Help! Stripes? Stars? Scallops?

[Bartman]

Hey, Sorry for the dramatic title but I need help deciding what to do to add a little sex appeal to my 7ECA now that I'm in the home stretch and maybe a day or two away from my first top/color coats. Here's what the plane looked like before we took the wings off



The plan was to paint the wings white and then put scallops on the top leading edges with a solid red strip across the lower front of the leading edges and then scallops on the vertical and horizontal stabs. Now I'm having second thoughts! I want it to be a little sexy but I don't have a ton of time to go crazy with it. The side stripes have to stay as is.

What would you do?

 

[flying4food]

How about red and blue starburst over the white. This is ours. I really like the paint scheme and your fuselage is practically done already!!

 

[Bob Turner]

Yes - that is very nice. Also consider the recent ACA scheme, as almost copied by a recent photo.

https://champcitabriadecathlonforums.com/threads/hello-from-ohio.182/#post-1108

But scheme is subjective - be really horrible if we all liked the same thing!

 

[Bartman]

@flying4food I saw a photo like yours today and am seriously considering it although I'm pushing to be done by the end of Oct and I'd need to select and order a second trim color to do something like that.

@Bob Turner the stripes are also very inviting because I could do them quickly and be done with it.

i was thinking about a tapered scallop like GeeBees but reversing the taper a bit so it's more like wing sweep and more graceful at the wingtips

Or I can leave everything bare white and think about it for a month or two. but i'd have to find a local shop that sprays Stewart paints and would be willing to do just the trim paint.

decisions, decisions

 

[Bartman]

is vinyl pinstriping acceptable? durable? if I wanted to paint the stars and stripe for a starburst could I trim it with vinyl after the fact?

 

[Bartman]

something like this would work but without the red on the bottom

 

[Bob Turner]

Since you are asking for opinions, I personally do not care for scallops.

Yes, you could use auto pin striping tape. But note the stunning first photo above - he has no pin striping, and his scheme is clean and elegant.

My Cub has black pin stripes around its red lightning bolt and NC - number. Tape and a rattle can.

 

[Bob Turner]

Oh - the only thing I would change on 686 above is the N-number. If you are not going to Canada or Mexico, it can be much smaller - 2"?

 

[Bob Turner]

Not to overwhelm you, but I went to Pinterest to see additional paint schemes. The three above are the best I have seen so far. ACA doesn't seem to have a photo album any more.

 

[Clifford Daly]

Be aware of the time it takes for some of the multi colored ones. It was 5 full 10 hour days for my wings. A day for white, a day to draw out the stars, a to mask and spray stars, a day to mask and spray campaign stripes, and a day to spray the red. So worth it but with drying times before taping and whatnot it took about a month.

 

[Bartman]

Your photos look awesome Cliff, I'm jealous as hell that you're making so much progress and that it looks so damn good!

and I definitely don't have a month or 5 ten hour days to get this done. I'm trying to get the first wing done today through the white base color. If I can bang out the other wing next week I might be able to get the struts, ailerons, and spades painted sometime before the end of the month so we can get it into annual by November. I may even stop at white and pay in the spring for some color to be sprayed on by someone else. Just want it back together and flying ASAP. <<<<<laughing emoji but I'm using it as the SCREAMING BECAUSE I NEED THIS EFFING THING FLYING AGAIN!!!! emoji!

 

[Bob Turner]

I have done gas tank repairs on sunburst wings. If you are using dope it can go quick - did one repair in white, then after a couple days the guy taxied over to my hangar, helped me mask, and we had his sunburst on in about 45 minutes. No pinstriping, of course.

 

[Clifford Daly]

I have done gas tank repairs on sunburst wings. If you are using dope it can go quick - did one repair in white, then after a couple days the guy taxied over to my hangar, helped me mask, and we had his sunburst on in about 45 minutes. No pinstriping, of course.

Actually one of my reasons for going with such a complicated paint scheme. Easier to match up paint lines since there’s so many blocks of colors. Painting the Stars is the easy part! Laying them out and making them 100% factory in the exact locations starting from scratch, now that was the challenge. Nothing takes 45 minutes, takes that to turn the lights on, pee, think, and mix the paint!

 

[Clifford Daly]

Your photos look awesome Cliff, I'm jealous as hell that you're making so much progress and that it looks so damn good!

and I definitely don't have a month or 5 ten hour days to get this done. I'm trying to get the first wing done today through the white base color. If I can bang out the other wing next week I might be able to get the struts, ailerons, and spades painted sometime before the end of the month so we can get it into annual by November. I may even stop at white and pay in the spring for some color to be sprayed on by someone else. Just want it back together and flying ASAP. <<<<<laughing emoji but I'm using it as the SCREAMING BECAUSE I NEED THIS EFFING THING FLYING AGAIN!!!! emoji!

I had the paint scheme with the stripes on the end and loved it, just always loved the starburst as well. You could literally buy the tape in all the thicknesses of the white spaces and get it masked off pretty quick(if I remember it was 2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch, and 5 inch tape). Your wings are in the BEST way to knock them out now and would be a pain in the butt taping straight lines upside down and then having the paint them.

Also just my 2 cents about custom paint schemes. I’ve seen it a lot in the classic car market but YOU may love it but not necessarily everyone else. I did mine as a factory paint scheme off factory drawings with colors and options as they would offer them. The advice someone gave me was “it’ll be like trying to sell a 69 Camaro with ss stripes vs. flames” both look cool but the stock stripes will sell easier.

 

[Bartman]

I hear you Cliff! But I have an existing trim stripe so I'm trying to jazz up the wings in a relatively stock looking form without having to repaint the fuselage (which I know you guys are secretly trying to get me to do since I'm already painting the wings but it won't work!)

 

[Mjk1951]

Too many options.....Here's mine.... I like flyingforfood's.....

 

[Bartman]

Looks great MJK with the full factory scheme. I'm pretty sure of what I'm going to do, just need;
1. days off
2. days without rain
3. days without a million distractions
4. coffee
5. cupcakes (I get so much more done when there are cupcakes involved!)

 

[Clifford Daly]

Looks great MJK with the full factory scheme. I'm pretty sure of what I'm going to do, just need;
1. days off
2. days without rain
3. days without a million distractions
4. coffee
5. cupcakes (I get so much more done when there are cupcakes involved!)

That amount of boxes of munchkins I’ve gone through.....