The Little World

Not a flying Finn – unless the Finns captured a few of these in the Winter War. The fin is the price that this Encore model cost. And I think it has proved a sterling investment.

The green you see here is a lightened and blued form of the Russian Green. The scale effect, perhaps, or just a variant that will break up the line of Soviet aircraft. The decals were execrable, but not quite as bad as the worst of the Mister Craft ones from Poland. It is all a matter of price, you understand.

Though oddly, the legend printed on the decal sheet says that they were printed in Nevada. I cannot dispute this, but their friable nature seemed a long way from any of the US makers I have encountered. In any case they floated early and a bed of Mr. Mark Setter was enough to drop them securely on the surfaces.

I have taken to a different way of settling decals these days. Like most people I used to press a tissue or paper towel down onto the surface of the decal to express the water. Never did have success with a cotton swab rolled over.

Anyway now I just touch out the biggest puddles of water or setting solution with the edge of the paper towel and then use a dry brush – wide and flat – to wick up the liquids. I can gently brush the trapped fluid from the center to the edge and haven’t broken one yet accidentally. I do press the decals down to the deepest of the depressions – like a rudder gap – at this stage and it dries deep down there.

The canopy was a fit-where-it-touches job until I performed surgery on it and the fuselage. Still not clear or uniform, but it painted up fairly well. Readers of my column will have noted that I rarely fair canopies into the fuselage – I do as good a dry fit as I can and accept the skills of the moulder at face value.

I was impressed with the inclusion of a wind-generator and detailed DF antennae on the sprue trees, though I never expected them to last. At least they made it to the photoshoot stage!