ZF579 RSAF Lightning F.53 repaint here

[TheCameronPerson 48]

My last repaint was of XR724 as she was in 1992 and I had planned to complete another paint for this aircraft that showed its current state (very dirty and faded) but I've decided to take some more time with this one because Dave was kind enough to send me lots of close ups of '724 and there's a lot of dirt to paint on right and I think it'll take some trial and error. Instead I decided to release this repaint of ZF579. It fits in with my theme of painting "live" Lightnings because she started all of her engines and systems this September for the first time in 30 years after a complete 16 year restoration. Also it gave me practice with alpha channels and put some RSAF repaints out there.. 

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ZF579 was one of a number of former Saudi Lightnings that were brought back to the UK in 1986 and ended up in crates. Sadly this caused some corrosion on a few airframes that were otherwise in good nick. Luckily ZF579 was judged to be sound in 2000 when literally just her shell was purchased by the folks at the Gatwick Aviation Museum with the aim of restoring life. This restoration was the complete rebuild of a scrapyard find Lightning that was undertaken by a team of less than 7 engineers who worked outside all the while the owner of GAM, Peter Vallance, was fighting for planning permission to build cover for his museum. Luckily this cover was built and '579 was moved inside and in September of 2016 she was completely brought back to life and it's during this period of her life that I've painted '579. In mid 2016 one side of the tail was painted with a small memorial to two former members of the GAM including the founder Peter who sadly passed away in 2013.

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I was hoping to upload this one to flightsim with the others but the file was too large so I've uploaded it to simviation instead. I'll post a link but in case it doesn't work it can be found by searching 'Aerosoft Lightning' or 'Cameron slater'. Hope you enjoy the addition. Happy New Year btw

 

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=cameron+slater&x=20&y=9

 

Cameron.

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