Delaware Air National Guard

F-86H-5 Paint Restoration

53-1296

 

 

The location and temporary storage of the F-86H is at the Sussex County Airport in Georgetown, Delaware. Also home of The YAK Demo Team led by Air Racer Sean Carroll.

 

Pictured is a CJ-.6 (YAK-18) one of a three aircraft including a YAK-9 comprising the formation team. The F-86 fuselage is tucked under a temporary spray booth. The wings, tail and misc. parts are at the rear.

 

The base color coat has been applied by Dan O'Donnell and ready for markings.

The F-86 sits patiently for its color. Prior to stripping, I took many photos for referencing. As you will see, there is a lot of markings that need to be placed in the precise location so that everything fits back to its original state. Measurements were taken as for each element so that the "puzzle" is re-painted.

 

We started with the National Insignia's first, then the fuselage band stripeing on the wings, fuselage, external wing fuel tanks and stabilizer. Contouring around the tanks and fuselage proved to be extremely challenging with 9 stripes in total! Whew!

 

Since blue is the first color to be painted, the largest areas, was the easiest. A lot of masking was done repeatily for the various colors.

Before we even showed up to paint, all paint masks for all the major elements had to be made. Paul at the shop preparing one of the National Insignia paint masks. There are three, one for each color per insignia.

 

Paul begins the locating, marking and taping of the blue color base. The choice of paint was Sherwin Williams JET-GLO over the IMRON silver base coating.

Spraying the FS Insignia blue on the fuselage band and all other areas requiring blue.

A view of the stabilizer and main wings.

The templates and masking are removed when dry the next day. One of the reference photos can be seen taped to the fuse.

The stripeing begins with .50" on the outer top and bottom and 3.5" stipes within. Once again masking all.

The white prepared star and bar template masking is adhered and sprayed white to the underside right and upper left main wings. The fuselage insignias are also done. When these dry, red is applied to the middle of the white bars. More masking......

The name "Cindee Lind 9th" had to be re-created by hand on a paint mask to insure an exact size rather than to risk an imperfect size by hand-lettering onto the fuselage.

Time for the Orange color. First the hand lettered template is affixed to the exact location on both sides. This will be sprayed orange. Afterward they will be painted with a 3/16" blue outline.

At the end of three 10 hour days. I will break back to my shop in VA. to take care of buisness for three days and then return to conclude the job outlining, stencilling and misc. detail painting.

 

Fatigued and exhausted, a last minute shot with sean who BTW entertained my crew in the evenings the entire time. That alone added to the fatigue. LOL

 

To be continued.......

Back on the job; Week two

 

Back as promised, I started this round with stripeing the external wing fuel tanks for the orange color. A good amount of time was spent on de-masking all those stripes after the orange was applied. Next was the red CG and engine stripes after which I began outlining the name in .25" blue. Pictured here, I am nearing the completion of this process which took some 6 hours.

 

During a break from the right side name outlining, I taped all the stencilling data to its proper location and rolled on the stencilling with black JET-GLO rather than stenciling ink because the paint will hold up to the elements better for logetivity. This took about an hour, so much for my break.

Here is another view with the stripes in orange and blue as is the DEL AIR GUARD

A shot of the stenciling of the pilot name and crew chief. The box forward reads "HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL" Both of these will be outlined in blue as per a photo found circa 70s-80s. The gun ports were painted black.

All that is missing here now is the white DANGER stenciling in the red bars of the Ejection Seat triangle. Red circles indicate fuel fill ports. This side is now complete. Note the reference photo taped to the fuselage.

 

Now the aircraft is ready for transportation to the location at the Del Air Guard in New Castle DE. where it will be mounted on a pole in the entrance way. A dedication is set for November 11th Veterans day. Final photos of this dedication and unveiling will be added soon after.

To be continued.......