The Little World

It’s often the little things in the Little World that loom largest.

Now I’m not going to suggest that I’m a cheapskate. A penny-pincher. A scrooge. But I encounter things in daily and modelling life that press my Frugality Alarm button something chronic. And paint wastage is one of them.

Paint from model shops is marginally more expensive than gold but just under the price of diamonds. I’m surprised they do not have an armed guard on the aisle with the finishing materials in case someone tries to fill their pockets with N0. 27 Matt Dark Grey and slip out. Thus any effort I can make to stretch the paint budget is pursued.

The airbrushes I use need a thinned version of most standard model paints. I cut acrylics or enamels with the appropriate thinners and mix them in small batches as needed. The measurement system is a simple souvenir teaspoon  – two spoons of paint and one spoon of thinner is the right consistency and amount for one good coat on a medium-sized 1:72 model. Heretofore I have been using a bar shot glass for the mixing as it is easy to clean out later.

But therein lay the painful problem – the paint stuck to the inside of the glass and in every batch I’d lose the use of about half a spoonful as it was poured into the airbrush cup. Waste – wicked, wicked waste…

Then my friend Warren alerted me to the disposable foil cups that are made to form chocolates in. He’d found a local kitchen supply firm that had them as accessories for a reasonable price. I picked up two packs and have not looked back. They can hold enough for a good coat and when upended over the paint cup drain nearly completely. And no sticky clean-up.