KS Ong

She came... She threw up... And she left...

Fantastic!!! Thanks for sharing!

Another stage that is tedious, time consuming and tiring is the stenciling, drawing and lining the masking tape process. Unlike the Retro scheme which comes with pre-mask (pre printed sticker which later can be removed), the team only had one tail logo and one oneworld template. First, they had to cut small triangle holes (side of a thumb) along the edges of the template. This is very time consuming and the gap between two holes should not be wider than a palm, especially at the sections that curves. Then, they bring up to the aircraft, measure, leveling and position correctly before drawing lines in the triangle holes. Once the lines are drawn, the painters remove the template and uses masking tapes to connect the lines. This is probably the adult version of drawing/connecting the lines. Straight lines are easy to do. But the curves, it can take quite some time to get it right. By the time they finish the tail/winglet, including wrapping, it was already sun set; and still continuing to doing the forward oneworld section.

From where I left off... The painters who rubbed down MTE. Overnight, the applied primers and the next morning, MTE is ready for WHITE. All done and ready for another coat.

Rubdown It is considered to many the noisiest, one of the most tiring, tedious and time consuming process before painting an aircraft. Rub-down is literally sandpapering old paint from the fuselage using Air Sander. It works like your ordinary car polisher. Instead of sponge, the painters had to stick sandpaper at the rotating end and it uses pneumatics system instead of electric power. Size wise, it is slightly bigger than a person's hand. For MTE, the painters only rubbed down three selected areas instead of the whole aircraft. Forward fuselage (between door 1 and slightly after door 2), tail, and winglets. The reason, oneworld would want the member airline to maintain their original livery elements while adapting its logo. Back to the rub-down. It took them almost 12 hours, just to finish it as they had minimal manpower to cover a big area with a small tool. Moreover, they had to change the sandpaper every 2/3 minutes and work on a particular area for about 10-15 minutes before moving to another. They also had to use force to press the sander against the fuselage to ensure the paint is properly sand away. This is literally 'Hard Labor'. Time lapse

Something I just came across. Dragonair 330 to BKI http://airlineroute.net/2013/02/11/ka-bki-apr13/

Once again, it was a pleasure working with Malaysia Airlines again to document another historic moment, joining the oneworld alliance. Equipment used was 9M-MTE, a one and half years young, delivered August 11. Her schedule has been quite tight. Prior to painting, she underwent C check from 16 Jan till the 24. And she has to be ready for the unveiling on the 31. 24 Jan - Rub Down (This is a new plane, no paint strip required), Primer 25 Jan - White Fuselage, Tail, Winglet 26 Jan - Stenciling oneworld, logo 27 Jan - Masking, Blue and Red 28 Jan - Demask for Degrease, Clear Coat 29 Jan - Full Demask Here she is before being prep for the rub down

Stay tuned.

Thanks to Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia Airports Berhad for the rare opportunity.

Golden Myanmar Airlines departing for her first delivery flight to Yangon around 1pm. 9M-GSA (ex Alba Star-EC-LKB) I think.

Lets start off the New Year with a new airline. Golden Myanmar Airlines. She is seen here departing for her 2 hours test flight. Aussie 868 getting ready to leave for Darwin. Aircraft 206 and 209 are quite frequent in SZB The tail end of Jetstar Pacific. An Mwinger managed to catch her landing.

She is still inside hangar 6. Getting her new dress done.

Trying to sneak out of Subang on a lazy quiet Sunday afternoon. Luckily managed to catch her while she was taxiing to Rwy 15 Oil Spill Response in her new dress. Concept looked like US Coast Guard.

After almost 6 days, countless hours days and nights, the moment all have been waiting for. Demasking and dockings removal. She is ready to spread her wings. All plastic coverings/masking are to be removed. Followed by removing the body docks. Presenting the Retro and the crew who had made it possible

Putting up the 40 Anniversary Decal is not an easy task. It takes experience and gut feel to translate a 2D visual into 3D decal placement. That is why, it takes them the whole afternoon just to adjust and readjust before finally sticking it. Bear in mind that this is just on the port side only. The night shift will do the starboard side. After around 4 hours, the crew finally got the port side done. The 40 decal comes in sections and the crew assembles them like a jig-saw puzzle; putting them in place and tape them. They had to meticulously ensure that all lines are aligned. The night crew begin measuring, water-leveling and locating the correct positions. Slightly after 3am. They are done.

