I am recovering an Avastar that a friend crashed. I plan on doing a base coat in white and then probably painting the contrast over that. It still has the original covering over the elevator, so something that goes with those colors is preferable since I hate covering tail feathers after they are already on the fuse.

Any thoughts? I dont want to copy the original look since I don't care for it much. A little detail would not be a bad thing. I have two nice airbrushes at my disposal, but otherwise I will probably take krylon to it.

What are the colors on the stab?

And Krylon is not fuel-proof. Make sure you use a clear polyurethane over it

i Was planning on it. The stab still has the original Ava covering on it. It wasn't damaged so i didn't strip it down. The original covering was a a base white with orange, red, and yellow trim.

Draw an outline of the plane and make a few copies, then break out the colored pencils and have fun. ENJOY !!! RED

I have done this in photoshop before when I was working on a mustang. Ended up doing a blue and grey shceme. Never finished it though since the plane was too much on the heavy side.

I really just needs some thoughts on what would give the best visibility color wise and pattern wise.

Hi Sneasle,

Good colors:
Red
White
Yellow
Orange
Black
Navy

Bad Colors:

Grey
Silver
Powder Blue
Olive Drab

The important thing with visibility is CONTRAST. Use a nice mix of light and dark colors. I also like to make the top and bottom wing distinguishable with different colors or patterns on my more aerobatic planes. It really helps with orientation.

Darren

ok. looks like i should be fine color wise.

what kind of pattern would you recommend? stripes on top, nothing on bottom?

You could do orange/yellow/red stripes running opposite directions on top and bottom.

thats a possibility.

I was watching the covering how-to's here to see if they had any tips that could help me out and I like the scheme he used, so I might try and use it modified slightly to fit this application.

The one in the video is a really excellent scheme. It provides excellent visibility In all kinds of conditions, and good top/bottom differential.

A fellow in our club built a Sig Astro Hog and finished it in a 30's style dark blue leading edges & scallops with light blue behind and the whole underside. STEALTH technology in a clear sky for sure. It mostly vanished any time it was overhead or nose away.

I am building a "squint scale" version of a Curtis F6C Hawk (late 20's biplane). The top wing is to be yellow, the tail upper tail surfaces red, a red fuselage band and silver for the other 80% (fabric doped with a matte finish). Asking for trouble I know, but I just love that era, plane and color scheme. Putting all my hopes in being able to spot the two 6" roundel stars and the 5-1/2" wheels. Ought to make for dramatic rolls as the yellow and red flash alternately with the silver.

I liked it too Minnflier. I think I will go with that and strip the tail down the rest of the way.

MinnFlyer,
Where are the videos you posted on covering ?


Hey I found them here is the text from the original post......

MinnFlyer wrote .....
Well, I finally got around to making the new covering videos that I have been promising. Here they are:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=726

These go along with the original basic covering article I did a few years ago which can be seen here:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...?article_id=67

There are also 3 short videos in the " Covering " section of this Review of the Great Planes "Profile-38" located here:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=352

I am building a PT 60 for my brother, I think I will give this a try.

Here are the pictures of the PT-60 I built for my brother, it is modified a little bit but still a PT-60 at heart.
Thanks ti Minnflyer for the covering scheme.

Did the hobby shop have a sale on Red? LOL Just kidding. It looks great!

LOL, I debated with myself for at least 5 seconds on the choice to go with just two colors instead of the three like your scheme really calls for and you can see what won out.
Since these pictures were taken I have dressed it with pin stripe tape like you showed in your videos.
I used 1/4" black on the color intersections with a 1/8" black side stripe set 1/8" apart.
I almost left this step out but I am glad I added it, the pin stripes really makes it pop and it adds just a little touch of a third color.

Minnflyer I have a question about stretching the covering around curves.
I can do this and the covering conforms to the curve but it is wrinkled immediately where it stops contacting the surface.
I cut off the excess but it is hard to get the edge of the covering to iron down flat on the wood. The covering has also lost its flexibilty after heating and stretching. Is this normal or am I not really doing it correctly.
In the past I would iron the covering down at the edge and trim the correct size overhange and when it needed to wrap around a curve I would cut lots of small 'tabs' into that part and as I would iron it down the tabs would follow the curve and overlap themselves forming a sealed edge. On this plane I used my old method and the pull and stretch method and they both end up looking about the same overall.
In my judgement both methods produce an edge that looks ok but certainly not "excellent".
I know it is a lot of work to do a video but if you are just sitting around with nothing to do could you make one on just covering the wingtip with some very close up shots of what the finished edge looks like ?

Thanks for being a resource here, I appreciate your effotrs.

here's what i did.......i actually went farther than i needed to, in that i went well beyond the wing chord. when trimming the excess, i actuall pulled the covering up so that i was cutting the "smooth" part of the covering. after than i just ironed it back down.

you can also try turning your heat up to max BUT you have to move quickly and not stay in any one place or the covering will shring and pull apart at the seam. (been there got the t-shirt)

Kevin has the right idea.

Go PAST where you need to, then cut right at the part where it is adhered - even if you have to lift it a bit, then iron it back down.

BTW, just from what you described about the covering losing it's elasticity after being heated I'm going to guess that you used MonoKote. Am I right?

i guessed that too.....LOL

Yes I used MonoKote.

Next Time try Ultracote and that problem will go away