Update of mission markings.

Hello all, sorry there hasn't been any posts on for a while. This is just a short one to inform you all of the mission markings update. As you can see from the previous we have had Lucy decorated in Michelle's mission markings, but thanks to Mr Dave Taylor she is now complete in her own markings. There are still two stickers that should not be on, but while trying to peel them off, they began to peel the paint, so for now there is no harm in leaving them were they are as they don't really look that out of place.

Thank you all for your time and I'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!!!!

Lucy

The decals that we had made, are that of ZD404 (Op Herrick) with the full set of mission markings, and a ‘proper’ ejection seat and canopy sticker. After I had done some research of ZD404 I realized that she was known to the RAF boys as Lucy (the glamour model!)

Unfortunately, the black silhouette of her and her name didn’t come with the mission markings, so me and dad set about getting Lucy’s curves right on a piece of cardboard that was to be the stencil.

Once she was perfect we set about drawing her out onto the black vinyl, I must admit that by the end she looked quite good!

The lettering of Lucy was again a bit out of our range, so a friend of my uncles helped us out.

 It was just by chance that I was taking a nose panel off to work on the CCTV mount at the front and I noticed that on the inside of the panel ZD404 was printed! So all along it was meant to be! 

The Decals

After painting, more sanding and lots of swearing (off mum), we made a start on making some copy signage. The escape arrow itself wasn’t too bad to make, along with the hatching across the small rescue panel, but we found the lettering to be much harder and out of our range, so dad found a place in Oldham who made some rescue lettering.

We then found an ejection sticker on eBay, and with us painting the darker grey stripes ourselves, the cockpit was coming together.

The trip to Newark Cockpit Fest was a first for us, dad mum and myself had a great day, being new to the cockpit world we were a bit hesitant of how people would react, and also it gave us an idea of how things looked for when, hopefully I can take mine down next year.

At the show we found Simon (Tonker) who as always made us feel very welcome, so all in all a great day.

More to follow.............           

Paint

Once the nose cone was all filled and sanded, it was time for the first coat of primer. We sprayed the whole cockpit with just normal tinned car primer, but it wasn’t long before we realized that this will take an age, and a lot of money!

We managed to borrow a compressor and a spray gun from dads work. The boys in the paint shop also sorted us out with some primer that was needed. So we waited for a sunny weekend and set about priming her up.

From the beginning I decided that I wanted my harrier to be in the RAF colour scheme, which by luck, my Tornado MK10 seat is painted in. We took a small part off the seat to a company not far from away from us and got the grey colour made up.

We started to prime her, and the sandy colour primer looked quiet smart as the Gulf war livery! But once we started shooting the grey, it was clear that, that was the obvious choice!

It didn’t take long before she was completely covered in her first coat, and I must admit she was looking pretty cool!

After a long day, she was finally all done in her final coat, all we need now was some decals!...

At the front of our nose cone there is some sort of camera, these are very expensive to buy (when they come up) so we improvised…… we fitted a swivel CCTV camera on the inside and used the clear Perspex dome that came with it, as the glass lens at the front……

Once she was completely bondo free, there were a few things that needed doing, for example two new main access panels needed fabricating, the steps made good and working and the holes that were routed out on the nose cone needed filling, but generally she wasn't in too bad a state.

The panels took a few goes before they were able to be fitted to the cockpit, however, the nose cone took around half a day to fix up. 

.... Continued

preparation... to stop mum having ago

Stihl saw started !!!

bottom cuts sorted 

working him too hard

they're off!

The work begins

The day after we went to pick the cockpit up, work began on stripping her of the 'bondo' coating, as the company that previously owned her used her to make GRP moldings for flight simulators. So, out came the sander and away we went.

The harrier’s windscreen seemed to have been involved in a fire of some sort, as the 1” thick perspex had melted away. Fortunately a near ‘scratch free’ screen was included in the deal. So we set about removing the old screen to make way for the new. 
 
A few weeks passed and she was still 95% covered, and the work of removing the bondo seemed never ending! Unfortunately, due to space and her new home residing in the garage, the decision of removing the harrier’s air intakes wasn’t an easy one, but it was a necessity. If we had the space, the decision of removing them wouldn’t have even been thought about!

So the day came when it was time for them to go, all marked up dad started the Stihl saw and started cutting, removing them is not an easy task as Mr Taylor will agree! It took several hours, and a lot of hard work before the two pods were off, and a further foot off the rear of the cockpit. But finally she was able to fit with ease into the garage. 

Still sanding the bondo, we were finally down to the carbon fibre and her original skin. It was a good few weeks of solid sanding before she was completely free of it. But by the end, it was well worth the wait.....

Arriving home.

Well having had a very eventful journey down the motorway, we finally arrived home with my new purchase. Before any unloading began, a cup of tea was on the cards!

The task of unloading her at her new home wasn't going to be an easy one! and as you may have guessed... it wasn't! luckily a few of the neighbours were at hand to help out with getting her off the van.

A few hours later and she was finally sitting on the driveway, after months and months of enquiries, and numerous phone calls later, i finally had my new cockpit project! So, the work began..........

On the way home...

We left Huntington around 2:30pm with a new member on board. I couldn't wait to get home and get her unloaded! Dad kept saying that there was no rush, but believe me, when you are the new owner of a warbird your wishing time to fly! (no pun intended)

We were soon on the motorway heading home, you can see people looking, but one thing that you don't expect is for people to be taking photographs of you on the move! How cool is that! These photos are courtesy of Mr Simon Pullford (Tornado owner).

The collection.

The day of the collection dawned (04:30!) the trip from Liverpool to Peterborough took over 3 and a half hours, excitement made it worse!!

We arrived at the company's premises where we met Ken, one of the directors who made us very welcoming cup of tea. The deal was done and then time for further travel to Huntington where the cockpit lay in wait. There we met Tony, Kens partner... and there she was! loaded onto the back of the pick-up, strapped on and away we went for our long drive home!

Step one................

Having finished building my MK10 ejection seat, i asked dad could we find a cockpit, or at least build a wooden one to fit it to, and dad being dad set off on a quest.







Emails, letters and phone calls went on for months, and then eureka! dad got an email in November 2010, from a chap who lives in Devon, Mr Dave Taylor, who put us in touch with a company in Peterborough who had a current  USMC AV-8B Harrier cockpit for sale! The deal was quickly done and my new project awaited collection.

                                                                     To be continued...



 

In the beginning..........