The Little World

If you are a subscriber to the Flory Models vlog or website you will have hear him speak about “ Buster”.

Buster is a Chance Vought Crusader in 1:32, I believe. He has lost his landing gear and a good deal of his flying surfaces. He has lost his canopy. You might think he has lost his will to live, but Buster is the Flory workshop zombie…and a very useful corpse he is, too.

Buster is the trial plane for new paint finishes and products. He has had innumerable undercoats, colour coats, varnishes, and surface treatments. When he is lightly sanded he shows successive layers like a jaw-breaker candy. He is sometimes washed free of paint with isopropyl alcohol and the whole process started over.

The reason he is so useful is that the surfaces and shapes on him are the same as on other models and the performance of an airbrush can directly equate to what might happen with a serious build.

I have a number of experiments I wish to conduct on aircraft to learn new skills or to see if there is a bad reaction to some paint. I wish to try power washing and miniature sandblasting, I need a cadaver to dissect – I need a buster.

Fortunately my friend Warren had a likely candidate for the honour – a kit he had no use for. I have taken delighted delivery of a MiG 23 kit by Academy and will build it as a testbed. In this case it would befitting to call it Ivan.

It’s not just a pile of styrene – it is gong to start to have a history as a scientific subject.