The Little World

Well, the colour coats are done – the trim stripe is done – the decals are on. The various pieces are being cemented and snapped in. The air crash did not destroy the bird.

Every speculative colour scheme that you think up – every set of decals you print yourself – every artistic decision you take – is a shot in the dark. You might see a similar thing on the computer screen or draw it out on paper and tell yourself that it’s all going to be fine. Then you go ahead and paint and decal and stand back and try to be unbiased.

I’m encouraged so far. The basic factory paint decisions are generally white on a cabin roof and either plain aluminium or light grey on the bottom. It can be on both wings and fuselage or parcelled out between them. It is then embellished by the wealthy airline or kept pretty plain by the poorer one. Lots of planes go through many hands and a number of paint schemes. One presumes that they sand off the old coat before they spray the new one – if only to save the extra weight.

Oh, please. Let the semi-gloss coat go on smoothly. Warm weather tomorrow, if at all possible.