I don’t know how many vinyl update posts your boredom thresholds will handle but wrap sessions 2 and 3 continued with a, um, minor snafu.
The second batch of white vinyl had arrived, enough to wrap the elevator and next 5 foot panel around the fuselage. The five foot width was a bit much as it took us over part of the rear window so we trimmed the width of each piece to stop at the rivet line just before it.
For session 2 we got the underneath of the plane and one side panel installed. And then we noticed that the whites were not the same, the original batch is darker than the new one.
You probably need to enlarge that to see properly. I’ll be honest that I was pretty upset, I’d been assured by a few people that the colours don’t vary between rolls but it was pretty clear. It isn’t obvious until you get the two vinyls side by side and it is too late now, not taking anything off – and who knows what the next white will look like!!
So I decided that there was enough white left to finish all of the remaining fuselage and I would set it aside, and deal with the rear panel shade difference if I needed to (perhaps with a red accent of some kind). And in the meantime order a new white just for the elevator.
Session three we completed the fuselage part with the top and the passenger side pieces (putting the rest away), then riveted the upper fairing in place and used our first red cut to cover it.
Next up will be to cover and install the horizontal stab in red, cover and install the elevator in white.
Still not doing a perfect job with wrinkle free vinyl but I’m still pretty happy with it. Mis-matched whites aside, I think she will look great.
I contacted the original vinyl seller with my complaint about the whites (and a couple of other vendors when I didn’t like their reply). Basically they all said the same, that cuts bought very close to each will probably come from the same batch and be the same but the colours will likely vary enough between rolls as to be noticeable when placed side by side. So, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you buy the vinyl for all contiguous surfaces at the same time or better still buy it all at once.