I am about to install trim cote and decals on my Phoenix Extra330S. Two questions in this regard

1) Is there any technique to installing the decals? As far as I can see, they are only stickers

2) Is there a convention to installing the wingtip trimcote? i.e. when standing across the tail, which wing should be red andd which some other color? I plan to yellow the underside of the wings for better visibility as it is gray right now

Ameyam

Ameyam, go out to where you will fly and look for birds. Not the ones close in, but those a long ways out. What you will probably find is that the first birds you will see at a long distance either on a cloudy day or a sunny day with the sun at your back, will be a white one. The next to be seen are the black or near black ones. The gray and tan birds don't stand out so well. The main reason you see the white and black birds first is their contrast to to the background sky.

So keeping this in mind, the best bottom color is two of highly contrasting colors. IE black and white. Red and white. Blue and white. Don's rule for covering is that the bottom of the wings and the horizontal has to have contrasting stripes that run fore to aft, and a minimum of 4" wide. The top of the wings needs a contrasting pattern that basically runs parallel with the LE of of the wing. Color isn't as important at long distance as the contrast is visible. The pattern change tells you if you are looking at the bottom or top of the plane.

Another contrast tip is to make the vertical a strong contrast to the nose of the plane so you can quickly determine the direction the plane is going, either upright or inverted.

Last, on a very overcast, dark cloudy day, none of this matters much unless you fly very close in. Every thing becomes a silhouette in those conditions.

The challenge for you is to make it look great close up and to make it visible far out.

As to how to apply the decals, the adhesive backed ones need to be very well aligned before the first part touches the covering You may try folding them over the edge of a stiff, thin plastic, like a credit card and once you are satisfied whit the orientation, stick down the center and burnish out to one edge with the card, keeping the other side from sticking down. Then go back and do the same for the loose side. The biggest problem is air bubbles and there isn't much you can do to remove them Getting the decal down flat with the minimum of bubbles and no folds is the best you can hope for. Ido not know how the soapy water method will work with the adhesive backed decals.

Don

Don, It works, so does windex and a good slathering of alcohol. You can move trim coat around a bit then squeegee out the air bubbles and let the glue dry for a day or two. I have some sticky backed decals on my wall hanging bipe that have been on there for a lot of years.

I was basically asking details of the soapy water method

With regards to the trimcote, thats the airplane

As you can see, the contrasting colors are alredy there on the top of the wing. Was wondering whether I should add more trimcote. May be red on one side?

Also, the bottom is completely gray for the wings and blue for the fuse. I saw someone hovering on the web abd he had a yellow stripe on one side. Was considering doing that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqSSZ...layer_embedded

Ameyam

Ameyam,

Great looking model!

I would certainly add color and some design to the bottom, large checks possibly? Yellow/blue or yellow/black?

As for applying vinyl graphics and lettering. Yes, they can be applied wet. I tell my customers to use "Foam Window Cleaner." You can purchase this stuff in an aerosol can. You don't need much, just a light dusting of spray.

As for tiny bubbles? Pay no attention to them, eventually all bubbles go away, the drying of the chemical and the heat from the sun, all add to this.

The absolute most important thing, is to make sure the surface is clean.

Here's some graphicxs applied by the modeler themselves.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...ry&memid=11343

As for your model, I could see "CFC Graphics," on one wing and "Charlie's Flying Circus," on the other.

For FREE if you put them on your model!!

I don't know if you can get it in India but if there are auto parts stores there you can buy some 1/8 inch pin stripe tape and go around the edges of the top colors to give it a pop, it really adds to the trim. It's normal for people to add more colors to the bottom of the plane so you are able to instantly tell the top from the bottom. As Don pointed out, stripes of about 4 inches wide are about the norm. I'm not a big fan of the trim sheets, I use covering to dress up my planes then use the auto pin stripes to dress it up a bit more. One of my favorite stripes is a double stripe tape. It has one thick stripe and a thin stripe, looks great. I buy a pack or two every time I run into it. I also bought one of the GP trim stripe cutters so I can cut my own from covering. Any contrasting colors works very well. I have also discovered i like circles better then stripes but it's a lot more work. After I did a Kaos with circles on the bottom I had several guys start using them instead of the stripes.

I put orange trimcote sheet (from GP, I had planned in advance) on the right wingtip and checkered yellow from below. I also have the 1/8" pinstripe ta[e in red and silver colors. Had purchased it as canopy tape. Havent used it as trimcote yet. I also installed the decals

I did commit one boo-boo. While trying to tighten the belly covering I overheated it and it receeded from the seam. Fixed with tape but it doesnt look good. I will get some blue monokote and fix it later

Ameyam