The Little World

I was always impressed with the US Army Air Force when they decided to strip the olive drab and neutral grey off their ships and just polish the aluminum* skins and send them over Germany and Japan like that. The period reports cite a 5 knot increase in speed occasioned by a smoother outer surface and a reduction in weight but I’ll be willing to bet it was a money-saving and manpower-saving measure. No more days lost in the spray booths and no more paint to ship over and store.

Plus it was a way of saying FU to the enemy – the balance of air power was so much in favour of the Allies that they could appear over German air fields in bright silver with as many checks, stripes, and naked girls as could be crammed onto the planes.

I’ve been investigating silver-coloured paints for some time – starting with Tamiya acrylic, then progressing to Mr Color regular silver and now the Mr Color Supermetallics. I’ve even got a bottle of Alclad but I suspect that will be just a side-line. The Supermetallics are all I think I decently could ask. Combined with Mr. Color clear gloss they are as shiny as the real thing – though as Phil Flory says, it all depends upon what is under that silver. The PM model this is based upon has a somewhat rough surface to start with and doesn’t respond at all well to smoothing with sandpaper. It is what it is.

The show plane this model is similar to has been polished to literally a mirror finish. I find this a little disconcerting – I won’t try to go to that degree. But fresh silver always makes a nice change from the models where the builder has been making heavy weather of it. The sub assemblies come out well, too. Thank goodness for a well-organised set of spares boxes.

*   You can say aluminium if you wish to, but remember to raise your pinky finger as you sip your cup of tea, ffortescue-Smythe…