RV-12 Too early to play with paint ideas?

So, who else waists too much time with Paint or Paintshop dreaming of ways to paint a plane that does not even exist in it's final version yet?



Nothing against the Yellow Van choose. Just a slow day today.

Eric

Never too early to start dreaming...

Nice layout.

I've played around with a few myself.

This is a stupid question, but but how do you fill in the lines so well? I can draw in lines, but I can't figure out how to fill in large areas.

I too have been playing around with some paint schemes. I'm not too concerned about the general shape of the 12 because paint can trick your eye into seeing what you want to see. Long thin stripes can make a plane look longer. Heavy stripes perpendicular to a surface can shorten a long piece (for instance you can make the wings look shorter if that the look your after by adding stripes along the chord).

Many years ago there was an excellent ariticle in Sport Aviation about how to use paint to "change the shape" of a plane. I think it was written by the designer of a plastic airplane call the Polywagon. The plane didn't do so well but I thought the author had some good points about paint schemes. Perhaps someone with the Sport Aviation Archive DVD's could research this and list the magazine references here.

I like the general appearance of the Sport Cruiser that I flew and one thing I noticed was the canopy. In earlier models they had sharp angles in the canopy frame but you will notice in the latest design the canopy glass is one continuous curve with no sharp angle anywhere. This really softened the appaearance and made the cockpit more inviting.

I've been playing around with similar mods to the RV-12 and it really does make a difference in appearance.

The overall paint job makes the general public (audiences) comfortable with your plane but the cockpit appearance is what makes the pilot and passenger comfortable. I've flown in "finished" homebuilts and "unfinished" homebuilts and there is some higher level of confidence getting into a homebuilt that is finished well. I'm hoping Oregon or some other vendor comes out with a nice (light weight) finished interior for the 12 to make the cockpit more inviting for my passengers.

Nice paint job, by the way. Keep dreaming.

Frank

Nice Job Grumpe!

Here was the paint scheme I threw together some time ago. Most aircraft - even the other RV's look pretty drab and not so attractive without paint or polish. I think that with the right paint job (NOT all yellow) as well as pants... she looks pretty good. This was just my attempt to counter the naysayers and show how a completed one could look:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=17679

Currently, I am leaning towards an "old school" look - of mostly polished aluminum - with a pretty "nail polish" deep red along the leading edges as well as the nose/cowling tapering into a stripe along the fuselage.

DJ

Microsoft Paint tricks.

Thanks guys.

Mike,

In Paint (the simple graphics tool you get with windows) you can fill big areas with the "fill" tool. It looks like a paint bucket tipping over. The key is to make sure you have objects to fill. I work with bitmaps or high res JPEG files. Blow them up and make sure all the lines meet. If there are gaps fill will not work well. Also if there are ghosts or shading in the boxes you must get them out with the eraser or color everything white first.

I also like to use curved lines to set my edges between colors. If I want red on top with white on the bottom I use a red curved line to break the fuse in two fields. Then I "fill" red above the line.

This is very rudimentary compared to Paintshop or GIMP (shareware graphic tools found at http://www.gimp.org/windows/) but it works for playing around. I have autocad and turbocad that I am trying to learn for fun uses. Made some great RC stuff with Turbo cad. Need to learn how to model and loft shapes as well as coloring. Then I can make dxf files for a friend who has a CNC vinyl cutter.

I have two clean bitmaps. One with the panel lines and one with out. If anyone would like them to play with let me know and I will post. It took a bout an hour to clean them up and save them as masters to work off of. Passes time when I get bored.

Eric

RV-12 model...yep, a model

I googled Van's RV 12 because I'm really wanting any additional info on the plane and this was the first item to pop up...this is not an endorsement for the product. I just thought it was interesting to discover it's availability. You as surprised as I am?

http://cgi.ebay.com/RV-12-Vans-Priv...-Ship-New_W0QQitemZ120157071746QQcmdZViewItem

My first thought, which is just a design change from Eric's idea, with RV-8a wheel pants grafted on...pretty rough, but something else:

Enjoy!

Here are the blanks. Have fun and share your ideas.





Eric

A few basic ideas (I'm pretty conservative):

1. A Tiger-inspired idea:

2. Inspired from an RV-6 I liked:

3. Very traditional two-tone:


Colors are up to you. I'm thinking either a nice deep red or blue...

Importing...

Hi Guys,

How do I import a BMP or JPEG file when I have 'painted' it?

The Dunce...Keith

gblwy said:

Hi Guys,

How do I import a BMP or JPEG file when I have 'painted' it?

The Dunce...Keith

Click to expand...

http://www.vansairforce.net/articles/ImagesInForums/images.htm

Don't know if it works with BMP.

I always liked the colors of the German Flag... Could'nt decide on the spinner - black or polished. Put a good tint on the canopy and it will really come together.

Stealth RV

Thanks, Larry.

Here's a similar paint scheme to that on my Robin 2160. Makes the big tail look smaller, I think.

Oh what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Hey Joe,

How is this?



Eric

wow, alot better...thanks.

Really, I was working.........



Eric

I too have begun to dig the German Colors

And a simple, traditional look.



Still looks way better than a tired old Cessna 150 IMHO....

Eric