The Little World

Ticking them off is ticking me off.

I mean the various means for producing camouflage paint schemes on model aircraft. Recently I tried the Silly Putty Snake method for making British A and B aircraft patterns. I had two pots of different brands of silly putty and had researched all the YouTube videos on how they should be used.

I duly rolled snakes, stuck them to the model, wrapped them well, and then tried to get a good paint job. The spray gun and the paint worked perfectly, but the masks have proved less effective than hoped. There is considerable overspray and imprecise edging. I shall spend an evening touching up before any clear sealer can be applied.

The jelly snakes did not stick to the underlying matte paint – no tedious cleanup was needed. But they did not stick as well as they might have, either. And the business of filling in the spaces between demarkation lines was no fun at all. I’ll grant the YouTube instructors their due – things worked as well as they were going to work, and I was not duped.

But it is no advance for me over previous masking tape jobs. I am still in search of the perfect masking material. And now I am going to be trying some of my own ideas. I’ll let you know how they work out.