Hello everyone!

I am about to start covering a trainer (PT-40) for my little brother and am utterly confused as to how the color arrangement on the wing should be. The first trainer that I built was covered completely with solid color monokote. I later found that I needed to add a couple of stripes on the bottom of the wings for better visibility. I want to avoid such visibility problems this time and am trying to make a good color scheme. I am using white and blue monokote. Is the bottom of the wings supposed to be dark or light? I am gonna attempt to replicate the covering scheme that is on the factory PT-40 but I noticed that white is used for the bottom. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

RF

I'll tell you what I have found to be true.

Go dark on the bottom. It is really easy to see against the sky and you will be looking at that the most anyway.

Go with your bright/white on the top. Even on overcast days I can see the while on the top of the wing when I turning. Red turns to mud in the air unless the sun is shinning bright. I'm going to try bright yellow for my black and white bipe. I hear that hot pink is the best for overcast days. Not sure if I will do that to a Jungmann though.

on all my planes I use 3" stripes on the wing bottoms,dark and lite,and yes pink and white or pink and flo. green really stand out,pink and green are colors I use on the combat planes,very easy to see.
Have a goodun,John.

you want as much contrast as possible with the sky.

white is ok cause its rare to get perfect "snow" white clouds and it contrasts with the blue of the sky. (as long as you have a contrasting secondary color)

blue and purple are a bit diffrent as they can blend in with darker clouds (I have a purple and white Somthin' Extra and during an overcast day I cant make out orientation sometimes the purple blends in too well)

also black is a good color as a secondary because unless you are flying at night it contrasts with just about everything. (solid black plane could blend in with shadows while close to the ground so you need something else)

as for shapes go for a single strip, or solid on the top and several stripes (or if you are up to it) a checker pattern on the bottom, you want something that is easy to tell top from bottom

putting stripes on the tail can help with front/back orientation so don't forget about the tail surfaces

just my opinion

I like to use a three color trim scheme whenever possible. Have had good luck with yellow/red/dark blue or white/red/dk blue. For a fuselage, I might put the darkest color on the bottom (say dark blue) yellow on the side and red on top. The wing might be blue along the LE, yellow in the center and red along the TE. The bottom of the wing might be red along LE and blue/white checkerboard or stripe on the bottom. My feeling is to create as much contrast between the top of the plane and the bottom of the plane as possible. Many ARF's especially trainer use white on the fuse, white on the bottom of the wing and a couple of stripes on the top of the wing. With this trim scheme I have a very hard time distinguishing the top from the bottom of the plane. This can be disasterous if your not careful. Colors that are closely related tend to blend together and are hard to see, especially on smaller planes. I've noticed that as I have gotten older it is harder for me to see colors at far distance. This is one of the reasons I like the bigger planes, they are so much easier to see. I make sketches of the plane and try out different color schemes using magic markers to color in the sketches.

I agree with the replies on having a major contrast, dark on the bottom, light on top. There is a good web article that talks through color scheme tips for functionality, and I have used these suggestions with good results. Check it out at http://www.ultimatecharger.com/color.html.

Bo

http://www.ultimatecharger.com/color.html

Yellow has been the color I can see best in the air. I had a Pink and white G202 (72") that was the hardest for me to see.

yellow is great...also if there is orange on the leading edge it is real ez to see when landing....-Tinman-

Well, after reading all the wonderful replies here is the scheme I have decided to go with:

bottom of wing: Dark Blue(with a couple of fluorescent yellow stripes running parallel to the fuse)

top of wing: LE is gonna be Dark blue and the rest of the wing(3/4) white.

Bottom and half-way up the sides of fuselage: Dark Blue

The rest of fuselage: White

Rear Feathers: White with blue stripes.

Tell me what you think of this. It should be a fairly easy job. I hope......

Thanks again for all the replies. Gotta love RCU Boards.

RF.

I know it may look a little gaudy, but I'd rather see it than get an award for color coordination...

And believe me, this one I can see!

wing top


wing bottom

Love it my kind of colors,Crash-N-Burn.
Have a goodun,John.

Hi again,

I have now finished the wing and snapped a couple of pics of it. What do you all think? Visible enough?

Thanks in advance.

This pic is wing top.

And the bottom of the wing:


RF

Looks good.. white stars would look nice on the leading edge. Just a suggestion.

I might go ahead and throw some yellow in there somewhere.

Yup, what Billy said