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Angelfire sports a gold and
blue paint scheme. The blue is a deep blue with a metallic flake in
it that plays well with the metallic gold. The Angelfire script name
on the body tube as well as some of the bands around the body tube are
custom vinyl decals. The material for the decals was selected first and
then the paint was mixed to match them. The color match worked so
well that you have to look very close to see which part is paint and which
part is vinyl. |
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This is a computer CAD
drawing of how I wanted Angelfire to look when I designed it. The
actual thing turned out great. It looks even better than I had
imagined! |
| Click on any photo below to see a larger image
of it. |
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The airframe parts were
ready for painting by the end of June 2005. You can easily see
the fin fillets and all the
"Icing" filler that was applied to them.
Angelfire was taken to a
local automotive paint shop for painting. The overall paint scheme
was carefully designed to minimize the amount of work at the paint shop.
They only had to do one masking step to paint one of the body tube pieces
in two colors. All of the other airframe pieces were shot in a single
color. (See photo below.) It only took two days for them
to finish painting it.
Angelfire parts fresh from
the paint shop are shown below. |
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Angelfire font and colors
used for the name on the body tube. |
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The custom vinyl decals
were cut at a local sign shop. They come on a white paper backing.
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This photo shows one of the
blue accent patches after cutting it out and test fitting it on one of the
fins. The decal is still on the white backing paper. |
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After properly positioning
the blue accent patch it was taped into place using some blue 3M masking
tape. This tape is very nice stuff! It sticks well, but it is
also easy to remove and does not leave any residue.
Once the decal was locked
into proper position by the tape, it was then possible to peel off the
backing paper from the pointed end of this patch and stick it down to the
fin. Once that was done, the tape could be removed and the rest of the
paper could be peeled off the back and the decal applied in full.
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A look at the final results.
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Here we see one of the blue
bands being applied near the forward end of the body tube. The trick here
is to pre-wrap the band all the way around the tube and exactly align both
ends. The band is held in place with 3M masking tape. |
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Once the tape is holding
the band in the proper position, one end is peeled back, the paper removed
and the decal is applied to the body tube. Keeping it tight ensures
it lays down onto the body tube in exactly the same place as when the band
was pre-wrapped. |
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Once one end of the band is
adhered to the body tube, the rest of the masking tape can be removed.
The decal itself will hold itself in the proper orientation and alignment.
All that is left is to peel off the rest of the backing paper, pull the
decal tight and carefully apply it around the tube. It ends up
exactly overlapping and precisely aligned just like when we did the
pre-wrap. |
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The first blue band is
completed. |
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Two blue bands are now
completed. |
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Next it was time to apply
the nameplate and the longitudinal gold stripes. Here we see some test
fits to make sure the decal placement is going to work out as planned.
The only tricky part here
is to make sure the break in the body tube at the altimeter joint occurs
in the correct place on the lettering for the name. The
altimeter joint was designed to fall between the "i" and the "r" in
Angelfire to minimize the difficulty with maintaining alignment of the
lettering on both sides of the joint. (The rest of the script
letters were at such an angle that more than one part of the letter would
have been on each side of the joint.) |
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Alignment marks were added
to the airframe by marking on masking tape and using a aluminum angle
piece to get the marks straight on the axis of the body tube. |
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The script Angelfire name
decal has been applied. Click on the photo and you can see how the
altimeter joint falls between the "i" and the "r" in Angelfire. |
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Two gold stripes have been
added in-line with the name. |
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The final touch was to add
a small "CP" decal on the booster to indicate the location of the center
of pressure for this rocket. This makes it very easy to do a quick
stability check just prior to launch by making sure the balance point
(center of gravity, CG) is well ahead of the CP. |
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Angelfire was completed on
July 5, 2005. Click on the image above to see a higher
res version and check her out! Be sure to zoom-in on it if
your browser autoscales it to fit your screen. |
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