Aerodrome Accessories Flight Stand Mod - Number Visibility

[OldGuy59]

I'm getting old, and I can't see white on white well.


How to Customize Aftermarket Airplane Stands

A long time ago, I had Dice Crayons that would fill in the numbers or pips on dice to make them more visible. So, why not do the same for these great stands? I looked all over, but couldn't find the Armory Dice Crayons anywhere, so I had to come up with something else. First, I tried using a Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, as I had them to hand. I colored in the numbers, and cleaned off the excess ink with a damp Kleenex. I got blue ink all over my fingers and had to redo the numbers several times, as the Kleenex would wick the ink out of the numbers, as well as cleaning off the surface.



However, the ink was much messier, compared to my memory of the dice crayons.

I went out an bought an 8-pack of Crayola Ultra-Clean washable crayons, and tried them out:



Using a dry Kleenex, the clean-up was pretty easy, and the result almost the same. I did all my other stands with the crayons! I left the lower numbers alone, as they have a bit more contrast.

Have a go, if you need the visibility.

[grumpybear]

Never thought of crayons, I just painted mine

[gully_raker]

Gee I have been using crayons since 2011. I think it was Oberst Keith who suggested them.

[matt56]

I use the same Vallejo paints that I use for everything else, but I dab the color on with a Q-tip before I peel off the protective brown paper. The brown paper acts like a mask and protects the dial, and it peels off easily when the paint has dried.

All the best,
Matt

[matt56]

I use the same Vallejo paints that I use for everything else, but I dab the color on with a Q-tip before I peel off the protective brown paper. The brown paper acts like a mask and protects the dial, and it peels off easily when the paint has dried.

All the best,
Matt

[Guntruck]

The brown paper certainly makes painting the numbers/lines on the stand a doddle.

[tikkifriend]

Ah another solution to the aging eyes problem .

[Teaticket]

I use the same Vallejo paints that I use for everything else, but I dab the color on with a Q-tip before I peel off the protective brown paper. The brown paper acts like a mask and protects the dial, and it peels off easily when the paint has dried.

All the best,
Matt

Same here.

[OldGuy59]

Gee I have been using crayons since 2011. I think it was Oberst Keith who suggested them.

Yup. On the Aerodrome Accessories site, the product details has the suggestion for crayons or paint. And the protective mask would very work for paint.

It might not work for the crayon approach, as the edges might lift or roll back when applying the color. However, cleaning up crayon is not a problem, so the choice of leaving or removing the mask for crayons is up to the user.

I had removed all the masks, thinking that it wouldn't make any difference. When the stands finally got on the table, and I tried to use them, I couldn't read the numbers. Too late to easily use the paint option.

Now that I think about it, the mask would have made using the marker option much easier, too.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Crayons were advocated by Keith in the days when he had a firm making the stands without the paper covering the front.
Now you have the new system it is much easier to paint them and much more durable.
Rob.