The Little World

The racks in my favoured place of worship are looking bare. Time to put some more heretics to the question…

Calm, down Torquemada – we’re talking about the paint racks at the local hobby shop. The Tamiya and Gunze sections are getting sparse as shipments are delayed around the world.

Other sections are full – the Vallejo and SMS ones – as well as the increasing crop of new makers. In some cases these are hard to identify – the packaging seems to be in languages intended for a home market where they don’t speak English…and no additional info is supplied. I’m not game to buy the paints and thinners I can’t identify.

Of course experiment could solve a lot of this, but adding an entire new range of colours to the home workshop would mean no money left for new kits to paint. It is a vicious cycle…or in the case of the paints that you try with the wrong thinner, a viscous cycle.

I have not yet been forced to revert to the Humbrol enamel tinlet with the 24 hour drying time between coats. I’m old and need to make the best use of my time. I have also tried their acrylic paints and they have tried me. We called it a draw.

I can see several pathways that may be trodden:

a. Vallejo and a whole new set of chemistry and thinners. Not an attractive prospect, as I have seen others struggle with the brand.

b. Back to SMS and try out industrial grade gun washes to clean out the airbrushes. The paints themselves are pretty decent, but getting them out of the apparatus is nigh-on impossible.

c. Oil paints. I saw a Youtube of a Swedish chap who does just this and the results were superb. But it is a pretty radical idea.

d. Paint out what is left on the racks. This may lead to a number of lime-green fighter planes with Day-Glo ” B ” pattern camouflage. Grumman Meets Gundam. I don’t know if I have the fortitude to present the results to other club members.

In the meantime I am visiting various shops to see if the specific colours I favour are still in stock. The final cheerful thought is everything grey, brown, or green can be mixed from basic primaries anyway, but you don’t want to start adding drop after drop into 10ml bottles trying for the magic combo – you end up with pints of paint that way.