48" Extra EXP__Old Faithful

 

 

After nearly two and a half years of flying the Extreme Flight Extra EXP as my front line plane, it's a bit difficult to come up with something new to say about it. I've got a lot of great airplanes, but this is the one I always come back to.  The Extra is the perfect match for my style of  flying, which is mixed precision and violent hard charging aerobatics, with a little 3D thrown in. Everything I ask from the Extra EXP, she delivers.

 In my view, everything about this plane is absolutely perfect, from the way it is constructed, to the way it fits in the car, and absolutely the way it flies. It's just perfect. Everything about it.

I am currently flying a newer red model, but below is a remix from footage we shot last October or so. Oddly, as much as I fly the Extra EXP, there almost never seems to be a camera there, so we are hoping to shoot some new (and hopefully even more epic) footage when I get my new blue Extra EXP finished up. We are just waiting on a few decals and for (camerman) Kevin's schedule to lighten up enough for him to get out.





More Fun With Graphics
Once again, thanks to B and E Graphics for quick service on my latest graphics packages. I wanted something a little different, but I also need to stay fairly close to the scheme that The Boss envisioned for this plane.

I told Eric at B and E what I wanted and here is what we came up with. We had to go through a little bit of a process because a few of the things I wanted to try didn't work out so well, but I think we are locked in now and this is pretty much the way my Extras will look.

With B and E's air release vinyl, I've gotten really good results just peeling off the decal from it's backing and sticking it down. With Rapid Tac these decals don't stick that well until they are dry and all the fluid has had a chance to work it's way out or evaporate. It's a little harder to get the outer transfer tape to come off without also lifting up the decal with it, but it is much better applying it dry. Of course, applying dry you lose the ability to slide the decal around and get it exactly where you want it, but sponsor type decals like these are so much smaller than decals seen on, like say, the Laser, that it's easy to get them positioned right, and then rub them down.

Here, we changed the colors and font to match the way it appears on an Extreme Flight hat. This has got a little more "pop" than the stock decal's black lettering.

Here, B and E downsized the aileron decal to fit the stab, so now the plane has a more symmetrical look. We have also added stars on the fin to match those on the wing and stab, but I am not sure if I want to keep those. I want to see it in the air first and then decide.

B and E made a special decal for the SFG. This is solid white and the lettering is very fine. I'm sure Eric was cursing me when  he was weeding out the cut vinyl from around the lettering, but it definitely came out beautifully. This is a very nice decal, and it is excellent work. On this decal, I just peeled the backing, lined it up, and stuck it down.

Of course, We had to get some Thunder Power signage on the plane too, but since it is on the black lettering I wish it had a little more pop to make it stand out. I will probably ask B and E to make the white border larger on the next set. 

For the nose we are sporting our usual Old Glory, and will continue to do so until all our sons and daughters come home. We'll probably even keep it there forever, just because I like it.

In addition, B and E made up a nice torque decal for the nose in white with gold borders. Gold always sets off red and black very nicely and it's very rich looking.

Ooops. Looking at the picture I see I did not get the "Extreme Power" on quite straight, but I have time to fix that before we fly this afternoon. It was 3am when I finished the plane and I was probably not building real well The nice thing about these graphics is that with a small mistake like this, if you are careful you can peel it up, line it up and put it back down straight.

 

 

Edit: Centering the decal wasn't a bad job at all. I simply held down the inside letter on each word, then lifted the rest of the decal up and straightened it. These decals are really easy to work with. They are a little rubbery so they are quite forgiving. You do have to be a bit careful not to stretch them, but then again, the best bet is to get it on straight to begin with.

 

What tripped me up is that I originally did not intend to use that decal and cut it out of the sheet. Then I changed my mind and decided to use it. If I had left it attached to the Torque decal it would have been perfect.

 

 

Finally, an Extreme Flight decal for the black stripe on the fuselage side. This is, again, white with gold bordering, so it sticks out nicely.

It took a little tinkering to get everything exactly the way I wanted it, but now I have both planes finished. B and E went back and forth with me trying to get just the exact look that I was after, and I thing we got it.

Thanks B and E. They look great.