The Little World

Suggested by an illustration.

The WW2 bomber in standard British night bomber colour scheme is a three-coloured beast – coal black undersides and green/brown upper surfaces. But as seen on the Stirling, the black extends a long way up slab sides – and the Stirling has lots of slab to it.

The top bit is sharply differentiated from the black – no fuzzy edges. So I determined to paint the top first and not attach to wing uppers until they were finished – and have a smaller area to mask on the upper fuselage. It would mean careful cementation and no wing-root gaps permitted.

The cockpit and nose were also complex shapes to mask, so I did the old Stein trick of coating the clear parts in Humbrol Maskol and temporarily gluing them to their positions with a rubbery PVA. Later I could pull them off, peel the Maskol, and then do the proper painting of the frames.

The thing looks hideous within the protective layer, but I have faith in the end result.