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How big should my silver trim stripe be ?

P

petersb

Well Known Member
Painting my RV7A, bottom half will be dark blue in the currently popular wave pattern.

I will be painting a narrow silver stripe above the blue, question, what size gap between the blue and silver and how deep, (thick) should the strip be ?

Looking at 1/2 inch gap, not sure if this may be too much .

Peter
 
I have a 1/2" black stripe between the yellow and white on my airplane. Looks about right IMO. With a silver stripe (lower contrast) you might consider a wider stripe.
 
we have a silver stripe (3M adhesive foil) between dark blue and pearl white (painted).

i didn't measure yet, but i'm sure it's more than 1/2". i'd say about a thumb width or a little more, so between 1 and 1.5".

generally i agree with the previous poster that the silver to dark blue contrast isn't as good as one would expect.
we put a large emoticon smilie on the belly, again with silver foil on dark blue, and it's not the most obvious, especially from a distance...
 
The gold stripe on our 10 is the width of the masking tape------it just looked right as we were doing the layout.

I think it is 5/8"-----possibly 3/4".

plane%2520paint%2520trim%2520layout%2520012.JPG


Turned out looking just fine:D

Carrie%2520Hawaii%2520tirp%25202013%2520048.JPG
 
i am envious!

...but all you guys who spend all this time & money on beautiful graphics....don't restrict your stripe to the constant width of the tape!

...see how it looks flowing from 3/8" at the front to an inch or two at the rear!..then it becomes part of the graphic, not just a 'colour separator'.

easy to try using vinyl if the masking is a hassle.....
 
flyboy1963 said:
...but all you guys who spend all this time & money on beautiful graphics....don't restrict your stripe to the constant width of the tape!

...see how it looks flowing from 3/8" at the front to an inch or two at the rear!..then it becomes part of the graphic, not just a 'colour separator'.

easy to try using vinyl if the masking is a hassle.....
Click to expand...

I'm with Perry on this, the stripe on my '8' starts out about 1 1/4 inch at the cowl and ends at the tail a solid 3/8 inch. When I look at some of the old spam can factory paint schemes I can't help but think, "Ah, 3/4 inch tape that day." My advice would be to lay some tape, back up, look at it and if you like what you see, go for it!

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAAST Team Representative
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
I have probably a 1/2 or 3/4 silver stripe right above my red very similar to what you're thinking of. My only comment is that silver pretty much disappears in the right lighting. In hind site I would have chosen a darker gray. I have quite a few air to air pictures were you can't even see the stripe.

Anyway something to think about...

stripe.jpg


nostripe.jpg
 
Last edited:
Jeff, my color scheme is pretty much identical to yours. I was thinking the silver stripe would be a little thicker at 2 1/4 inches at the mid point.

How do you like the thickness, would you make it deeper if you where to do it again ?

The paint is already purchased, Acry Glo Ming Blue and Titanium for the stripe, hope the titanium is dark enough

Peter
 
I don't think I'd make it wider, just darker. I do however like some of the ones that start out narrow and end up wide at the back.
 
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