The Little World

I am starting to formulate a style in my model building – in fact a number of styles, depending upon the scale and type of model under construction:

a. Large model buildings are done from sketches and photographs with a fair degree of leeway in the design. I stick to simple lines and art deco decoration as it is easy to do with foamcore board and stripwood. Speedlines can be your stylistic friend.

Weathering is kept to a minimum.

b. Small structures are done with an eye to grubby reality. Dirty bushes, oily washes, and dusty sprays are a fact of life.

c. Airplane and car kits are built according to the plan supplied…for the most part. If I need to depart radically from what I bought, I do that deliberately and select the cheapest way to get the most done from the kit.

I cannot see the sense in any way of adding the price of the original kit again in aftermarket accessories. In this hobby I follow Teddy Roosevelt’s dictum: ” Do what you can with what you have, where you are. ” I am delighted with a result that is accurate, but I realise that accuracy depends upon what I am given to work with.

All this said, The Vindicator is going very well, The fuselage fit is very clean with minimal puttying. The tailplanes fit well with accurate and tight locator tabs. Of course the tail did go on with an overnight jig for the gluing but that was just a precaution.

The model is being sprayed with Mr Color lacquer out of the carefully hoarded stash. US Chrome Yellow is best made with 1:1 109 and 113. I think I have enough stored to get through every 1:72 USN prewar plane that will be available kitted in Australia – and hopefully the GSI distributorship will be established again soon*. Likewise the Super Silver for the rest of the fuselage and underwing. If this runs out there are always the Tamiya AS cans available. I’m not proud – i’ll resort to a rattle can if it does the job well.

Like the black tail? Apparently each carrier had a colour code – rather similar to the coded tails used later in the war. I’m going to make one from each major ship.

And the cockpit cover? Paper, folded and slipped down between the fuselage and the interior cage. I’m proud of the idea. Actually, I am enjoying this plane – even the minor mistakes occasioned by the diagram instructions. And I have beaten the Czechs with the installation of the engine cowling. They put nothing at all in there to mate it to the fuselage. Just expected it to fit where it touched and it didn’t touch…

I carved a balsawood block to fill and space it correctly and epoxied them all in place. Take that, Prague.

*  Old column. GSI Creos distributer re-established. Doesn’t stop me from hoarding, but…