The Little World

Or is that sirocco? Whichever, it is the hot dry wind that blows nobody any good, and it blew into my workshop the other day. Had I been smart, I would have closed the flaming door…

The day was hot, but not the spectacular heat that drives people into air conditioning and makes the newspaper burst out into ” Phew, What A Scorcher ” and sidewalk-fried eggs. I thought it would be fine for paint drying and thought about laying a coat of Light Gull Grey on the upper works of the Panther.

I’d previously done a gloss white on the underside with a bottle of pre-thinned Mr Color. Why it was pre-thinned I do not know, but that is what I found I had written on the plastic cap, so there must have been a reason. I was pleased to see that it went down well over the white base undercoat.  And I had waited several days before masking, so there was going to be no drama with paint lifting.

Unfortunately I did not pay attention to all the lessons and advice that have come my way and committed a series of blunders with the gull grey. Mixed it too thin, raised the pressure too much, kept the airbrush just a little too far away from the model in air that was too hot. The result was predictable: gritty rough surface in the wing/fuselage area and orange peel finish on the wing.

Fortunately, once I found myself in a hole, I had the sense to stop digging. There was a complete colour coat on, rough as it was, so I let it sit two hot days to cure off completely. Then I found the finest flexible sander sticks I own – old ragged things that have little cut to them – and sanded back the rough patches and the orange peel. The colour coat was deep enough not to go into the undercoat. As the air temperature had dropped, I laid on a thin colour coat to even it out a bit more.

Two days later I tried the experiment of a clear Mr. Hobby varnish and found that the peel and roughness would disappear under it. I was saved and the decals could go on. I reckon the entire blunder added a week’s work and wait to the original plan.

This tells me that summer will need careful management – night work will the the order of the day and day work will need to be mechanical and inside in the A/C.

Note: if you think the pattern of the white underside is a bit odd, so do I. But it is the colour call out by Hobby Boss and in the end I decided to go with it anyway.