By dinner time , she is ready to come out of her plastic cocoon; almost 5 hours after the last paint was applied. With all hands on deck, she was quickly unwrapped like a child unwrapping her present. Wa laa. And after almost 4 hours of unmasking (with breaks in between), she reveals her beauty to the first lucky few that night. There was a moment of silence and almost felt that everyone is experiencing a blast from the past. I was certain that for those of us who have seen and flown the retros, they were reliving MAS golden years. For me, it brought me back to SZB in the early 80s when I first saw the retros. She looks like a Russian cargo... . All thanks to the night shift crew and I am able to go back slightly earlier and continue the next afternoon for the 40 anniversary decal.

Having spent almost 20 hours in the hangar, gave a miss on the grey belly as too tired to do anything and very very sleepy. So the following afternoon, made coverage on the RED. Staffs we already pre masking the logo. Tail, winglets and cheat lines ready to be painted RED Painters all suit up for RED... There were 3 representative from AkzoNobel overseeing the RED paint, to ensure paint viscosity and application are done correctly. Red paint mist is everywhere in the air. Even the engineers working at the adjacent aircrafts had to stop work and leave the area. After two hours of painting, it is left for drying and the night shift to remove the masking. RED Paint at Port Side

Wonderful collections. Like Josh said, it does bring back memories, like I remember seeing this here, i saw that there. Would like to see your custom models as well... Thanks for sharing.

Retro returning from CGK on her first flight, parked at gate C13. Weather was crappy. Good to see you again Liew and MIR.

Continuation of where I left. Painters all suite up. There were 8 painters. 2 for retro's black nose job and 2 each for each side. The remaining 2 is to supervise painting. The picnic menu for the night is blue and black paint with curing solution. Painting technologies these days do not need to paint layers over layers over layers. Two layers is good enough with a clear coat as finishing. The technique used is cross paint. Paint one layer horizontally and the other vertically. Time to peel off the masking after 4 hours of drying to clean off 'leaked/smudge' spots. At one glance, the nose looks like a space shuttle. Usually, major painting is done at day time (late mornings/afternoons). At night, insects are attracted to the paint's bau (smell). This is to prevent insects leaving trail marks and their dead body. Here's a short time lapse video of the days' work

It started as a simple meeting/recce on 4th afternoon that immediately turns out to be a wonderful and eye opening 8 straight days of working experience with Malaysia Airline's Engineering and Maintenance team. The Project Manager was kind enough to disclose to us the schedule plan for MXA and determined to complete the paint job by the 9th. End November - Paint rub-down. Because MXA is a fairly new paint, it is not required for a complete paint strip. 2 Dec - Wash 3 Dec - Primer Application 4 Dec - White, MAS Blue Text Application, Black Nose 5 Dec - Grey Application 6 Dec - Red Application 7 Dec - 40 Anniversary Decal Application 8 Dec - Clear Coat Application 9 Dec - Removal of over-wing masking and dockings The painters had already applied the white paint earlier part of the day. So we started off with the MAS wording and Blue colour. The paints are supplied by Akso Nobel paints. Red paint that will be used later part of the week Getting ready the Malaysian Airlines System, Jawi and Flag premask Before they apply the premasks, the staffs had to measure by hand where the premask should be placed. Most often, they use windows as point of reference. The black nose on the other hand is one of the most difficult part to draw and apply masking. It took the senior staff about two hours just to have a perfect black nose where from the side, you can see a straight line from top to bottom She is all dressed up, premask applied, degreased and all ready for blue and black paint Briefing and break time before painting. It was already 12.30am

9M-MXA

A bit of yesterday and today. Thanks TK for the info. Catherham Jet departing for Halim, Jakarta with 6 POB. Aussie 846 cleared to land around 5.30pm, parked at Air Force bay Due to 2 in bounds, Aussie 846 took Rwy 15 for departure around 10.30 As soon as Aussie departed, Malaysian 5200 was cleared to taxy Sierra, Tango, Alpha for Rwy33. Air Vanuatu, Event72 departed for Denpasar with 4 POB. Wonder who's classic 737 is this? Not sure if it's a 300 or 500 series

Someone is playing with their new toy and took her 'jalan-jalan' / for a spin

Thanks Norman and Tukun for the Russian info. Alpha Delta Bravo 2310 (Antonov Design Bureau) arrived around 2.30pm carrying 2 EC 725 for our RMAF. http://www.malaysian...83 After almost four hours of unloading and heavy rain, ADB210F with 17 POB requested for push-back and start engines. She did not depart until like 7.05pm, almost half an hour, while waiting for 3 FY arrivals and 5 minutes of engine warm-up and spooling. Pictures are noisy (ISO1000) and was under no light and drizzling conditions.