NASAM Update as of the 25th Aug 2024

In This Edition

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Summary of Contents

In this edition of the blog’s “Museum News“, we have a few photos from Steve, who reported an unusual visitor on Thursday, the 15th Aug.

Then, from Paint Team “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have a double week of updates from Barry.

Short blog this time around.

Pete S

Museum News

General news from the Museum

Unusual Visitor

On Thursday, the 15th of August, we had an unusual visitor to the Museum who flew an orbit (although at quite a distance) and then moved off to the east.

Steve

(Photos) Unusual Visitor

Opening Days

Inside and Outside – The Museum

Information from the various teams

Paint Team Updates

13/08/24 – You spin me right round, baby right round!

Regular readers of the Paint Team blog (don’t kid yourself – Ed.) will know we do like the odd musical metaphor. This week’s offering (for all you Dead or Alive fans out there) is “you spin me right round, baby right round…” I’m sure you all have the 1985 album that spawned this single; Mark certainly has. Early in the morning, Gwen got herself into a bit of a spin but still managed to complete the repaint of Bomber Command (see pic 15) before calling time early, due to the heat.

Over on the Sea Prince, the boys gave it one last push to try and finish the prep; or more accurately re-prep; of the old bus. On the left wing, Ian looked for more loose paint, while Mark did likewise on the right wing (see pic 16). In centre midfield ‘Flash’ Tony (not to be confused with Swiss Toni) carried on with his repairs to the roof of the Sea Prince (see pic 17). ‘Flash’ got himself into a bit of spin as with temperatures nudging 30 degrees, the bitumen primer for the flashband was literally running off the aircraft and separating the flashband from its sticky backing sheet was proving nigh on impossible. To be continued next week.

In the morning, Barry worked his way up the starboard side of the fuselage, seeking to ‘feather’ off remaining areas of lifting paint. In the arvo, Barry switched to the port side, finding the odd bit and piece to finish off. Good job as in this picture he seems to be indicating that he is down to his last two sanding discs (see pic 18)!

As the temperature continued to climb and with sanding now at the ‘diminishing returns’ level, the boys took a little bit of time out to discuss tactics for painting around Tony next week, while he finishes the roof repairs (see pic 19). Well earned pints (of squash) were downed very rapidly.

The last task of the day was to pressure wash all the loose paint and general crud out of the engine cowlings just behind the spinners (ready for rattle canning in black). Mark then demonstrated his ‘spinning’ technique for winding in the hitherto uncooperative steel reinforced pressure washer hose and looked suitably pleased with the end result (see pic 20).

20/08/24 – STOP PRESS: Painters actually seen painting!

Yes folks, don’t fall off your seats, but after about 4 months of prep, the boys actually put some paint on the Sea Prince this week! What a nice change to actually do some painting, as opposed to wire wheeling over the seemingly millions of rivets holding the Sea Pest together.

The day started off with a quick loosener; putting up a scaff’ tower for Gwen, so she could start repainting the Main Hangar doors. Later on, Gwen moved down to ground level to scrape off all the loose paint, prior to repainting (see pic 21).

Over on the Prince, the first task of the day for Mark was to clean all the upward facing ‘to be primed’ surfaces with Tack Cloths (see pic 22). While this was going on ‘Flash’ Tony went into overdrive to try and finish off all the flashbanding repairs on the roof (see pic 23). Fortunately, the weather was a bit cooler this week, making the flashband a bit easier to handle and apply.

Following ‘Tacky’ Mark round was Private Walker, armed with some (non-acidic) etch primer. The etch primer was required to treat any large areas of bare aluminium, to give some surface adhesion, prior to the application of a new type of regular primer (see pic 24).

The Etch Primer dried in about 20 minutes. The next job was then mixing up the regular grey primer. We are using a new brand of paint on the Sea Prince as a bit of a trial; Dacrylate (as opposed to Withams), as recommended by Duxford. The grey primer is a ‘high build’ (i.e. thicker) primer that hopefully will help even out some of the undulations in the Sea Prince’s surfaces as it goes on. For roller application, the primer needs thinning down by 10% with Dacrylate R5 Thinners (hands off our special R5 thinners please everyone else!). So, Mark and Ian set about stirring it up (see pic 25).

After lunch, the boys cracked on with application of the grey primer, avoiding ‘Flash’ Tony and the central fuselage, while he applied the last of the flashband patches (see pic 26).

By close of play, the tops of both wings had been primed, plus one side of the tail/elevator (see pic 27).

Barry

(Photos) Team Update

The Repeat Info

Here we are in 2024 and the repeat information is still here I’m afraid, and I make no apologies for keeping his section in our blog. We are a charitable organisation relying on monies from the public to keep us going. Any help we receive is gratefully accepted and enables the museum to continue in our mission “To conserve, preserve and promote the history of aviation in East Anglia, whilst providing a fun, family-friendly and interactive museum, promoting education and remembrance of the events of the past“.

Are you thinking of helping ??

We obtain most of our finances by donations and by membership fees. We save money by having a dedicated group of volunteers that keep the museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope therefore a few people may consider helping in the ways below.

There are three easy ways to help: Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by Donating to assist in our running costs. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the appropriate information:

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Keep Up To Date

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