The Little World

The iron rule of horse riding is that, after a fall that has not killed you, you get right back on the horse.

This has the effect of showing your moxie to the other riders, quelling your fears, and giving you a chance to show the horse that you mean to be the master or mistress. If your fall has been a result of your own folly, you learn from it and do not fall again.

I committed the classic error of putting a varnish with a hot solvent over paint that ran at a cooler temperature and had a softer skin. The result was wrinkles all over – a lovely finish for a tool box but disaster for a fighter plane.

The way to climb back on the thing was to strip it entirely with methylated spirits – before the varnish set completely. I used a takeaway container, a stiff brush, and standard Diggers meths. For the final clean I put meths in the airbrush and blew from nose to tail in all the tiny crevices.

Then a dry-out in the sun, and back to the standard undercoat/colour coat/camouflage trim. About 6 hours was been lost to this, but the lesson is worth the time.

In the meantime I set out some test wings to make sure my next choice of clear coating would be more sensible. And I proved to myself that for the final matt spray, Tamiya rattle can did actually work over decals. Never mind their label.