The Little World

None of them are super iron or super silver, either, and if you are looking for dull aluminium, you are risking your life trying to get it. The metallisers are loose in the land and terror reigns.

I remember fondly the days when there was just one silver – whether it was a Pactra product or a Humbrol tinlet, you could go to it when the instruction sheet caller for silver, and accept whatever the brush was going to scoop out. No-one tried to be silverier than thou in those days. We were content to get it on the model and our fingers.

Now I have 7 different iterations of silver paint to choose from in my local shop and if I were to have used the bottle of Alclad I purchased there would be a round 8 chances to make it look shiny. How shiny is a matter of debate, but I would never be lacking in people who would tell me it is not quite the right shade of silver.

I used to care, like I used to think that there was some merit in drinking expensive wines in fine glasses. Time and economy have destroyed that illusion and I am ever so grateful. When you can get as much fun from a $ 6.00 vin ordinaire or a standard bottle of whatever silver is on the rack, you can ease into a comfortable life a lot faster. I would not recommend substituting the wine for the paint or vice versa, but you go ahead as you like.

I have not always been this easy. I have the 8 bottles of silvery fluid on the paint rack and I have agonised as to which one to choose. In the end I think you can reduce the thing to two shades; bright and dull. And you can get either from the same bottle, if you start with whatever the brightest thing is and then adulterate it with grey, black, or flatting agent as the fancy takes you. If you wish to make separate panels on a bare-metal airplane, you just mask off patches and spray again with the opposite reflectance.

Do yourself a favour – use lacquers and get an old Breville hair drying blower to dry the coats as you lay them down. The saving in time is considerable and you can devote yourself to brandy and dry in your leisure.