The Little World

Actually, that should be two-pronged, but I wanted to grasp your attention quickly with a slightly risqué title. I was going to add something about Mae West or Sabrina but the younger readers wouldn’t have any reference points…

The business of painting bombers and transports is a little tougher than fighters. To start with, they are bigger, and that means more paint to be estimated and mixed. Then again they rarely have a central propeller shaft or fuselage hole and trying to balance a model on one engine would be as tricky as flying the real thing in a similar condition. You need at least two points of suspension for any twin or four-engine job.

I tried using two fingers in the cowlings of bombers, but am not dexterous enough for it. Plus I want both hands free whilst painting in case I need to adjust air pressure or refill the colour cup.

I tried bent-wire frames made from coat hangers, but the problem of how to hold it steady transferred itself down to the base of the coat hanger. Even holding the coat hanger with vice-grip pliers or carpentry clamps wasn’t secure. So I turned to the scrap pile and the Half Vast engineering company for a simple wooden design. The basic budget was no money was to be spent.

The heading picture explains the design – totally adjustable for the distance between engines and easy to turn round on the paint booth turntable. Glued, screwed, and dood in an hour.

I may have to rethink this if I ever build a 1:72 scale B-36…