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My Paint Scheme Idea

I think...

  • Looks great, dont change a thing

    Votes: 20 40.8%
  • Looks fine, but get rid of the junk on the wings.

    Votes: 18 36.7%
  • Looks ok, but i dont like the design, color or wing art.

    Votes: 8 16.3%
  • Start over. It looks to stubby, ugly or unlike my rv

    Votes: 3 6.1%

  • Total voters
    49

southtarnation

Well Known Member
Just wonder what others thought. Red and white will be paint and the tail and stripes will be a combination of paint and vinyl. The artsy stuff on the bottom i could do without or put something on later but it would be vinyl.

Do the lines add to or take away from the natural line of the -4 with the fastback?

RV-4+fastback+final.jpg


All the tips are supposed to be white...

I wanted to do something a little different than I've seen on another rv-4 fastback or rocket.
 
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Looks great. The wings would look good polished too.

I agree. Unfortunately this is a repaint (on the wings)

Another member sent me this offline and hope he doesnt mind me sharing it.

Its his improvements on the above. I like them.
RV-4fastbackfinal_zps62ac7b82.jpg
[/IMG]

Does anyone know the legality of putting the N number on the rudder? Do you think i could fit "N144U" on the rudder with 12" characters?
 
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Loose the straight lines on top of the wing, you are using curves on the bottom of the wing, and side of the fuse.

RV-4fastbackfinal_zps62ac7b82.jpg
 
Well, since you asked...

I think the -4 (with it?s cheeks, the swept gear, the smaller tail) just looks like a sporty little plane is supposed to look:cool: Whether FB or stock configuration. The paint job shouldn?t be an attempt to make the plane. It should compliment the plane.
That said, IMHO?
? The black tail makes it stand out and look too pronounced in proportion to the rest of the plane. To me, it sorta takes away from the balanced proportions.
? The bottom looks too busy.
? The angular lines on the top of the wings don?t fit the graceful curves of the plane.
However, if you paint it like that, and show up on the ramp at KPNA one of these days, I?ll think it?s beautiful and wish it were mine;)
Make it look like you want it to look:cool:
 
Gooc contrasting colors

I like your paint plans. The second one looks pretty cool also. From both above and below, you will have good contrasting colors to help people see you.

Yesterday flyinmonque (Dave) flew into Rifle CO to loan me his flaring tools. We went for a flight and it changed my plans for paint considerably. I had planned on pretty much copying the 14 paint design and colors. When we were getting ready to enter the pattern, a Cessna 206 called and said they were about the same distance out from the south. We let him go in first and tried to get a visual on him. We could not see him - even with him announcing his position at each point of the pattern until he was just above the runway. He was mostly white and with all the snow on the ground, he was invisible to us at less than 1.5 miles.

Dave's plane is yellow and metallic blue-green. I could see him come in from several miles and as he left, I watched him against the same snow covered mountains we couldn't see the 206, and I could easily pick him out.

It may not be as big of an issue if you don't live in the mountains or snow area, but the background on my plane will be something other than white! Maybe that is why the 9A Vans has is blue and yellow. Maybe a disco ball mounted on the top of the tail would be a good idea too!
 
Thanks guys. Exactly the type of opinions i am looking for. Of course in the end its going to be something i am happy to see.

I messed around with some curvy lines following the curve of the to or bottom if the cheek but could get anything i liked. I tried filling in the cheek and letting it tapper off to a line of separation down the side but it looked "heavy" in the front.

A plain stripe bisecting it looks a lot like a fleetside twotone truck to me..

My pseudo painter says he needs a line of differentiation to break at. The bottom of the fuse and both sides of the wings ate already white...

Im scared to put a military scheme for resale value plus i dont have ant affiliation with any services.

I agree the black tail makes it look stubby, the same reason i didnt color the wing tips.

Im open to ideas. As long as its got white wings and a white belly...
 
Absolutely

with regards to the -4 only...

Do you have an example or two?

Hey Jess,
Here are 4 examples, my buddy JJ's FB4 and three HR2's, mine is the last. They all looked good close and far away. :)

"Paint schemes are like underwear, everybody has a favorite, wear something YOU like"

V/R
Smokey


JJ's FB4


Skids (formerly) Tracy K's HR2


Tom Martin's former HR2 (except for big N numbers)



My (former) HR2
 
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I might have missed it, but you say the wings have to be white because this is a repaint. Do you have a starting point image? Or can the fuse and tail be anything as long as the wings are white?
 
I might have missed it, but you say the wings have to be white because this is a repaint. Do you have a starting point image? Or can the fuse and tail be anything as long as the wings are white?

Not exactly. The plane was painted but I removed it all and prepped for new paint. The turtle deck and tail is the only new metal.

The wings top and bottom were painted a few weeks ago, white. Then about a week ago I rolled the fuse over and got the bottom and sides painted, white... The top of the fuse, canopy frame, cowl and emp have only been prepped, ready for paint.

Smokey, Thanks for sharing those pics. I have seen JJ's (in pics) and admired it. I like the red on white with black but do want to keep it unique.
Ive seen there is a Green and white FB4 (in the works?), JJ's red and white with grey, Sammy's white with red and blue and I think Ive seen 1 or 2 more. Axxo is probably getting close to thinking about paint on his FB-4 but I haven't seen him express any indications anywhere. How about it Axxo?

Love the comparison to underwear!

I have a few more ideas I may present for ridicule soon.
 
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Axxo is probably getting close to thinking about paint on his FB-4 but I haven't seen him express any indications anywhere. How about it Axxo? Love the comparison to underwear!

