The Vulture 2: What paintjob should we put on our soaraway spaceplane?

Vulture, you say?

How about painting it like one? Red/pink head, black/brown body, off-white wingtips and edges - nothing fancy, no feather patterns or anything like that.

I'll fire up the GIMP and colour in the template in a little bit, just as soon as the boss isn't looking....

Orange - it's the same as Ms Lohan's natural colour

and will be easier to find when it finally comes back down to earth, especially if the GPS fails.

Has to be

Plain MATT Black

Emotionally...

it should be British Racing Green, all over. But on a practical level it needs to stand out against the sky and the ground (and the trees) so one of the naff dayglo combinations sadly makes sense - but give the heroic playmonaut some cool peril-sensitive shades so he doesn't have to look at it.

Register livery

Merge the black and red schemes, and then put vulture roundels on the wings.

KISS principle

Surely black and white a'la early V2's will make testing and recovery easier?

Black and white checkerboard

Maybe red wingtips.

MS FTW!

(Microsoft For The Win)

...anonymous for good reason.

The obvious thing to do is find a sponsor. But I guess that's not happening.

Why not post a CAD model so that people can do a colour scheme in Maya or 3DS?

Simon

Not British Racing Green

Not green, you'll never find it after it lands, even in Spain.

Nothing very complicated either - I've had a nice realistic Zebra scheme on a much bigger glider than this and it totally disappeared into the background, both in the sky and on the floor.

Dayglo orange (or Register Red at a pinch) with black tips would do nicely for me.

Break out the tartan paint!

I fancy a Dress Gordon would look rather fetching.

High altitude PRU blue?

http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/schemes/raf_pru44hf_e.htm

If you would like to be able to find it, then

you might want to think about using colours and patterns that don't normally occur in nature. DayGlo magenta/yellow jagged stripes would probably do the trick.

Remember, Real Engineers® prefer function over form.

I stand by my previous comment that it be painted bright silver to further enhance the 50s rocket look. If you really want to go two-tone, the SPB colors are a good choice instead.

There is only one possible choice

Checkerboard red and white on the body, solid red on the wings.

http://www.torpedo-emscher.de/wr/union/rakete/img/tintin_rocket10_.jpg

You know it makes sense. (And it's nice high visibility when the inevitable treetop search happens, too.)

Maximise visibility

Use your yellow-black scheme, but replace the yellow with dayglo orange - the Halfords red-orange hazard warning paint's colour would be perfect. Reversing the colours should also be fine.

Reasoning: I've used that red-orange / black scheme on the underside of free flight model aircraft, a situation where visibility is very important if you want the timekeeper to see and time the whole flight and you want to be able to find the model easily after each flight: in UK weather flights of 2-3 miles are common. This scheme shows up very well against the sky and, because that red-orange dayglo is very bright and not found in nature, it also shows up well on the ground. The black stripes also help on the ground: straight parallel lines are not common in nature, so they really stand out.

Go easy with the paint, though: its heavy and will really impact Vulture 2's performance, so if possible use fine grit sandpaper to smooth the V2's surface before painting. V2 will weigh a tonne if you try to use paint to fill that rough surface. Also note that dayglo paints tend to give a matt surface, so while gloss black lacquer should be fine, you may want to use a light coat of clear lacquer over the dayglo.

Can you get any gash parts to experiment on before ripping into Vulture 2 with the sandpaper?

Think ahead

Thin short black lines at various angles on a white or single coloured background will help match up the parts when trying to put it back together for display in the Vulture Central Foyer.

Paint it champagne.

Red, Green and White

In honour of PG-Tips

Tintin rocket!

Is the chequered red/white of Tintin's rocket too complicated?

Nuclear Anti Flash White

It looks like a V-Force designers wet dream, why not paint it up like one!

While El Reg red is non-negotiable, a little gold foil for highlight is essential. Having it look like an Iron Man suit would be completely coincidental.

British Rocket? Needs to have a blue streak somewhere!

Pink?

Has to be pink, anything with Lohan or Brastraps in there'd be plenty of pink?

However, given the task, maybe Camoutint Pink would be appropriate? I'll get my coat.

Day/night-glo green and white...

with banded wing-edge markings, flashing LEDs and "To infinity and beyond!" etched on it somewhere.

Don't paint it red or grey...

or you will never find it if it lands in a cherry tree.

As you're in Spain, why not Repsol colours? http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/photos/2005models/2005-Honda-CBR1000RR-Repsol.jpg

They might even fancy sponsoring it :-)

tough call...

In respect to tradition, part of me wants to go with either the El Reg Red or the British Racing Green.

James Micallef, a ways up the thread, suggests that the British Racing Green would be boring, but as an American, I have to say it'd be a damn' sight classier than the standard American Flaming Searing Day-Glo Racing Orange (aka "Daytona Orange").

I'm not really up on my British rocketry, but the Blue Streak suggestion sounds good... and as an old spaceflight history geek and "B" sci-fi movie fan, the suggestion of silver also has a lot of merit -- and visibility. In the same vein, something similar to the various color schemes used for the captured V2 tests at White Sands, such as this one and this one, might also work well.

