I need a little help with a good color that stands out on yellow. My Laser 200 is yellow with blue trim and the bottom is just plane yellow. What is a good color that will stand out on the yellow. I was thinking about either some stripes or maybe some circles on the bottom of the wing. just something to help see when its upside down or right side up when its out a ways. Thanks

would blue (same color as on the top) work?
any dark color would be fine
dark blue, dark green, dark red, black.
purple might actually be the best one if you can get one that would work with that blue and yellow

You could use blue as long as it is a different design than the top. Straight stripes is what I used as a beginner, but a sunburst or something would be cool as well. One of my favorite color combos is red,yellow, and blue together. They make a good looking group if used properly.

I'm color blind so most of my planes have been yellow, I can see yellow very well. Any dark contrasting colors work well with yellow. I have always just used stripes but I did one last year with red, white and blue circles, sort of a bulls eye thing with different sizes. I can see that plane better then any of my others. It may be my new bottomg pattern from now on.

I assume by "stand out", what you are really after is a way to quickly distinguish top from bottom. The best way to do this is to use different contrast and totally opposite large geometric shapes. For example, a burst on top color, black and white invasion stripes on the bottom. So totally different you can’t confuse the two, and very quick to detect, i.e. really don’t have to even think about it. So for you yellow wing bottom, how about just a large dark stripe, front to back, out about 2/3 of the span and about ¼ span wide. One left, one right. I did this on all of my pattern ships and it works well. As for color, just pick something dark in contrast, any color will work, red, blue, black, whatever, as long as it is dark in contrast, it will stand out on the yellow.

On the planes that I need to stand out so I can see them I've found that red along with the yellow make the plane much more visible for my eyes. But as others have said, contrasting colors are going to be the most effective. Shapes and such will tend to disappear and blend into a general "blob" at distance so I don't like to rely on those for distinguishing between top and bottom. I prefer to do the top in one color and the bottom a contrasting color. But if you must do a shape or design to help tell the difference a basic stripe for the leading edge to the trailing edge will do more than most any other shape. Just make it a wide stripe so it can still be seen as stripe when the plane is away from you.

Hope this helps

Ken

Ken is right about the wide stripes. 3" minimum. White-Purple, Yellow-Red, Black-white, Green-white, any combo that really contrast to each other. The eye will pick up the difference in contrast much quicker that the difference in color.

White is a susprising good color for long distance visiability. We have a lot of birds around our field, including Sea Gulls, Vultures, and Egretrs, The white ones will show up much quicker that the darker ones. However, when they go silhouette, the color isn't important, but a contrast is.

I have a Pheonix Fun Star that I about lost all three of the first three flights. It was covered in trasparent yellow covering. It turned into a yellow blob as soon as it got within 90 degrees of the sun. After the third flight, I stripped it down and recovered it. The wings are white on top, and big white/turquoise stripes on the bottom The Cowl is red and the fuselage is white with more red/torquoise and yellow stripes to a prominate Torquoise/white combo on the vertical/rudder. One of the guys calls it "Patches", but you don't have trouble seeing it, or telling which direction it is going.

Big and bold color differences may not be the most pleasing to look at, but they come back home in one piece most of the time.

Don

I put 3-4" stripes on the bottom of one of my planes and it was amazing how well it stood out. The plane was red and white, and I just put white stripes under the wings and stab. I would probably stick with the yellow and blue and just make a good visible pattern.

Me too. Every one of our planes has some stripes (usually 2-3) on the bottom of the right wing, usually 4-6 inches wide, from leading edge to aileron. Everyone at the field knows it's our plane by the big wide stripe, but my (getting older) eyes can pick it out in the sky really well.

Jack

I have a plane that I have it covered in green on the bottom with two big stripes on both sides, and it is mostly white on the top of the wing. This allows me to distinguish it really well between top and bottom because one is dark and one is light. If I am looking at the light side, then that is the top. If it is dark, then it is the bottom. This really helps me when I am pretty far away and can't tell shapes or even certain colors very well. Up here in the pacific northwest, the clouds are here a lot and so a lot of stuff just kind of fades into the background.

I used to fly 12th scale combat and with up to 7 models in the 'furball' keeping track of yours and which way up it was is difficult.

One of the best schemes I saw used had one half of the underside of the wing black and the other white.

Other people used invasion stripes - those worked as well.

What ever you use make it big and bold with a contrasting colour like blue or black.

Yellow and red. All my other planes have the stripes on the bottom. This one everyone can see.

Color contrast perception really seems to vary from person to person. I see yellow and red very well but blues and greens, even the bright neon shades just seem to disappear on me. Now that airplane I could see!

I saw an ARF that really stood out the other day. It was a Matt Chapman 50 size Cap. The top is the yellow with the paint ball splatters. The bottom was white I think, but it had a large red bulls eye. The center of the eye was in the center of the wing. The rings of the eye were about 2" wide with 2" spacing between each one. There was no mistaking the top/bottom on it.

david

You know if you really really look at an airplane in flight, wings level, the bottom of the wings at any distance at all is like black and white TV....shades of gray.....So the color choices really doesn't make a difference......the contrast in shape is what is important.....
Now bank the airplane with the sun on it and you really have a beautiful image.....the colors leap out at you especially with a deep blue sky or a dark cloud as a back drop
The colors I see best at a distance are pink, yellow, and orange...
In case you see the neon coatings beware they fade bad in sunlight.....avoid chrome and light blue as they disappear in flight...
Good Flyin to all

This is what I was talking about.

David

http://www.greatplanes.com/airplanes...0-aileronb.jpg

One design that impressed me is the white and red bulls eye pattern on the bottom of the Matt Chapman Cap 580.

Try a checkered pattern trim sheet. Either create a thick checkered stripe on each side of wing ...or cover entire bottom in checkered pattern.

Thanks Gray Beard, now all I can see is spots..