Colours

I know this is very subjective, but I am building my first glider kit (Spirit 100), and wondered what colours the majority of people use for good visibility. Yellow and red seem to be way up the lsit, any other schemes??

Barry

Reply to
Barry
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I like Transparent Yellow on the open parts and White on top and Black or Corsair Blue on the bottom.

Don

Reply to
Don Hatten

Astonishingly, black is highly visible in the air. CM

Reply to
CliveM

In regular light, red turns nearly black at a distance against the sky. The highest visibility covering I ever saw was zebra stripes about 2.5" wide on the bottom of a plane. Even when you couldn't actually see the stripes, there was something about it that gave you almost perfect orientation. It was really strange looking when the plane was just a little dot in the sky yet you knew which it was turned.

For closer in work, the darker fluorescents in Ultracote can't be beat. Big patches of them against light backgrounds are visible forever. Be warned, though, that the colors will fade a lot more than the others.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

I like white, with trims. White still looks dark against a bright sky, when you are looking at the bottom of the wing. In a dark sky, the white is good, because it stands out brightly.

I put nothing on the bottom of the wing, so it will have good contrast, compared to the decorated top of the wing. It helps for attitude recognition. On the top, I use a dark blue (any dark would work) starburst pattern.

On the leading edge, I put a red stripe. It should be no taller or lower than covering the part you would see, looking at it from straight on and level. When you tilt it up, you see white below the red. When you tilt it down, you see white above the red. This helps to get the plane on a good glide slope while landing.

A few stripes on the fuselage and rudder, but don't over do it. The main thing you want to see is that starburst, so you know which way, and how much it is banking.

Give it a try. It works for me.

Reply to
Morgans

I like orange, red, yellow, and white. Black makes good accents, and you can use shades of blue to make a snappy looking pattern with the hotter colors. One of my favorites is yellow and purple monokote, with purple on the nose and yellow on the tail, with some kind of interesting transition in the middle, and purple on the bottom and yellow on the top of the wing, with a nice purple pattern on the leading edge.

Using such a pattern, you will see dark colors when it is flying toward you and light when it is flying away. Also, the dark is on the bottom, so when the wing gets bright you know the plane rolled over.

Reply to
Robbie and Laura Reynolds

The best axiom to follow is light on the top, dark on the bottom with lots of contrast between the two. Personally, I like yellow or white on the top, and red or dark blue on the bottom. Trim graphics, such as sunbursts or checkerboards, should be big and contrast strongly with the background color. Fluorescent colors work well, but as a previous poster noted, they do fade. I have a Tower Uproar with the top in yellow, bottom in blue, and fluorescent orange wingtips that is very easy to see.

Reply to
Morris Lee

If you are using trim to help in orientation. I have read as well as experienced the fact that they must be at least 2" wide to be seen by the eye at long range. Smaller stripes and trim look cool up close but not much help at max range. I love a overal yellow airplane with one wing with the outboard 1/3 of one wing pannel red top and bottom. Thats how all my quicky planes are finished. Sparky

Reply to
Elmshoot

Three words... Location, Location.... No, wait, that's real estate! :-) Contrast, Contraast, Contrast. You need to set up the color scheme such that you can identify its orientation. The wife tells me that i shouldn't wear blue with green and I don't get that, so I won't offer much in the way of schemes :-). Is it rightside up or upside down? is it coming toward or away from you? is it climbing or descending? I basically use white or bright yellow and accent it with darker colors in different patterns on the top and bottom of the wing. the wife desn't like the schemes I pick either, but I can SEE them in the air. One thing I tried early on that did NOT work was putting different width stripes on the underside of the wing in an effort to be able to see coming and going. the net effect on my vision was that it "looked" like it was in a strange attitude and I wanted to make the stripes look the same size. I don't do this anymore. :-) Hope this helps! Mark

"Barry" wrote in message news:1RFgb.251637$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

Reply to
Penguin254

refer to the section "Colours & Visibility for models + Paint Charts " preferably after first reading section = "Vision - a) Colour Blindness & b) Sonic vision for the blind. Colour Vision Test Vischeck - Colour Blind (even partially?) auto adjust web page colours. " at

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men are Red - Green with fewer being Blue - Green blind and simply cannot see many colours at a distance, especially against variegated backgrounds.

Reply to
A.T.

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