I want to use this paint scheme on the Decathlon, and I'm working on the covering now (all white Solartex fabric). After it's covered, I'll be painting it to achieve this scheme. My question is how would you suggest masking for the starbursts on the top of the wing, stab, and sides of the fin? The plans have the stars and starbursts shown on them, so I thought about laying down strips of masking tape side by side on some wax paper to form a sheet, then laying the plans over them and cutting with an exacto to make masking tape templates which I'd use for paint. Obviously my plans will be destroyed in that process unless I copy them first, but that's my best/only idea so far. Any others?

Let me get this straight... The plane will be a color other than white, right? The stars and their trails will be left white, the color of the Solartex?

I would probably do what you are planning to do — cut out all the star designs out of sticky tape (masking tape or that blue painters tape), place them and paint around them.

Or, you could cut out the stars and trails minus about 3/8 of an inch all around out of the plans or a copy, and add sticky tape, and trim it to flesh out the design. Then stick them in place on the plane, paint and peel off the decals...

A third method is to paint the plane completely in the main color. Then cut the decals out of covering and iron them on. Not sure if that's a good idea, as I don't know how well that stuff sticks to a painted surface. Would have to test first. :o

Same topic, next question. I found a good, although time consuming, way to paint the starbursts (lots of masking with little pieces of tape). I want to outline the patterns with a thin black line, maybe 1/16" or so. Originally I planned on trim/pinstripe tape, but I think it'll look like crap and peel up at every point on the stars. Then I thought about just using a sharpie marker with a straight edge, but I'm afraid that may bleed through the fabric and paint and possibly smear if ever wiped down with alcohol or something. The idea of masking from both the inside and outside of the area to be black is painful at best.

Any thoughts? In the above picture you can see what I'm talking about on the vertical fin and rudder.

Here's a better shot of the black line I want to do to separate the white from the yellow.