider the compound curves in the equation. For example, a 1 inch wide strip going around the front end of a cowl would not be a straight line if you pull it off and lay it on the table. It will bend and curve in different directions to "seem" straight when it's on the plane. By doing this on paper taped to the plane first, you find out what and where those curves need to be. Then it's just a matter of transferring them over to your covering material and cutting it.

Whala!

Tom