The Little World

If they are corned beef or meatloaf I embark on a glorious week of sandwiches.

If they are scale model kits or model paints there are other procedures. Check me out against your own workshop.

a. The parts of a kit that are not used – the extra canopies, wheels, snow skis, or armament – are carefully separated into categories and stored in old Chinese food takeaway containers. The boxes are labelled and when I lose a part or need to modify a build I can go to the right box and find a replacement.

b. Some of the sprue – white and red runners – are cut apart and turned into Sprue Goo. The pink mixture stands out on normal styrene so it can be sanded easily.

c. Spare decals are separated into countries and stored against future need. Lots of aircraft have been decorated from this stash.

d. The boxtops are cut off and stored in a file for fixture articles and histories.

e. Spare mixed paint that is a custom colour is put into a clean, dry paint jar and capped. It is labelled and put in the custom box. Several air forces have their own camouflage colours that are not covered by the major paint makers. I make up enough of it to save for future builds.

Note that acrylic lacquers save better than those with alcohol bases. Even if they dry down they can be revived with the appropriate thinner.

If the paint colour is standard I pour the thinned cup back into the bottle – reasoning that it merely dilutes the bottle closer to what would eventually be needed in the airbrush anyway. At some stage of the game the bottle will contain the proper thinned ratio and it can just be used straight.

Other people say that this ruins the stock of paint. They are free to their conclusion, but in my experience no bad effects ensue.

f. There are few things that you can do with used cotton Q-tips – you might as well bin them. Even dousing them with Dolmio Italian sauce and parmesan cheese is only a half- measure.