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N264JP - Cover and Paint

	I always liked the Keith Farris aviation paintings of the old Boeing P-12s. He had done several pictures of P-12 stationed at Kelly Field in San Antonio. A painting called "Farmer's Nightmare" showed the P-12 with the standard '30's Army Air Corps colors and the addition of the instructor's white stripe across the fuselage.  I took the liberty of adding my old Air Force squadron insignia from the 96th Flying Training Squadron at Williams AFB, AZ. The left side of the Boredom Fighter annotates the aircraft as belonging to Higley Field, which latter became Williams.
	This and the above picture were attempts at acrylic painting for the purpose to see what my colors were really going to look like on a Boredom Fighter. The following were standard Army Air Corps colors as provided by Poly Fiber:      Poly Tone Insignia White #105      Poly Tone Orange-Yellow #140      Poly Tone O.D. Green # 212A      Poly Tone Black #215      Poly Tone Insignia Red # 190      Poly Tone Insignia Blue #176
	Here we are at the lovely Rosamond Airpark in Rosamond, CA. Airframe was inspected by EAA Tech Counselors and is ready for cover.  The covering conditions could have been better and were accomplished in the old FBO hanger at Rosamond (L00).
	Start of the paint booth. The side closest to camera is designed to open to allow major assemblies to be rolled in and out. Worked out very nice.
	Lower right wing gets prepped for paint. I chose the Poly Fiber process for its simplicity. For a first time try at covering an aircraft, I thought I did a pretty good job. A couple years later, I look back and think I could have done better. What the heck, it flys great!
	I made a short section of wing from a scrap leading and trailing edge. This is actually 3' long and was a great training aide for learning how to rib-stitch.
	The paint booth with first parts. At this point, I had just applied first coats of Poly Brush and located the positions for the rib stitches. I chose to keep the same spacing for the knots across the wing instead of opening up the spacing outside the prop arc.
	Table full of tail feathers. These are ready for tape.
	In the process of covering the fuselage. Almost there.
	Fuselage covered and ready for the Poly Brush treatment.
	My wing fixture mount. Took several days to make a couple of these useful tools. The round shapes towards the left sides allow the wing to rotate 360-degrees. For painting, shoot one side, then roll it over, and shoot the other.
	Wings during the silver process. The polyester padding along the leading edges tended to take a little more silver Poly Spray than the rest of the wings. You can see how the racks fit into the paint booth. Not much room required and movement of the racks was a one-person job.
	Silver finished and ready for color coats.
	Fuselage with the O.D. Green base applied. Starting to look like I might actually finish this thing.
	All taped up and nowhere to go. Ready for Insignia White.
	The rotisserie for the fuselage.. Worked great and allowed the major parts to roll in and out of the paint booth with no help.  Done with the white trim here. Also at this time, I packed up and moved the whole shop from Rosamond to Chino.
	Vertical Stab ready for the black paint. All numbers and stencils were masked and painted. No stickers on this one.
	US Army complete and the Insignia Blue base for the stars is complete. This is actually a goof on my part. The circles were actually supposed to be slightly further outboard on the wings.
	Star masked and painted.
	Wings just about complete. All that's needed it the Insignia Red "meatball". Note, that contrary to some renditions of the US insignia, the meatball does not touch the interior tips of the star. The meatball is actuall tangent to the lines drawn from external tip to tip.
	All the parts done with paint. Finally!
	The squadron insignia painted on the fuselage (AKA the "Rabbid Bunny". This is actually the squadron insignia for the 96th FTS, which was one of my old squadrons.
	Finished wings and tail feathers.
	Assembled for the first time! Very Cool! Only a year left to go......if only I 'd known.
	Front view after first assembly at Chino Airport, CA. Great, now I have a glider with a severe aft CG problem!