348 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron Anniversary RF-4E Phantom II paint scheme

The making off...

Late 2016 the decision for the suspension of Hellenic Air Force 348 Squadron operations and retirement of RF-4E Phantom II was taken and announced to the Squadron's personnel and to the public. In January 2017 and after the official anniversary emblems were designed and finalised an artwork team of seven people was established in charge of project for the anniversary paint scheme design & realization.

The process proved long starting with the digital design. All members of the artwork team equally contributed targeting to an original paint scheme picturing the history, tactical role and tradition of 348 Recce Squadron. Decision was to apply black as the main color of the aircraft combined with orange color inspired by ancient greek classical *pottery.

*Red-figure technique was an Athenian invention of the late 6th century. It was quite the opposite of black-figure which had a red background. The ability to render detail by direct painting rather than incision offered new expressive possibilities to ancient Greek artists.

The following design components were selected to accompany the two main anniversary emblems (spooky and shutter silhouette):

348 Squadron title**
“The end of the film” slogan**
“Eye in the Sky” slogan
Four Squadron's aircraft types (F-84G, RT-33, RF-84F, RF-4E)
181.000 Flight hours and front eyes **
1953 & 2017 as the years of establishment and suspension of operations
Greek flag
HAF roundel
Film roll
Vergina Sun emblem (historical royal symbol of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia).

**In both greek and english language

The process...

In early April 2017 the painting process was initiated starting with preparation of S/N 7499 RF-4E Phantom II. This specific airplane is the same with German Luftwaffe (Code: 35+52) also painted in an “Phlyout” paint scheme in 1994 on behalf of Aufklärungsgeschwader 52. It was later delivered to Hellenic Air Force and 348 Squadron.

The airplane was carefully washed and sanded in order to remove all the unwanted objects and grease overlaying on the aircraft panel surfaces. Sensitive areas like canopy, sensors, antennas etc were masked and prime coat was applied. After that all surfaces were painted in basic black color and the aircraft was left for about a week to chill.

Applying the prepared paper-sticker stencils all design components were painted on fuselage and upper side of the wings. Some important details added during this process step were the following:

Serial numbers of the aircraft painted on the front wheel door
Names of SQN Commander Lt. Col Dimitrios Papadimitriou and OPS Officer Stavros Antonopoulos were painted on the left side of the canopies
Artwork team members names were painted on the front wheel side door

At last but not least the airplane was raised on jacks so that bottom side of the wings were painted with 1953 – 2017 years notation and 348 Squadron shutter silhouette emblem giving and end to a long and anticipating period of painting process.

The Artwork Team...

The Artwork team members:

Lambros Tolias (HAF)
George Athanasiadis (HAF)
Dimos Anagnostakis (HAF)
Zoe Smarlamaki (HAF)
Nektarios Notas (HAF)
George Psaras
Sotiris Kakaletris

The first flight...

First flight of anniversary RF-4E Phantom II (S/N 7499) was performed on Tuesday, May 2^nd 2017 and last flight was on Friday, May 5^th 2017 during the Phlyout ceremony organised at Larissa Air base.