Since Thanksgiving, the auto-body course students at Renton Technical College have been working on an unusual assignment.

They have been tasked with painting a full-scale model of a World War II Spitfire airplane.

Broken into pieces so they could paint it, the plane is scheduled to be reassembled on Feb. 27 and taken to the Olympic Flight Museum in Tumwater.

The plane was acquired by Doug Wilson, an employee of Galvin Flying Services.

“He was driving past the Museum of Flight for years and saw (the plane) in the back,” said Susanna Williams, RTC college relations. “And (he) stopped in one day and was like ‘hey are you doing anything with that old plane.’”

Wilson explained that he wanted to restore the plane and they gave it to him, Williams said.

“So, he called all the colleges in the area and we were the only ones who responded,” she said.

With the project, auto-body students are learning different methods of painting and about geometry, surfaces and with a fair amount of math involved.

The school has never taken on a project like this. Usually students in the program work on donated cars and painting the Big Brother, Big Sister donation bins is typically their first assignment.

“This was kind of a way-off-the-wall project,” said Brad Slayton, RTC auto- body instructor.

He agreed that it was one of the most bizarre projects he’s worked on with his class, although there have been other usual projects.

Four years ago his class restored a 1952 fire engine that’s now used in parades. Students also constructed a double-ended Ford truck they pieced together so that it could be driven from either end.

“That’s a pretty bizarre deal; we take that to a lot of car shows (and) into the schools to try and get guys interested in the program,” Slayton said.

The two-year program is well regarded in the community, Williams said, with students working everywhere from Boeing on airplanes to Hawaii on elevator  doors.

Students also find work in different facets of the automotive industry, too, said Slayton.

“It’s not all about just fixing cars anymore,” he said of his program and where students wind up. “There’s an administrative side to it. You have to know how to write an estimate. You got to be able to communicate well to the customer.”

There are opportunities out there where students can make $80-100,000 a year once they get three years under their belts and experience, he said.

There are currently 15 students in the program.

“We teach them the basics and all they’re lacking is practice and good exposure,” Slayton said.