The Little World

Not the weather – it’s actually nice out. I mean the undercoat.

I use the Mr. Surfacer pots blown through a single action airbrush. Others use Tamiya rattle cans or similar material from different makers. Few of us realise the miracle that occurs when we do.

Initially I thought that spraying an undercoat was just something you did because it was tradition. Or ritual, or fashion – now I see it is essential art and science. No undercoat means poorer model in the end.

I admit it is a nuisance sometimes when you are all fired up to lay down colour. Your 14-year-old mind wants to see the camouflage pattern on the aircraft or tank RIGHT NOW . But when I have given in to the 14-year-old I have regretted it – the kid’s steered me wrong every time.

Today I’ve grey-coated a Dornier Do-17Z and found nearly all of it is fine – with the exception of a wing seam that was treated with cyanoacrylate cement as a filler. I filed and sanded it down and would have thought that my work was complete. The grey coat showed a deep trench – adequately joined but not filled. So it was another filler session with an acrylic putty to complete it. had I colour-coated at the start I would have been looking at that gap forever more.

The grey shows me the contours of the aircraft that I could not see in the bare plastic. I now know where the camo paint must curve and why – I am in the same position as the paint shops of the original makers.

Have I ever left an aircraft in grey primer of part of the finish? I’ll take the 5th on that…

I can also see the validity in painting the entire aircraft, once assembled, in grey primer. I mean canopies and windows and all…and just leaving it like that. This, carried out over a large collection, would be a tribute to aeronautical shape and evolution, rather than the liveries of air forces or airlines. The only limiting factor here would be just having one of each type.