Alan,
Yes, your question makes sense. Unfortunately, the answer is "it depends". Of the ones I know about, here is how it breaks down.
Super Clown: Airplane is single color except for vertical tail, so the color specified is the base color. A "blue" airplane is all blue with a red vertical tail.
Smoothie: All wings are white, the color is for the fuselage and leading edge of the wing and tail. A "red" airplane has red fuselage and leading edge of wing and tail.
Oriental: All models have black trim, so the color is the base color for the airplane. A "yellow" airplane has yellow wings, tail, and fuselage, with black trim and gold and green stripes.
After some bad experiences with the covering coming off, I suggest you consider the ARC version. Prep wood with Balsa Rite or Stix-It, then cover with Ultracote. It is probably worth it to cover the fuselage with tissue and nitrate dope, then finish with Rustoleum for long term use.
I have been flying both a SuperClown and Smoothie and they both fly well. My clown now has red flaps on one side where I replaced the blue covering that departed in flight.
Steve