Color Schemes, the good the bad and the visible

[David Gundling]

Kieth,

I did some playing around with color sometime back. Ended up with a bright
red leading edge going out to 4 inches short of the tip and then straight
back. I used neon yellow for the contrast. I can see that sucker out a
country mile and frequently get comments on how easy to see that it is. I
used the red wing tio so that when combined with a neon yellow fuselage, I
can see when the wings are level.

When I reversed the colors on my 40 size test ship I found ot hard to keep
track of what the plane was doing.

For me, I like the straight line formed by the red and the yellow on the
wing as it gives a good alignment reference.

Yhe secret to the whole thing is to pick colors with high contrast. White
and black would be the limit. However, you want contrast against the
background. You have a different background when the sky is blue. When it
is cloudy with dark, or light, or motteled clouds. And yet again when you
are flying late in the day in a contest and the light level drops. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that thin lines of color disappear quickly
as the plane flies further out.

Hope this helps a bit.

Oh, by the way, on a hazy day I could see my 50 inch 40 size test ship with
the final color scheme easily at over three times the distamce that a
friend could see his gren and white YS 90 size pattern model. His color
pattern used rathe thin lines of color.

Dave
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