Creating the graphics on Jeff Reeves' new plane
   

It's 11 December, 2009 and I've started to apply the graphics to my new plane. I'll update this site as work progresses.

Note that the surface is not shiny. I've wet-sanded it back with 1200 so that the masking and the next four colours stick to the paint. I'll get the shine back with a coat of clear.

    
     
       
    The tail. I cut a single stencil for the tail. Because of its tight curves and thin lines, it's almost impossible to do this with striping tape. So far, this is the most difficult graphic I've ever cut.    
         
       
    The wheel pants. Orange top, indigo stripe and black lettering. The base colour remains white.    
         
       
    15 December, 2009. The fuselage graphics are complete.    
         
       
    19 December, 2009. The wing graphics on top are complete but I still have to do the bottom surfaces. The stab comes next. The cockpit shape was wrong so I fixed that.    
         
       
    20 December 2009. The masking for the stab is completed. Now for the underneath; I'm hoping that it's simpler and not as time consuming. The red and grey stencils (and the orange and green striping tape) are removed after spraying. For example, the wide red bit is the border between metallic purple and the white base.    
         
    Stopped work after this to get through the birthdays and Xmas that always interrupt at this time of year.    
         
       
    4 January 2010. Underneath, the graphics are complete and the fuselage is masked. I remove the flaps and elevators and paint them separately.    
         
       
    January 5, 2010. The plane is now completely masked except for the area that is to be painted indigo. I've prepared all surfaces with Prepsol and this requires an overnight wait for it to bleed off. Tomorrow, on goes the first of the trim colours.    
         
       
    January 9, 2010. The indigo is on and I've removed the masking to expose the area to be painted metallic purple. The next step is to mask off the indigo and clean the exposed area with prepsol. By the way, I do my masking using a first-masked-last-painted process. Orange is the last trim colour to go on so it was the first to be masked.    
         
       
    January10, 2010. The metallic purple is on and the area to be painted orange is exposed.    
         
       
    January 10, 2009. The metallic purple is quite a beautiful colour. It's a medium density colour that provides a nice transition from the heavy indigo through to the light-weight orange. One more colour to go: orange.    
         
       
    11 January, 2010. Masked ready for the orange. The surface has been cleaned with prepsol; tomorow I paint. I've been doing this for one month now although I had time off over Xmas.    
         
       
    12 January 2010. Finished - sort of. There are lots of small mistakes to correct now but nothing major.    
         
       
   

One thing I'm very pleased about is that the paint hasn't lifted anywhere. This wasn't luck but started with the first coat of epoxy that I put on the bare wood.

I'll add one more picture when it's ready to fly which will probably be in a couple of week's time.

    
         
       
    The finished aeroplane.