The Little World

And you can’t tell a paint by the tin.

The ugly bug in the heading image had just received the third colour of a standard RAF day bomber scheme and was waiting to be de-husked. The masking was, if anything, worse looking than usual, but for a good reason. The worms were standard but the rubber mask between the lines was a cheap product from the art supply store slopped on with cotton swabs. Simple and completely effective…at a low cost.

The gloss coat afterwards in preparation for decals was a Supercheap Auto product. Their Clear Acrylic lacquer in a one litre can costs 1/100th of the price of a similar product from the hobby shop sold in 10 ml bottles. I have decanted the large tin into four glass jars and will be using it exclusively for gloss coating in the future. You can see the quality of the shine.

You might think it overkill to make such a finish that will later be hidden by a matt or semi-gloss coat – but the ease with which it enables you to put down decals is magic. Even the fuselage roundels with squadron codes – suspended in a clear patch – went on with no silvering whatsoever.