Several (four-five?) years before first flight, I met this little guy named Jonathan McCormick who has a scheme design and paint business in Alabama. Plane Schemer and Evoke Aviation are his life’s work and they are simply put amazing. Here’s a brief story of how we got Tess all dolled up.

I met Jonathan at Sun N Fun in 2015 and got to work with him on designing a scheme. I was early in the build but wanted to have some motivation and vision on what we were putting together in the garage. He was great to work with for a reasonable fee and didn’t stop until I gave the final approval on every little detail. We started with some inspiration photos that I sent him and some descriptions of each aspect that I like and wanted to incorporate. He then took this and put his artistic skills to work creating a truely unique and exiting paint scheme.

We wanted something no one else had and something different than a typical cheat line or a few swooshes. My main inspiration came from another RV, this one having 8 wheels and two slide outs used on the road. He really nailed the design with the tail and the whole scheme grew from that feature. Laura loves orange, and it’s high on my list of favorites, so we decided that would be the splash of color in the scheme. We went back and forth with a few things, lines here, swooshes there, wheel pants reversed, etc. When it was all said and done, we had a one of a kind paint scheme that was going to be a head turner. I also had motivation to stop cruising the internet for plane pictures and finish building.

But wait, there’s more! Sam, Jonathan’s girlfriend and business partner, has a side business creating custom artwork. Laura and I wanted a little logo we could use for the plane, shirts, cups, seats (didn’t get to put it on the seats), pillows, basically anything that can be embroidered! She and I worked together to create a custom logo for the plane and I couldn’t be happier with the result. We will incorporate that into the paint as well as all kinds of fun stuff. I do politely ask that our logo not be copied, as Sam earned a commission on this artwork and Laura and I would like to keep this unique to our plane.

Fast forward a few years and airshows later with a random meeting in Raleigh NC on the ramp, I reached out to Jonathan about getting a slot for painting the plane. He and I agreed it’s best to paint after flight tests, as stuff comes on and off a lot plus a few adjustments can be made without messing up the paint. In March of 2020, I flew Tess down to Gadsden, AL (KGAD) airport to drop her off for paint. Jonathan and I spent the morning doing a tour of his two facilities, checking out other projects, and poking our heads into warbird jet projects on the field. He also finalized the actual colors in his office and did just a few tweaks on the scheme after having a few years and hundreds of other designs now under his belt.

I left knowing it’d be a few months before it’s all finished up and let him and his team go to work. This website doesn’t have room to describe all the work they did! It does have room to say how good the work was! Wow, they dove in deep and with a vengeance for perfection. All of my stupid little new builder mess ups were corrected, they smoothed and perfected the fit of the wingtips which needed a lot of work, and they did an amazing job prepping each and every surface for a perfect paint job. The amount of filling and sanding was mind blowing to me even after I thought I had done a decent job of prepping. With the amount of colors and layout of the scheme, it was also a ton of work to get the color on the airplane. I still can’t figure out which order they put the colors on but the results were mind blowing. With the status pictures coming in with all the color on, I thought we were close to the finish line, but that’s where even more work comes in. They wet sanded the entire airplane, knocking each line down between colors and eliminating all waves, orange peel, and imperfections. Then, they cleared the entire plane. One smooth consistent surface makes a massive difference on the quality and longevity of the paint job. Buffing and touch-ups were next and then I got to come down and help put it back together. We finished the windows with sealant filling the troughs in around the edges and a protective bead on the bottom of the windshield. The guys were great hosts, taught me a few things, gave me a lot of help, and lots of new shiny stainless steel hardware!

Even our tug got a cool paint job from a new painter learning his skills. Honestly, the tug gets more comments than the plan does at home!

After several agonizing months without a plane, we rolled Tess out into the evening sun for a photo shoot on the taxi way. I was drooling the entire time! To say I’m happy is a massive understatement and the feedback from others is the same. Even after a year of flying and a few scratches, sorry Jonathan, I still get people coming up to it everywhere I go commenting on the paint.

So, the nitty gritty of it all. It was expensive. Really expensive. It took a long time. A lot longer than I was told originally and was expecting. It is better than I could have ever imagined. It is worth twice what we paid for it. I’m realizing that even more with fellow builders struggling with paint quality issues. I have and will continue to recommend Evoke and the team of professionals to everyone because they doe the job right the first time.

Jonathan, you took our baby girl and made her beautiful. Thank you!