The Little World

Having stuffed things up for years when it got to the final stages of a project – through incautious spray painting or impatience – I have finally gotten products that will do what I need. I tip my Little Workshop hat to Testors for their Dullcote and to Supercheap Auto for their clear acrylic lacquer.

These are two ends of the gloss-matte spectrum and are both needed at different stages of a build. It’s taken me long enough to get to them – passing through a shelf-load of other maker’s products on the way – abut in the end I am satisfied that these two lacquers will do it.

The gloss is the sealant for colour coats and needs to be smooth for the decal application ( BTW, why did the USAAF and the RAF stencil everything everywhere on every aircraft? Did they not train their people beforehand? Were they all reading the fuselage as they went to see what was inside? Betcha the Russians never printed anything in case it gave a way a state secret… ). Cut 50% with a cool self-levelling thinner, it goes on well and dries rock hard. No need to try to find esoteric floor polishes.

The matte is dead matt if you spray if undiluted through a .05 nozzle – admittedly at a pressure of 25psi – but if you cut it with 50% cool thinner you can push it out of the same nozzle at 18psi and it gives a delightful satin finish. And no disruption of decals as you spray.

Now I look forward to using a liquid glue in a bottle with a brush somewhere between the Tamiya Super-Thin one hair model and the Humbrol loo brush. I’ve already decided that the best compromise is Mr Hobby Deluxe Cement.

As far as liquid masking solutions go, the thicker Mr. Color one is useless, the Micro Mask somewhat ineffective, and the Humbrol Maskol too disruptive of anything but Humbrol enamels. The range of uses of what seemed like a universal masking solution are narrowing, and I will not replace a couple of the bottles when they finish.

I still look for the elusive paint shades but we all have to have an El Dorado somewhere, don’t we?