WOW! That is a beautiful piece of work
Everything in the photo appears flawless. Is the tail closure fairing from Van's? Mine fit so poorly I had to cut the horizontal stabilizer flanges off and layup new ones on the plane. It looked ugly until painted - yours looks custom made. My first reaction when I read the subject of your thread was "how hard can it be if you are going to paint the plane yourself". Then I mentally started masking and I see why you asked. Kyle's answers seem like the best ones but If I were going to attempt it I would just muddle through with a base color and then do alternate rows or columns in two separate tasks. That way I could just mask with straight tape and paper. If I were not going to paint it myself I would follow Kyle's advice to the extreme - document in unmistakable terms exactly what you want for the painter. I developed my color scheme over seven years concurrent with building the plane, and gave the painter an approximately 30 page power point package and full size patterns for every element of the color scheme. He charged me an extra $1,000 for the masking and preparation but this is a one time thing for me and I did not want to compromize the end result to save a few bucks on my home equity line of credit loans. A comment on color/paint selection. I had an Archer II for 22 years. When the factory paint wore thin I designed a new color scheme and had it painted in Imron red, silver and black. I came out beautifully and it still looked great when I sold it many years later but the metalic silver paint went dull after a very few years. It was not clear coated and I'm told that makes a big difference but I would avoid using metalics again. My RV-6A is painted with Imrom solid colors and it is clear coated. It looks great but I have some concerns about maintainability (touch-up) in the years ahead. One last comment. I flew my plane for a year before I had it painted, thank goodness, because I had many problems during the test flight program that would have destroyed the paint job. The painter did a good job of preparation and I have had none of the paint adhesion problems that paint before you fly proponents often point out.
Bob Axsom, RV-6A, N710BJ
