Rani Awad

SPECIAL REPORT| PAINTS
malist yet luxurious style chosen for the interior.
“The principals had a good idea of what they
wanted, drawing on the stark colors of black
and white, mixed with taupe which characterize
the BBJ’s internal design. The challenge was
to come up with an external design that was
elegant, simple and completely original, and
in keeping with the quality one expects from a
VVIP design,” he comments.
“Our internal design team prepared numerous
2D designs and 3D renderings, working towards
final approval by the principals, who were
closely involved at every stage,” he says.
Marius Peens, paint shop manager, Jet Aviation
Basel, told EVA that the initial idea was
to use six shades to achieve the transition from
black to light grey and back again. “When we
began working out the details, however, it became
clear that the project would work best
with sixteen different custom mixed shades on
top of the black, white and actual grey that
were our starting points,” he explains.
This meant that much of the success of the
project would hinge on a successful collaboration
with the paint manufacturer and their local
distributor. “We recommended and ended up using
Sherwin-Williams Jet Glo Express polyester
urethane topcoat, which gave us a sleek, durable
finish, along with a clearcoat to protect the
finish and ensure that it stayed shiny for years
to come,” Peens adds.
Serge Volpatti, Field Technical Advisor at
PSG, Sherwin-Williams’ distributor in Europe
and the Middle East, was on hand for much of
the project, providing technical advice. “I was
contacted by Jet Aviation Basel as to our views
on the best way to achieve the fade from one
shade to the next. Marius and his team put together
a mock up board representing the full
length of the BBJ. By running repeated training
exercises on the mock up, it became clear
how best to achieve the fades without too much
playing around with the paint gun,” he notes.
Peens explains, “We ran through a complete
paint practice run four times on the full scale
mock up. We had to change colors 38 times as
we moved down the fuselage and we used laser
pen markings on the fuselage to indicate to the
painters precisely when they needed to move to
a different pot of paint. While painting the aircraft,
the painters on both sides of the fuselage
had to stay in constant contact and paint at the
78 International | Autumn 2015