The Little World

Sorry about that, Folks…but you have to admit that bright yellow and red has a certain circus feel to it. In this case a flying circus without the WW1 reference.

The illustrations for this sort of aircraft paint job are nearly always spectacular – remember what I wrote about box art being based around yellow skies. In this case it’s the plane that’s colourful and the rest of the place can look like Manitoba in the rain. You’l also get the effect when you look at the Heller or Italeri kits of Canadair water bombers.

I decided to answer for myself the question of the exact shade of yellow for this plane, as I intend eventually to do those Canadair kits and want to be able to have a consistent paint for it. In the past i’ve vacillated between Humbrol enamel yellows and a range of admixtures in the Mr Color range. I’m fine with the Mr. C lacquers but you can be a little daunted when you see how many different yellows there are.

As none of them say RCAF Canadian Rescue Yellow on the label I feel it is my prerogative to mix my own – and the simplest way of getting a consistent and repeatable shade is to pick paints that can be thrown in as full bottles. No measuring by volume or weight nonsense. Fortunately I have learned to save the larger glass jars that the Mr. Surfacer and Mr. Primer come in so there is space for at least two or more regular Mr. Color jars.

I reviewed my stocks of full new bottles and chose two – 109 Character Yellow and 113 RLM 04 Luftwaffe Yellow and drained them in together. The result is near as a dammit to an actual photo of a Twin Otter in service. I shall keep the jar current and when it needs replenishment I’ll do precisely the same thing again. It now has a proud label that does indeed define it as RCAF Canadian Yellow.

The red is not DayGlo orange as you might expect. It’s simply Mr Color 3 Red. It will glow enough as it is. The black is off-black provided by the remnants of the Mr. Color 125 Cowling Colour – originally intended for Japanese aircraft. There will also be Mr Hobby Tyre Black for the anti-icing strips.

I am rather proud of the masking job – very little bleeding – and of myself for having the fortitude to let it set without touching the painted surfaces.