Chippy Workshop Update VIII

Chippy Workshop Update VIII …

The lads in the chippy workshop have been kept busy making screens to put around the museums working areas. This helps to keep the museum safe for the visitors and to screen us whilst we are working on different projects.

We have received an order from a visitor from Sussex to make them a Red Arrows child’s sit-on aeroplane. The toy planes seem to appeal to visitors as they often make comments about how well made they are. There is a completed Mustang plane in the hangar that is also now for sale.

So far the museum has sold 6 child’s sit-on aeroplanes:

2 Spitfires
2 Red Arrows
2 Steermans

One of the child-friendly cockpits located in the main hangar was also brought into the workshops for a slight refurbishment and a new coat of paint.

Toy planes and cockpits in construction

The red triplane in the hangar had been brought into the workshops for a new coat of paint. We think that the Red Baron finish was not too popular with the visitors and there had been no offers of purchase, unlike some of the other ‘push planes’. After a brief discussion, it was decided therefore to try to convert the push plane into a prototype coffee table … This is an ongoing project still causing some discussion amongst the lads.

The Red Baron becomes a coffee table (possibly)

The chippy workshop is the backbone of the museum when it comes to building repairs. We would have problems if it were not for the skills of the volunteers to keep the buildings in a good state of repair especially working in the damp and cold weather that we experienced over the last winter. Do we have a moan, of course we do, but we carry on. We have understanding partners who let us loose on Tuesdays as it is the working day for most of the volunteers.