Still, for easy visibility, I don't think you could do much better than no. 3, the bright yellow with black longitudinal stripes, perhaps with the round El Reg Vulture "badge" logo on the tail and wings.

Gilded

Paint is heavy and sanding is a bear. What about the princess Amadala look using Al foil applied with traditional rocketry appliqué or gilding.

Flash!! A-ha!

Go for blingtastic Gold with a smart Red trim for the complete War Rocket Ajax look.

Might I also suggest a suitably attired Playmanaut?

Stealth

Paint it black with tiny little spots of colour to represent the stars.

Nice silver body with red and yellow vertical surfaces of course.

As in http://www.davidsissonmodels.co.uk/GAOthers/XL5title.jpg

(From http://www.davidsissonmodels.co.uk/xl5.htm )

Robin's egg blue

Or powder blue if you prefer. I race off road (hobbyist) and this color has proven to be the most eye-catching on video against an earth background. Might be tough as it is coming down, but I was counting on the cliche gray English sky until I saw a comment about Spain. Should still stand out against an azure sky though.

Pay homage to the first Shuttle launch. Paint the body with a coat of red oxide and the wings white ...

There should be a difference between top and bottom, if there is a chance manual control might be required.

Makes it a lot easier to control at a distance.

paisley, brown on beige... or burgundy

Why not

Pay homage to the other bit of bleeding edge tech being developed by us plucky brits on limited budgets?

Namely the Bloodhound SSC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound_SSC

If not then Brooklands Green.

Yellow? White?

Some color that stands out when Vulture 2 inevitably ends up in a tree!

British through and through.

It's got to be the red and white colour scheme, though I would also add a stripe of blue here and there to make it truly British.

BTW I think it would be best to paint it to remove the grooves as these could attract condensation on the way up which will turn into ice and add weight and possibly even fouling the control surfaces. Dimples work OK at high speeds when there is sufficient friction to prevent icing or in 'dry and warm' conditions but the space plane will be essentially slow moving until ignition, which gives it plenty of time to ice up.

You should put stickers on both wings showing Sinead O'Connor's face, possibly with speech bubbles about being concerned that you're in space.

Maybe Something Like This

http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/attachments/aircraft-design-aerodynamics-new-technology/9764d1293052852-corsair-spitfire-hybrid-paint-job-top.jpg

http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/attachments/aircraft-design-aerodynamics-new-technology/9765d1293052858-corsair-spitfire-hybrid-paint-job-side.jpg

They Do Have To Find It

They do have to find the plane. Otherwise you might use paint patterns like:

Tornado:

http://img.wp.scn.ru/camms/ar/492/pics/9_67.jpg

The plane reminds me more of something that is like an SR71 or even the plane from Firefox;

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=W1lwABsiCdY4rM&tbnid=S8qCAlL_4MV68M:&ved=0CAgQjRwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Frob.com%2Fpix%2FRC%2Fcrazy_rc%2Ffirefox&ei=0P1OUrSVKO-34AOaiYHIBg&psig=AFQjCNHqlyNw13u9HWbMFWfkyfqRDrjytw&ust=1380994896700477

RAF Prototype Yellow (see, for example, http://www.flickr.com/photos/51828484@N07/8269588747) on the bottom and High Visibility Register Red on the top. Include RAF 'P in a circle' prototype markings on the sides, and Register vulture roundels on the wings. And a small icon of Ms Lohan on the nose.

Union Jack

Just sayin

Whatever the pattern used, I suggest using a florescent paint.

It would make it easier to find in the dark...

Tricolour, or barber pole...

http://high-street.org/img/reg_rocket.png

A couple of suggestions

Garish, but highly visible in most conditions:

http://i.imgur.com/H2G1P8h.png - v-1 high visibility/contrast dayglo red/green

Less garish, still easily visible:

http://i.imgur.com/GUFdQk1.png - v-2 El Reg red and silver

Ad Astra!

Variations on yer basic patriotic jazzy red, white and blue...

http://i.imgur.com/LXr6o7R.png

http://i.imgur.com/y1Zv1Si.png

http://i.imgur.com/HjyxoPv.png

http://i.imgur.com/2ohRV8G.png

Needs roundels though, and possibly a nose-mounted disruptor beam.

No paint unless it offers superior aerodynamic performance.

Otherwise, it is a performance limiter.

But then, I don't care how ugly it is, I care how well it works.

With that shape it has got to be in the Thunderbirds Fireflash livery...

Looking at the plan of the ship

Does Ms Lohan have arms that short and hips that big ?

Colour me old and dirty.....

Concentric circles

Concentric circles of wildly clashing colours. You need pinks, black, yellow, dark blue, lime green and bright purple. No matter where it lands anyone who see it will feel sick and report it. :-)

Paint the aircraft bright yellow with large RAF roundels.

No matter how I twisted and re-designed it, the obvious paint job is this one.

http://i.imgur.com/Of8EVhs.png