Well guys, I fell in love my Hog Bipe so much I decided on having twins! Last I year I bought mine at a swap meet and I just wasn't satisfied that I did not build it. Last month I went ahead at ordered a kit from my LHS. I've spent nearly every evening for the past couple of weeks working on this. I could not decide on a scheme so I said, "what the heck, I'll come up with my own". I have two cats that sit in my shop with me every evening (my dogs are too friggin wired to allow in the shop with planes) so I came up with a unique idea - Big Cats! I searched a few online stock art sites and found some vector art that I liked. I put the art into Photoshop and made it the size I needed. Some of the art I was able to hand cut, but some of graphics I wanted were going to be impossible to hand cut (due to the detail).
I checked with a local graphics shop if they cut detailed vinyl. After discussing the project the fellow told me that he had an "Edge Printer" that may work better. This printer essentially creates a "sticker" from your design. THe printer works by using a thermal head that knocks out whatever it touches. THe level of detail it provides is amazing. I provided the text, font, and vector graphics and the were able to output my files - Holy Canoly was I impressed! The art and text came out great. Becaue they came in "stickers" I applied them with soapy water and squeejgied the water and bubbles out of them. The results were wonderful as you can see in the photos.
I realized though, that the artwork's ink was on the surface and made degrade if hit with the glow fuel so I applied clear monokote over the art work to protect them.
So there you go fellas, no need to rely on cruddy commercial stickers or vinyl that will come unglued!

Great job. I'm going to have to book mark this thread because I've kind of grown tired of spending a week or more just laying out a trim pattern. Lots and losts of Xacto knife work and sharpening blades after every few inches of cuts. I like the idea of having some covering cut for me.

Again, great job.

Don

The graphics supply was Fast Signs here in Winston Salem, NC
I'm going to have a few more graphics made so I will post them when I get them.