Vulcan XH558 – REPAINT!

Painting XH558

All this nonsense from armchair critics,,,,,she has been painted and looks lovely. Never miond the scheme or the masking tape used. A big thank you to the crew that are looking after her,,,,,,she’s looking bonnie.

Well done.

Sq

Painting XH558

All this nonsense from armchair critics,,,,,she has been painted and looks lovely. Never miond the scheme or the masking tape used. A big thank you to the crew that are looking after her,,,,,,she’s looking bonnie.

Well done.

Sq

Perhaps they are using low tack painters masking tape.

Perhaps they are using low tack painters masking tape.

ZRX61, yes as Bruce says the white stuff is not really a problem here for a few days and is pretty much ‘standard issue’. In fact I have had it on some glass for about three weeks and it came off cleanly without any residue today. This is in cool UK springs temps of course!

ZRX61, yes as Bruce says the white stuff is not really a problem here for a few days and is pretty much ‘standard issue’. In fact I have had it on some glass for about three weeks and it came off cleanly without any residue today. This is in cool UK springs temps of course!

Somewhat, I’ve even worked in air-conditioned booths to get the temps down to the 80’s. I like spraying during the winter when it’s not 130deg in the normal booths…

Somewhat, I’ve even worked in air-conditioned booths to get the temps down to the 80’s. I like spraying during the winter when it’s not 130deg in the normal booths…

I’ve never had much trouble with white tape – as long as you take it off within a day or so. Its worse when its hot, so I guess in California, it will be worse!

Bruce

I’ve never had much trouble with white tape – as long as you take it off within a day or so. Its worse when its hot, so I guess in California, it will be worse!

Bruce

Agreed. Havn’t seen her for a couple of years so maybe i need to make the effort this year.

Agreed. Havn’t seen her for a couple of years so maybe i need to make the effort this year.

Some pictures of the finished paint job here:

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/347/82/XH558-s-new-shiny-coat.html

Looks nicely done. 🙂

Some pictures of the finished paint job here:

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/347/82/XH558-s-new-shiny-coat.html

Looks nicely done. 🙂

Very interesting… Thanks for that. You learn something new every day!

Please excuse my ignorance on aircraft painting, but why is white masking tape harder to work with?

The white stuff is bargain basement cheap crap, it sticks like **** to a blanket & is a royal PITA to remove if you leave it on for more than a day or so. The blue & green variety uses different glue & can be peeled off without drama even months later. We only use the white stuff to tape masking paper to itself or to plastic sheeting, never used in contact with the whatever is being painted.
The difference is cost is minimal, but the amount of grief prevented by using blue or green makes for happy gunslingers.:)

& for sharply defined edges, use 1/4 lining tape (blue, plastic)for lay out, then lay down the masking paper with blue or green tape over that. I usually use the green masking tape & only ever use 3M products.

& never use newspaper, the ink transfers.. cheap source of quality masking paper are rolls of butcher paper, 750ft roll of 18in wide is about $15 here. Use that right next to what is being painted (or the blue shiny masking paper) & use the cheap paper or plastic sheeting to fill the big areas (such as covering wings while you paint the fuselage etc)… & use the right plastic to stop the dry paint from flaking off & sticking to your new paint job.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m800.aspx

http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m400.aspx

http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m400-3.aspx

Apparently their “specialist paint team” are the only guys who still use white masking tape… well, & the guys who did the B17 at Dx… They must both like working harder than necessary..

Please excuse my ignorance on aircraft painting, but why is white masking tape harder to work with?

Apparently their “specialist paint team” are the only guys who still use white masking tape… well, & the guys who did the B17 at Dx… They must both like working harder than necessary..

Never mind best scheme (agree with Firebird btw!) but have they painted it in the wrong shade of grey for the wraparound camo scheme – again?!
That scheme should be Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey, looks like the same Medium Sea Grey (correct for earlier pictures scheme) as used before.
Apologies if I’m wrong or it’s the lighting.

What has to be remembered, (and one point has quite rightly been made about the RAF painting it this way in the first place) is that this isn’t an all over repaint, so any colours used MUST be as near to the existing ones that aren’t going to be re-done (IE: the underside, which was deemed to be in good enough condition not to need it)

Also this is being done on a very tight budget, I think with some sponsorship from the Daily Express so we should cut them some slack.
It was looking quite shabby up close and at least now it’ll look much more presentable, even if not quite up to the purists tastes.

As much as I’d like to see it in an old authentic white scheme, it’s just not possible unless someone can come up with the money.
I’ll admit I’m absolutely no expert on repainting aircraft, but wouldn’t an all white scheme require 558 being stripped back to bare metal, which I’d imagine would make costs soar even higher?

just been looking at some in service footage of vulcans and there does indeed seem to be more than one shade of grey used.