Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tim Jones on August 28, 2020 at 2:52pm

HI Joe,

Here is a nice profile Cruzer Template courtesy of Mark P 

http://zenithowner.com/downloads.htm

I have dabbled with Windows 10 "Paint 3D" to produce possible painting schemes.  They are far from neat and wonderful - nothing like many of the renditions I see.  I think for me its a matter of actually sitting down and learning how to use the application.  Mark shared with me other paint schemes that he sketched up previously and they are truly awesome. I doubt it is  a skill he learned in an afternoon ;)

Regards

Tim

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Permalink Reply by Scott Matthews on August 29, 2020 at 11:44pm

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Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on August 30, 2020 at 8:23am

I tried working with computer programs to come up with paint schemes but also got a bit frustrated.  What worked for me was simply making multiple copies of the aircraft profiles (like Scott provided in this thread) and then with a box of colored artist pencils, started filling in my ideas.  This method quickly helped me rule in (or out) a few patterns or colors that I would like.  Once you get close to final ideas or schemes you can get fancier.  Take it to a vinyl shop and be amazed what the guy with the computer can do with your schemes once they have a good idea from what you show them on paper.  Good luck with it!!

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Permalink Reply by Gary Welch on August 30, 2020 at 11:58pm

What you are asking is possible.  I put my 601xlb in Autocad. I spent about 4 months researching paint schemes from pics on the internet.  I took the best ideas/details that fit my general concept and gradually developed my final design.  My job required I work in Autocad so this part was easy for me.

 When I had the design complete I printed each piece of the vinyl design,  full size,  on paper. Then, one section at a time, I cut the paper template out and taped it on the plane.  Then I simply followed the paper template with vinyl cutting tape. Once the cutting tape was down i removed the paper,  laid an oversized piece of vinyl over the cutting tape template.  Then you just pull the cutting tape to cut out the design.  Remove the excess vinyl and move on to the next piece.  This was easy easier than I imagined. 

The only difficult sections were areas with compound curves. Like the spinner and wing tips. I ended up re- doing these a number of times.  Vinyl is cheap so it's easy to redo areas you're not happy with. I tell people that doing the vinyl was the easiest part of the build. 

 

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Permalink Reply by Joe Pringle on August 31, 2020 at 5:02pm

That looks great Gary.  Is the silver polished or vinyl chrome?

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Permalink Reply by Gary Welch on September 2, 2020 at 12:20am

Its polished.  About 100 hours worth. 

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Permalink Reply by Stanley Douglas Sheldrake on September 5, 2020 at 1:34pm

Sharp. Stan

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