The Little World

Arrrrrrr.

It was Talk Like A Pirate Day at Bunnings, the local DIY shop. All the staff – old and young – were dressed as pirates and the cries of ” Matey ” and ” Arrrr” flew thick and fast. I understood their joy – I do enjoy a good keelhauling myself in warm weather…

But it was also Discovery Day in the paint department. The Little World can now obtain acrylic paints in 250 ml sample pots with as vast a colour range as you could ask for. No more being limited to chocolate-box colours or shiny enamels in small tins, and no longer being faced with the prospect of paying $ 40 for paints in cans that would be far too large to ever use up. (The  universal principle of physics that says every tin of paint that you buy will leak air just enough to go gellid a day before you actually use it applies here.)

The vast range of shades is encouraging – though you really do need to take the little card samples out of the shop to see them under full sunlight when you are trying to accurately match things. The staff realise this and are not at all troubled when you take a handful of the things out to the pavement and spread them out in a fan. In my case I was trying to actually match the colour of the pavement and it proved the most sensible thing to do.

The cost for the 250mm of custom-mixed colour was $ 9.40. I could realistically look at this being diluted further to produce 320 ml of model-consistency paint. Just under 3¢ a ml compared to the hobby shop price of 30¢ a ml. With a bit of planning and intermixing, I can make buildings for a fraction of the paint cost than before.

Now all I need to do is source cheap 10mm foamcore board. Art supply shops cannot be the lowest price…

Arrrr!