April 8, 2010 - When the new display aircraft - #FA-110 - was pulled in the paintshop at Kleine Brogel AB, everyone was eager for information on how the new bird was going to look like. A lot of speculations arose specifically about the usage of a 'color' on this years demo jet.

We want to thank Johan Wolfs and Peter Verheyen for their stunning design - once again. Besides this, a word of appreciation for all the people working in the paintshop at Kleine Brogel AB for their hospitality in making this project a reality.

When the aircraft was pushed into the paintshop, its engine was removed to save some weight on the chocks and the gear was retracted for better access to the underside of the aircraft. Stage 1 of the painting sequence saw the airframe being readied for its prime coloring. When a scheme is applied to an airframe, it is always applied bottom up. Stage 1 therefor saw a black color applied on top of the airframe and a gray color on the bottom. Together with this stage, the not to be painted areas were covered with some brown paper foil.

After this work had been finished, the markings that Johan and Peter provided were added on top of this first layer of coating. This meant an extensive job since the markings saw a kind of tiger scheme applied to both the top as the bottom of the airframe. A lot of hours and days were preserved for applying these markings with Johan and Peter hopping in to check whether these were applied correctly.

With the markings being finished, an overall middle gray finishing color could be applied to the airframe, both on the top as the bottom.

Together with this, the bottom received its black centerpiece and the blue triangle on the bottom of the engine.

Together with this stage the smokewinders and the travel pod received their final color scheme, with the smokewinders receiving the same gray coloring as the entire airframe and the travel pod receiving a gray prime color with some stencilling and a blue paintbrush finishing.

As final stage, the blue top finishing had to be applied, together with the entire tail and ventral fins that received the blue coloring in different shades with the stencilling applied. The final result differs a litlle from the design, since applying such a paintbrush is mostly an inspiration of the moment.

After this is done, the markings are removed so the final design comes through. Standard stencilling of the aircraft - like emergency stickers etc. -  is restored and some others are added as the Belgian flag and the aircraft's serial number on the tail. As finishing touch the aircraft received a protective coating and is placed on its wheels.

Ready for another season.