FlyPast 06.2018

June 2018 FLYPAST 99

there for the best part of half a
century!

Factory-perfect
fi nish
By the summer of 2017 the repaint
and refinishing phase had begun.
The brief was to achieve a factory-
perfect finish as close as possible
to when XV741 entered service. A
military specification paint shop
was the only real option to get this
right.
Talks began with contractor
Serco at RAF Marham in Norfolk.
This wasn’t going to be a cheap
operation, but the result would be
well worth it.
On September 25, XV741 was
delivered in a dismantled state to
Marham. The fuselage, wing, fin
and tailplane were positioned on
trestles and all the main external
access panels and doors removed.
The plan was to paint the Harrier
in a similar way to a car having
a full respray, with items like the
doors and bonnet removed from
the shell.
The majority of the preparation
work on the bare metal airframe
had already been carried out at
the Jet Art facility. The Serco

painters went over the whole thing

with a fine-tooth comb removing

tiny imperfections such as stone

chips on the leading edge of the

intake.

A large rippled area of skin on

the upper side of the nose, where

a bird strike had left its mark,

was filled. The final preparation

involved masking the entire

airframe.

The Jet Art team provided

engineering support during this

process. travelling to Marham on

several occasions to suspend the

fuselage from a special beam,

so no part of it was touching the

trestles or formers.

Additional components were

removed at the request of the

painters, including the nose

and main undercarriage doors.

The whole process took several

weeks to complete with the small

dedicated team working two shifts

round the clock.

Attention to detail

At last, XV741 was given an all-

over coat of chromate yellow

primer. This was followed by top-

quality, high-gloss paint in three-

tone camouflage of light aircraft

grey on the underside and dark

green/dark grey upper surfaces.

Once the top coat had been

applied, markings and stencils

with three-tone roundels and

large underwing serial numbers

were next on the agenda. Great

care and attention was taken to

accurately re-apply the markings

as worn in 1969.

When the Harrier first entered

service, original Hawker Siddeley

markings and stencils had a

different font to that used later

by RAF painters and finishers.

Pete MacKean at the Tangmere

Military Aviation Museum in

Sussex recreated the stencil pack,

digitally creating each marking

and the letters to match as close

as possible to when XV741 left the

factory.

The graphics department at

Serco applied the vinyl spray-

through stencils and markings

in the exact locations using

photographs from the 1960s as

reference.

The Harrier was then handed

back to the painters for those

markings to be applied onto the

airframe.

Harrier XV741 had some quirky

stencil details, such as a white

serial number on both sides of the

nose. There were prominent white

squares on the fin and starboard

nose; the purpose of which was

very difficult to define.

After studying enhanced

photographs under a magnifying

glass, Serco’s Graham Hall

identified these as paint code

numbers. These were replicated

and painted on the aircraft.

Finishing touches

The final treatment was an overall

coat of clear lacquer to protect

both airframe and markings,

creating an extra high-gloss finish.

The whole painting procedure

took the best part of four months.

A special mention of thanks goes

out to the two painters who did

the bulk of the refinishing work:

Andy Brydon and Richie Bayliss

from the Serco paint shop at

Marham. They really went above

and beyond on this project and

their painstaking attention to

detail and tenacity helped make

the end result exceptional.

It was quite a nerve-racking day

when we collected the pristinely

finished aircraft from the

“There was an unusually large build-up of paint on the airframe, in some places

as many as 17 layers. It had never been back to bare metal”

Harrier XV741 arriving at the

Serco paint shop at Marham,

September 2017. GRAHAM HALL

The fuselage of XV741 after soda

blasting.

The soda blasting process is very effi cient

but does not destroy detailing.

Right

The main undercarriage gear door after

soda blasting.