I drew white-on-black panel labels in MS PowerPoint, then printed them with ink jet on quality photopaper. Blacked the white edges after cutting the labels out with Exacto knife. Spraying the labels back and front with matte clear a couple times helped control curling when a patch of wet clear was sprayed on the panel surface, then the label applied to the wet clear. After flashing off, any turned up edges could be managed by spraying new clear and holding the edge down with the point of the Exacto knife.
Them came many coats of clear. The photopaper is just too thick (and I didn't have patience) to build up the clear film to the point where the edges of the labels disappered. Moreover, it's the clear's adhesion to the matte black is not very strong. There's no danger the labels will fall off at the first hint of turbulence--at least for the first few flights--I think. But I may be re-doing the labels before a few hundred flight hours go by.
I started cutting up the panel with a mind to make it "practice". If I found out I didn't like the layout or eff-ed it up, it's cheap to get another one and start over. After completing all the wiring (it's 7/18/2016 as I write this entry), it will be painful. Guess I better do the blindfold drill just in case the labels are even shorter lived than I think. Obviously, a lot of time went into the labels, but as this is a "delayed entry", I don't have a good estimate of hours.
