The Little World

The debate in this column, in the wider modelling world, and in my mind about the best way to paint British camouflage patterns in 1:72 scale has finally been resolved and need not be investigated further until next time I get bored…

Recently I free-handed the A/B camo pattern on a Fairey Fulmar in this scale and decided that it was too vague. Previously I had used tape masks to spray similar patterns on Buffalo, Blenheim, and other British aircraft…but felt the pattern was too sharp. This time I did what all the YouTube channels show – I cut a custom paper set of masks for the plane based upon the colour callout drawings in the plan. Then I rolled little sausages of fresh BluTac putty and stuck them on the edges of the pattern, but inboard of the edge.

I sprayed the second colour, FAA Slate Grey, at a 90º angle to the surface and did not flood under the mask edges. The result was a small graduated edge between each colour change, and a much improved scale appearance. The colours are fresh, but not as glaring.

This is a lot of trouble to do, but worth it in the end.  No good going back to previous models and trying to redo them, but there are a lot more in the future that will get the treatment. I should not try it on armour or ships.