If you are refering to me, I don't wear underwear. Sorry!
 
haha. yes I was speaking of you. Sorry I got your screen name wrong.:eek:

So I guess its a secret then (the paint, not your going commando) or at lest not public anyway?

Your photos, shared docs writups and thread have all been a help at some point, I wanted to say thank you now that I have the chance.
 
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haha. yes I was speaking of you. Sorry I got your screen name wrong.:eek:

So I guess its a secret then (the paint, not your going commando) or at lest not public anyway?

Your photos, shared docs writups and thread have all been a help at some point, I wanted to say thank you now that I have the chance.

You are welcome. I am glad they help you in one way or another. That is the only reason I post stuff. I learned from others and it is only right to pay it forward.

Regarding the paint job; I have about 50 drawings with all kinds of designs and colors. However, the biggest reason for my lack of decision is because I will fly the plane unpainted until I can work all the bugs out of it. The other piece to that is that I have not decided if I am going to paint my plane or have someone else do it. I am having a tough time justifying the money for a professional paint job.

Best of luck with your rebuild.
 
Unless you are trying to make a statement, which is fine, stay away from "artsy" designs (like on the bottom of the wings). Some will like them, some will, ehhh not so much.
That said, it is your airplane so do what you want to make you happy. Some go to great lengths to personalize thier design to their tastes and bedamned to anyone else, and that is just fine. In fact, I love that freedom. (I saw a baby blue 3 once and I think there is a solid pink one out there too, gotta love it. Paul and Louise did a fantastic job developing a unique and stunning look, a name, and I am sure by now, even a personality for their 3)

If you are going to do a solid color tail and continue the stripe forward as shown on your original design, be careful. That line intersections the empennage fairing. It took my painter a full day to figure out how to make this transition so it looked good from all angles. It is very difficult to execute as that fairing has a lot of complex curves. Most solid tail RV's bring the fusealge stripe forward of the empennage fairing and start the solid color there, not at the Vertical Stab. This is easy to do and looks great on an 8 with it's long fuselage. However, on my 6, that made it look even shorter than it really is so I had no choice in my mind.
Try rendering the design like the 8's and see if it fit's your eye. If not, what you are showing can be done, but you better have a really good painter with a really good eye or the only time it will look correct is when you look at the profile. It will not look good from any other angle, which means it won't look right from most angles. Again, very tricky to make this look right as it crosses the front part of the fairing.
Have fun. I think people really enjoy looking at all the neat ideas. Getting kind of hard to be unique with 8000 of them out there.
 
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qwy4jr.jpg

Here is an example of the solid tail with fuselage stripe crossing the empennage fairing. Again, really tough to get this right so it looks good from all angles.
Also, if you do the stripes on the wings, do not carry them through your control surfaces for the same sort of reason. It is difficult to make look right, not impossible, but very difficult.
 
if you do the stripes on the wings, do not carry them through your control surfaces for the same sort of reason. It is difficult to make look right, not impossible, but very difficult.

I concur. I have formation stripes on my wings that had to cross the flaps. They look great with the flaps up but most people see my RV-8 on the ground. With the flaps down, the stripes do not line up from leading end to trail of flap.

photo-320x181.jpg
 
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I like your color choices, I painted my 4 the same with the addition of silver. I stayed with a scheme that limited the control surfaces to one color. This made the taping/painting process easier. Here is a link to a picture of it, let me know if you want to see it from a different angle.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Van's-RV-4/2160146/&sid=193f91cd3cadd4ea28f21fd0ad36c10e

I love it! I havnt seen your fb before, its nice. Yes for sure, point me too more pics please. The only issue is that i was hoping to keep it unique as you probably were too. Sure is nice, i like how you broke the tail up, looks like you avoided some of the complexity the posters above warned me about.
 
I agree. Unfortunately this is a repaint (on the wings)

Another member sent me this offline and hope he doesnt mind me sharing it.

Its his improvements on the above. I like them.
RV-4fastbackfinal_zps62ac7b82.jpg
[/IMG]

I don't mind.... for payment you can take me for a ride sometime :D

BTW, what part of FL are you? I am near FXE and *had* a plane at 2IS
 
So here is a quartering view that shows the color scheme a little better. The only two color control surface was the rudder, as mentioned this made painting easier. I tried to stay away from straight lines on the wings; the wings are square and straight lines add to it. The only other advice I have would be to make sure any accent stripes are wide enough to see them. You see a lot of stripes so thin that they are only visible on close inspection.


_mg_7157_zps2d14122a.jpg
 
that has to be one of the best looking -4's i have ever seen. i am laying out a paint scheme for my -3 and may have to rethink the paint scheme. all i can say is WOW!!
 
what's it worth to ya?

...just sayin', if you got a pro to rebuild your engine, or wire your avionics, why not at least pay one of the reputable shops $100 to come up with a few pencil sketches for you?
We are all students of design, but sometimes it's hard to know why one looks better than another. For instance, the previous ship looks awesome, but I wonder that the red stripe on the fuselage is thick at the back, and tapers to a constant 2" or whatever all the way to the nose.
On the wing, the red stripe is a uniform 2". Would it look better if it was thinner at the front, and flared a bit toward the tip? Probably.

https://picasaweb.google.com/payaremchuk/Rv4Paint#5844195609041062674

my point, you're taking all this time and money to design, and mask, and paint, don't limit yourself.
Lots' of guys seem to paint the 2 main colours, and then use vinyl striping as the break. In this case, if you go tired of the stripe colour, you could change the look of the whole design by re-striping it.
 
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