The Little World

And I’m only going to buy a pot of silver paint for the new model. That’s all.

Oh look. I’ve come home with $125.00 worth of new kits and a pot of silver paint. However did that happen?

If you would strengthen yourself in resolve, skill, monetary resource, and marital bliss – don’t pop down to the shop. Pop there when you have been given a gift voucher for your birthday, by all means. Pop there when you have to get a present for someone else – at least you’ll keep to the cheap shelves then. But don’t just wander in with a full wallet and a empty mind.

If you need a particular colour of paint because the law requires it and you are faced with arrest for not having it – a common occurrence in totalitarian states – you must go buy it. But so many times your paint rack will contain the ingredients for just the shade you think you need. All you have to do is mix it from current stocks.

This may seem counter-intuitive when every model kit has a definite colour call-out linked to a manufacturer’s range. You are told to use the paint the kit maker also produces. But consider whether the kit maker knows the actual colour any better than you – or your other sources of information. They may just be selling you what they make – not what was real or what you really need.

All paints are only a station on the long railway line of colour – the spectrum that Isaac newton invented in the Age Of Enlightenment. Before him the world was in black and white…The colours you see are all made from other colours you see. And you can frequently make them just as well as the major makers.

Please don’t forget to do your mixing within the various classes of paint – don’t mix enamels with acrylic lacquers and expect it to work. Test out every stage of the alchemy to see that it will not gum up your airbrush or ball up on your model. Lots of things work when you don’t expect them to but lots of things don’t. Spray your horrid surprises on a spare sheet of styrene first.

One good thing about mixing, matching, and modifying – you get a range of the same shade as you repeatedly try to mix it – and this can give a realistic variety on the model surface. People do it deliberately, but you can achieve the same thing by accident.

Like surprising yourself with that $125.00 kit…