richardpeckham
30th Jul 2013, 12:26
Some time ago I took on the job of improving the appearance of this neglected Hunter in Kenfig Hill near Bridgend. We had a large task to perform as parts were needed to secure the aircraft before any work could be done. Thankfully Hunter Flying Ltd at St Athan supplied new undercarriage stay bars to replace the corroded ones. Things turned for the better when Akzo Nobel agreed to donate the paint for the project and myself and another member of staff went to Leicester for some hands on training on how to mix the paints agents to get the best results. However this caused another problem in that the Air Cadet health and safety regulations had to be met and with the paint having a high risk factor to us we had to ban cadets from taking part in the project.
Last year, we did not get a long enough spell of good weather to apply the paint, but we were given a deadline of this year end of summer to complete the project or it would be scrapped. Thankfully this year has seen great weather, and last week myself and other staff from 2117Sqn took on the challenge head on, and thanks to Industrial Air Supply who supplied the compressor and spray equipment, we near enough completed a total respray of this aircraft. We know it is not 100% in terms of copying the original scheme, but we have achieved a makeover in terms of its appearance.
There are still some fine tuning to do by hand, and we are currently sourcing decals for application at a later date. A picture is shown on the South Wales Aviation Group Blog web pages under the sub heading "Around & About", so check it out and please do let me know what you think, but bear in mind that none of us had any previous experience of painting an aircraft.
Regards
Sgt (ATC) Richard Peckham
2117 (Kenfig Hill) Sqn
Project manager
Last year, we did not get a long enough spell of good weather to apply the paint, but we were given a deadline of this year end of summer to complete the project or it would be scrapped. Thankfully this year has seen great weather, and last week myself and other staff from 2117Sqn took on the challenge head on, and thanks to Industrial Air Supply who supplied the compressor and spray equipment, we near enough completed a total respray of this aircraft. We know it is not 100% in terms of copying the original scheme, but we have achieved a makeover in terms of its appearance.
There are still some fine tuning to do by hand, and we are currently sourcing decals for application at a later date. A picture is shown on the South Wales Aviation Group Blog web pages under the sub heading "Around & About", so check it out and please do let me know what you think, but bear in mind that none of us had any previous experience of painting an aircraft.
Regards
Sgt (ATC) Richard Peckham
2117 (Kenfig Hill) Sqn
Project manager