Custom Corner
BY JOHN REID
;e new color scheme makes the Proud Bird really stand out from all the other race planes. After
Before
SIMPLE
MONOKOTE
DESIGN FOR
ANY RACE BIRD
In the June 2013 issue of our sister publication,
Model Airplane News, I reviewed this great-flying
race plane from Great Planes: the Proud Bird EF1
Racer. ;is is one of the few ARFs that comes in
an all-white color scheme so the owner can put his own custom design on it. Having a blank canvas is very exciting and also somewhat daunting to me because that means I have to come up with my own design. For the Proud Bird, I decided I wanted something
that looked like feathers, so I started cutting out some EconoKote to add on top of all that white.
1 I went over all the covering on the plane and making sure it was et down and shrunk up tight.
;en I started cutting out the feather
pieces from three di ;erent colors of
EconoKote—red, black, and light blue. I
used EconoKote over MonoKote (which
is the covering the factory uses on
the plane) because it requires a lower
temperature and makes it much easier
to apply on top of the original covering.
For the wing, I wanted the feathers to
be slightly di;erent so I used a French
Curve, which is used for drafting and
available at an o;ce supply store, to
cut them out. By folding the covering
in half and cutting through both pieces
at the same time, I had two mirrored
pieces: one for each wing.
2 I cut each piece and then laid it on the wing, holding it in place with some masking tape. I continued doing this until all of the pieces were on the wing. Once I had all of the
feather pieces laid out and taped down, I realized that I would need
another layer of feathers to really give this design some life.
