FighterControl

18 years after leaving Cosford 544 has made it back inside for major work to be carried out!

Most importantly a repaint will be carried out on her and some of the ground equipment will recieve a coat of paint. A small test patch was prepared on the airbrake and although the green was ok we decided the grey we've bought was to light being closer to light aircraft grey rather than the medium sea grey. Luckily a darker shade we'd bought for cosmetic work on 894 is a closer match so we will need to get some more of that quickly. And a darker shade for 894's touch ups.

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Some seriously long winded jobs like the nose wheel steering jack replacement will also be carried out.

Plenty gone on this week! top half of aicraft fuselage sanded, underside cleaned, tailplane top side has had some paint put on it already. Along with the stbd side of the fin.

Other stuff, well....... nose wheel steering jack replaced, hopefully that was the cause of the leak !
seats removed from aicraft for cleaning and service. The front seat has been out before but the back one was out for the first time since its arrival at Cosford all those years ago. And put up a mighty fight i can tell you !
A lot of the external panels were also removed again and greased up before painting to.
some time was also taken whilst under cover for the Boundry layer blow system solenoids to be removed for servicing aswell.
The towbar and horse box have also been cleaned and painted.
Back to it for more sanding next weekend.

We are only struglling with the long yellow walkway lines along the spine really, trying to decide on the best method to apply them as they also have a border of red dashes the entire length too

Any ideas ?

Are these marks on all Buccaneers?

Hmmm wheres my previous post and pictures gone ?


Anyway ....Yes they are, its a solid yellow line the full length of the spine to mark the walkways with red dash's/chevrons,
I'm half tempted to get some yellow car go faster tape but would like it to be painted really,masking it and doing it would be an epic feat though !

XW544 wrote:
Anyway ....Yes they are, its a solid yellow line the full length of the spine to mark the walkways with red dash's/chevrons,
I'm half tempted to get some yellow car go faster tape but would like it to be painted really,masking it and doing it would be an epic feat though !

Would it be worth speaking to the team at Elvington who repainted XX901? They may have some tips for it

Have you thought about reverse masking? i.e. put the yellow on first then mask the area you want to keep (the line) then put the top coat on, remove the tape and there's your yellow line. Then make up a stencil for the dashes/chevron's to do about 10 at a time. Yes it will take time but there is a lot less masking this way. The painters at Binbrook used to use this tecnique regularly but had the luxury of not having to apply the chevron's/dashes.

The Buccaneer Aviation Group will be holding a rollout event on march 24th to include taxi runs by XW544 in her fresh new paint scheme and XX894 (servicavility allowing)
Be one of the first to see 544 in her new clothes properly and also enjoy a unique chance to photograph all 4 Buccaneers together.


Some of the aircraft will be run, lit up and posed differently through out the event to cater as much as possible to all tastes.

Hot food and drinks will also be available.

Gates open at 2pm and admission is £10 per person with the event closing around 7.30 depending on light.

Places are limited to 250 and if you would like to book a place please email andy at --- thebuccaneeraviationgroup@gmail.com

Regards Andy