The Little World

Painting and masking need not always be done with conventional tools. Spray cans, spray guns, airbrushes and bristle brushes are all very well, but we can take a lesson from the indigenous Australians who had none of these tools. For millenia they picked up a pointed stick and cheerfully painted away.

In many cases they developed hightly original styles with these sticks and made whole art catalogues as well as maps from simple dots. Go to an authentic aboriginal art gallery today and see what prices they fetch!

The modeller can also use the pointed stick – toothpick, cocktail skewer, satay stick or whatever – to good effect in the workshop. I routinely keep a tub full of pre-cut matchsticks from the Indian $ 2 crap shop ready to hand as mixing sticks and then they can serve as applicators for tiny dots in tiny places. I sharpen them up and hold them in an old drafting pen holder. Once used, they need no cleaning. If there is a wide swath of rough work to be down, a wooden tongue depressor or coffee stirring stick is often as good as a brush, and again needs no cleaning.

The drafting pen gets used as the canopy painting tool par excellence. I thin the acrylic or lacquer and add a retardant if needed then cheerfully paint frames on the tiniest 1:72 scale clear canopies. It is particularly good for canopy frame lines that curve or for canopies that have been moulded with little structure to guide the painter. Given the choice of painting with the bow pen or paying out $ 16 for canopy masks, I always choose the former and spend the savings on cheap wine.

Is there a place for a wire loop pen – rather like the wire loops we used to use to plate out specimens on petri dishes? In some cases, yes, if the area to be painted is small enough and the consistency of the paint liquid enough. These are good for masking solutions, as are dissection probes and broken dental tools.

Note to people new to masking solutions. If you incorporate a wisp of thread or a piece of masking tape on the surface that you are masking it gives you a handle to assist with the removal of that mask later. Gently cut round the edges of the window and it all pops off neatly.