The Little World

It was cold tonight. Rainy. I adjourned into the computer room with a portable modelling tray to proceed with the Hurricane in some comfort – the Little Workshop was just too miserable to work in, even with the heater on.

The task was masking the pattern illustrated in the Avia publication on Canadian warplanes. I also had the little sheet included with the model – small but adequate if you already know what you are looking at.

This time there was to be no Silly Putty – no tinfoil or paper patterns. It was going to be thin masking tape bent round. But whether it was the weather or my slow fingers, nothing seemed to be working well. The tape kinked rather than bent around. It stuck to me and not the Hurricane. It was time to put Plan E into action.

Humbrol Maskol was either going to work or not…and I have used it enough to bet on the former rather than the latter – as long as it was brushed on carefully. I’ve ruined brushes with the stuff before by not rinsing them in water – this time I had a pot of rinse water ready to hand. And it all started well.

But the brush clagged up very quickly, despite the rinsing. I’ll recover it with lighter fluid or acetone or some such, but in the meantime I needed a smooth applicator that could be thrown away. The daughter came to the rescue. She has her fingernails done occasionally and then repaints them herself – and one of the things she uses is Swisspers absorbent cosmetic tips.

I tried them with generous dips of the Maskol and found that they are the best applicator for this rubber solution that you could want – especially if you are doing British A or B camouflage. They do the swoops and small scallops easily, and when one starts to ball up with dried rubber you just discard it and grab another. The whole plane took just two of the sticks.

I think it would even be better if the shaft of the applicator was gripped in an old-fashioned pen holder for more positive control…and I just happen to have a drawer full of them…

The Little Workshop advances along the Frugal Front.