Over the past few weeks Sky Harbour Aircraft Refinishing have been hard at work re-painting one of the latest editions to the Virginia USA based Fighter Factory collection of historic aircraft.
Sky Harbour, based at Goderich Airport over in Canada are well known for their Mustang painting skills and have completed many examples over the years. The Chipmunk is something a little different. The owner decided he wanted the early factory scheme and with the assistance of de Havilland Support Ltd at Duxford the original drawings were unearthed. Accurate paint samples were also sent from the UK and the work was carried out by the Sky Harbour team including John Edward (the main painter) and Sam Chamas of this forum (graphics).
The result is a highly authentic rendition of the original Chipmunk scheme and Sky Harbour are to be congratulated on an excellent job. WK559 is now safely back in her hangar in Virginia waiting for Janie to come over and fly her.
The pictures give a sequential insight in to the re-paint and I will post them over the next 24 hours.
All picture credits throughout this thread are ‘Sky Harbour Aircraft Re-finishing’ and copyright to them.
By: Chipmunk Carol - 29th March 2007 at 06:37
… if by any chance you recieve this post after such a long time since the origional post them please feel free to contact me here or at [email]waynenortham@sbcglobal.net[/email]
Hi Wayne.
I am blessed with probably having the highest number of hours on WK559 over the past two years. She is privately owned and residing in Virginia (Google “Fighter Factory”). I am afraid she is not available for private hire. I’ll try to get an email out to you in the next day or two for a longer “chat”.
By: lynxjock - 29th March 2007 at 04:25
ex pilot of wk559
Hey, I was browsing the other day and I enterd some registrations of old aircraft I have flown in the past and this one came up. fantastic restoration by the way. I flew this air craft in 1990 / 1991 at the Army Air corp Center, Middle wallop. UK. I was on my army pilot course and this aircraft was one of the basic fixed wing trainers. Looking back in my log book I have about 16 hours in her and in fact actually took my fixed wing Final Handling test in her.
I now live in the USA ( Tulsa Oklahoma ) and would love to have the opourtunity to fly in her again. if by any chance you recieve this post after such a long time since the origional post them please feel free to contact me here or at [email]waynenortham@sbcglobal.net[/email]
regards
wayne
By: merlin70 - 7th April 2005 at 20:38
Fantastic. I’ve never seen a silver Chippie with a finish like that before.
By: chamas - 7th April 2005 at 19:27
here it is:
hey we just pushed Crazy Horse out yesterday, it looks very nice.
sam chamas
By: Mark V - 7th April 2005 at 16:02
No problem Sam, welcome back.
If you have any ‘roll-out’ or outside shots these would be very nice to see please.
By: chamas - 7th April 2005 at 15:09
thanks you guys.
thanks Mark for posting the photos and sorry, for I did not have time to post the pics.
i have high res pics for u if you like.
regards
sam chamas
By: DGH - 29th March 2005 at 16:10
She looks fantastic, congratulations to all the people at Sky Harbour for doing such a fantastic job. 😎 😀
By: Chipmunk Carol - 29th March 2005 at 13:57
I think it is going to be very interesting to see a Chipmunk in a scheme which is identical to the original de Havilland plans. I wonder how many others can boast the correct colours in the correct places AND ALL the stencilling.
Please can you quote me for an upgrade on my Chipmunk?
By: DazDaMan - 29th March 2005 at 10:06
Chippies look very pretty in silver 🙂
By: Mark V - 29th March 2005 at 09:56
Thanks for all the positive comments – I shall pass them on to the guys in Canada. Here is a last shot of the Chipmunk in flight showing off her new underwing serials:
By: met24 - 26th March 2005 at 00:25
Looks absolutely gorgeous. Do they want anybody to help keep it looking like that? 🙂
By: Chipmunk Carol - 25th March 2005 at 22:28
WK559 is now safely back in her hangar in Virginia waiting for Janie to come over and fly her.
It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it. Can’t wait. 🙂
By: Mark V - 25th March 2005 at 19:35
Yes it certainly was very detailed and exacting!
By: Stieglitz - 25th March 2005 at 19:06
Yes it does! It’s good to see how detailed this repaint is!
Very nice work.
J.V.
By: stringbag - 25th March 2005 at 18:50
It looks fantastic!
By: Mark V - 25th March 2005 at 17:33
Here she is a couple of days ago back at home in Virginia (waiting for Janie).
By: Mark V - 25th March 2005 at 15:33
OK – here are a few shots showing some of the finer stencilling details, Sam Chamas will probably tell us more about them as he is in charge of doing the graphic stencils at Sky Harbour.
By: Stieglitz - 25th March 2005 at 15:18
Yes Mark! Keep on posting about this repaint. Very nice photo-report.
J.V.
By: Manonthefence - 25th March 2005 at 15:15
Yes please.
By: Mark V - 25th March 2005 at 15:10
Probably not a lot in it weight wise as there were a few layers on it to begin with! It would not have been a good idea to have added any more weight though. The spinner is painted silver (aluminium), I will be adding some more shots of the fine details and the finished aircraft later if anyone would like to see them.
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March 24, 2005 at 8:55 pm