The Little World

I’ve banged on about this before and I’ll bang on about it in the future – the use of a good jig or model support system is wonderful.

Mine are from Vertigo Jigs, Slovakian-made and available through BNA here in Australia. I’ve got the WW2 fighter jig and the modern jet jig. The Gloster Javelin fits the modern one perfectly.

I have used it to decal, to attach the landing gear, to fit-out the weapons. In all cases it has let me have two hands free to minister to the model while it is firmly held at a good angle. It lets me work slowly without juggling.

The trick is to take your time to configure the jig to the job you want to do. When I wanted to decal the sides of the fin and the fuselage I canted the model over onto one wing tip and then moved the tail support until it cradled the fuselage. The opposite side was a mirror of this, but in both cases once the model was nestled, I looped a rubber band over the tail to secure the assembly.

Just reconfigure every time you need to deal with a different surface. And don’t be afraid to lift the jig in your hand to turn the model to a different angle.

Note: If you want RAF High Speed Silver, Mr. Color No. 8 Silver is darned near perfect.