I want to name my spitfire. How do i stencil the name onto the side of it? Can i use letter stickers or is there some nicer, cleaner way of doing it?

You can use the letters that you mentioned, but if you want a more custom job find a sign shop in your area that can cut the lettering in vinyl. When you apply the vinyl letters to your plane put a coat of clear fingernail polish over the top of it to seal it from exhaust and fuel residue.

Ken

Is this a nitro plane or an electric?


You could get some fuel proof paint and do a custom stencil onto the covering, depending on what it's covered in. If it's a parkzone or something, and is made of foam, that might be better than stickers...

Try [link=http://www.getstencils.com]GetStencils.com[/link] We make Vinyl paint masks, vinyl lettering, and dry transfers.

Regards,
Jerry

I was going to say, a sign shop, or a pal with a vinyl cutter, can cut either the letters like Ken said, or weed the letters and use what remains for a paint mask.

my spitfire all roundels and lettering done using stencils from www.getstencils.com I have also done a P-47, and am building a Focke Wolf 190A8 and I will be using there stencils and dry transfers for that plane as well, good folks and quality products

Without a doubt vinyl dry transfers. No spacing hassels with all letters remaining in perfect relationship and really no hassels with fuel proofing if you use a little common sense and not locate anything right next to exhaust outlet. It all done on a computer. I just go to the sign shop with a drawing of the dimensions and the letters just roughed out for spelling and give it to the young man who runs the vinyl machine and tell him to get creative with with the font and to have fun with it and go back a few hours later and they are ready for application. Most of the airplanes costs five bucks and the most I paid is ten.

After doing commercial work all day long he sees my truck pull in and he is out there wanting to see in the truck even before I can park wanting to see 'His' latest airplane.

Adding here a few:

I got tired of dealing with others and bought my own cutter

The Hockey man.

What kind of cutter did you buy? Go Wings.

It wern't cheap but I have a 24" Endura Cut+ from http://www.signwarehouse.com

The + model has the digital motor so it will do curves and small detail work w/o stepping.

How do you make the vinyl letters / shapes stick?

john, i love the tail gun on the "foo bomber" very creative

Dry transfer vinyl is very thin usually thinner than ordinary stickers. When it is done it has a backing on both sides. The contact side paper is removed and the letters all remain in the proper position by the backing on the other side. This is used to apply to the surface in the proper position. After it is on mild pressure is appplied to the letters (you can see them through the remaining backing. I normally give them a good rubbing with a desktop eraser, now the remaining backing is peeled off carefully.

This system works very well as far as fuel proofing goes if you use common sense and do not locate them where exhaust puddles up on the airframe. I do not use any kind of over spray, nothing and they have proved to be very durable and far better than ordinary peel and stick designs/letters.

andrew thank you

Man, those turrets are super cool!! Good work. What about the shock absorbers? Do they really function, or are the decorative only?

I have used stickers, and vinyl for decoration on my planes. I make sure to use rubbing alchohol to clean the location really well first. I havent had any issues with peeling or them coming off yet. I also avoid anywhere the exhaust will get on the airplane.

Yes the do carry some of the loads, the airplane weighs 17 pounds and the single piece aluminum strut plate is flattened considerably and will flex quite a bit.

Indeed bonebreak I agree with you and neglected to mention its important to clean the area with alcohol before application of any transfer or sticker

John