The Little World

There was never going to be a great deal of desperate basic modelling in the construction of two P-39’s from Hobby Boss kits from the outset. And this was just what made the idea so appealing. I know the kit to be a good one and the ease of construction is just a bonus.

Doing things in batches is rather fun – if a step is difficult one time it is generally easier next time round. Plus the prospect of similar, but subtly different models is a challenge. In this diorama subject I have four variations to play on a basic theme.

The other thing that is getting to be fun is using the airbrush as a quick-response tool. You wouldn’t think that this would be the case – what with the stern injunctions to clean everything – but it is surprising just how fast you can change your colour from one thing to another while doing batch work. I learned this from watching YouTube videos of Dr. Cranky in his Lab-Rat-Tory of custom cars. His seemingly offhand switching turned out to be a carefully worked-out sequence of loosening old colour, wiping and blowing it out, and adequate flushing without disassembly. I use it as a standard procedure now and reserve the big clean for the end of the session. And none of my paint jobs suffer for it.

I am grateful, as well, to the makers of the kits for their suggestion that smaller parts be painted on the sprues. I never thought to do this as a kid and suffered lost parts and dodgy paintwork because of it. Now I brigade up all the parts that need to be one colour and put a paint bottle near them – then on to the next and another bottle. I am gradually getting to point where I do not need to shift between lacquer and aqueous paints, so it is just a case of load, shoot, flush and on to the next.

I’ve also reduced the basic air pressure available to my guns to 18 – 19psi  – down from 22 psi – and thinned accordingly – the spray job is much easier to control and I can do multiple colours on one sprue. I hope this will help with paint flow when it comes to the undercoat and colour coats as well.