I am nearly prepared to appologize for asking so many questions, but you all are of great experience upon which to draw. I have an order for a rod with colors relicating the "flash" on a green beret worn by the Fifth Special Forces Group in VietNam. The colors are also (strangly enough) those of the VietNam Service Medal, with which I am very sure many of you gentlemen are familiar with: Dark Green, Bright Yellow and Scarlet. I am making this rod for a man for which, for obvious reasons, I have a great deal of respect, so I have been putting some extra-extra time into planning. On the guide wraps . . . my best idea is green underwrap, yellow overwraps and scarlet trim bands with the green underwrap showing just a 'scosh outside of the trim bands. Anyone have any better color-line-up ideas? My appreciation, as always, in advance, JC

Jim,

Shoot Mick McComesky an e-mail comesky@earthlink.net . He did the most beautiful "military" rod that I have seen. If you can catch him lucid LOL, he'd be glad to help

[www.fishingphotos.net]

Mike

Beerman is right, Dundee did a beauty-was a jarhead wrap, though. He'd probably be able to help you on this, too!!

That rod is beautiful! I suggested doing Clyde's ribbons in the design and got a resounding, "No". (I would have probably needed a 20' surf rod). He has picked his design, I am just concerned about the color sequence. Tks, JC

JC - Would you consider using the YELLOW as an underwrap for the guide wraps, rather than the GREEN? How does this sound?:

YELLOW for the Underwrap.
GREEN for the Overwrap.
RED for the trim wrap.
RED for an accent wrap (under the guide ring), or the middle of the underwrap, for your double-footed guides. You can also extend the yellow underwrap so that it separates the green & the red, and also offsets the rod blank's color.

Yellow as an overwrap may not have enough masking power to suppress a green underwrap. And if you use NCP thread, you'll lose that luster of a nice yellow, and it may look flat like paint. Yellow looks very nice as a bright underwrap against a dark blank.

Other options could include:
Yellow-under; Red-over; Green-trim.
Red-under; Green-over; Yellow-trim.
Green-under; Red-over; Yellow-trim.
Maybe the symbolism of the colors can help you decide which color should dominate or accent the wrap.

Best Wishes to you, JC & your noble buddy. -Cliff Hall-.

Would you consider using the YELLOW as an underwrap for the guide wraps, rather than the GREEN? How does this sound?:

YELLOW for the Underwrap.
GREEN for the Overwrap.
RED for the trim wrap.
RED for an accent wrap (under the guide ring),
or the middle of the underwrap, for your double-footed guides.
You can also extend the yellow underwrap so that it separates the green & the red, and also offsets the rod blank's color.

Yellow as an overwrap may not have enough masking power to suppress a green underwrap. And if you use NCP thread, you'll lose that luster of a nice yellow, and it may look flat like paint. Yellow looks very nice as a bright underwrap against a dark blank.

Other options could include:
Yellow-under; Red-over; Green-trim.
Red-under; Green-over; Yellow-trim.
Green-under; Red-over; Yellow-trim.
Maybe the symbolism of the colors can help you decide which color should dominate or accent the wrap.

Best Wishes to you and your noble buddy. -Cliff Hall-.

You two are too much. And what's with the squid questioning my questionable lucidity!? I strongly resemble that remark! Appreciate the compliments though:)

I'm with Cliff. I would rather work with white than I would yellow. Yellow is really pretty but I find it to be a bear to work with.

Personally, I would go with green as the primary, yellow secondary and red for the trims. It would be more suited to a SF mudpuppy. But if you really want yellow to be the primary, I would suggest using green in the visible areas of the underwrap, then metallic gold or silver for the rest, even white. That will allow the brilliance of the yellow to show. Or do a green false underwrap and some white or yellow paint on the blank where you are going to wrap the yellow.

Sounds like a cool rod!