Category: camouflage
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Four – The Blue Mask Of Courage

No, you haven’t wandered into a Marvel comic – the blue mask of courage does not fight crime. It covers things up…rather like a bottled version of a parliamentary enquiry. Except it smells better. Youve read here of my efforts to mask clear canopies on 1:72 scale aircraft by various means; tape squares, Humbrol rubber…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Three – The Great Azure Blue Quest

I think I may claim a modest victory today. I pursued RAF Azure Blue paint and overtook it. The quest started with that RAF Digital colour chart I found on the net. It lists all the major paints used in WWII RAF aircraft, Shows them in a clear panel, and then gives the RGB and…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Two – There We Was…

Well, Poo…I realised today that I published Part Four before Part Two and Part Three. You must have gotten a disjointed view of the process. Forgive me and read on today and tomorrow – you’ll get the rest of the story. Blame early mornings… There we was at the Men’s Shed session of the…
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Morane Saulnier 406 – Part Four – Contact – Ignition – Chocks Away

Actually, in the period between Christmas and New Years and I don’t think I could’ve faced any more chocs or contact. I retreated to the Little Workshop and put the finishing touches on the Morane Saulnier. How different an aircraft can look when the final paint is on – as opposed to the bare parts…
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Morane Saulnier 406 – Part Three – Curse The French

Not for their politics or their agricultural policies. Not for Gen. De Gaulle or the ludicrous Bardot. Not even for their car designers… For their camouflage artists. The maniacs who wanted to paint three-colour camo schemes on a series of miserably inadequate aircraft. The only thing good about these decisions is that it made the…
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I’ve Got It All Taped Out…

Betcha don’t know where that expression comes from…Not from the electronics industry and not from the car body workshop. From the trenches of WW1. The British regularly laid cloth tapes from their lines toward the Germans to allow their troops to advance in the right direction without over-running other units on either side if they…
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The Positive And Negative Mask

If there is one thing that model airplane building brings you to, it is the knowledge of how to do masking. You may do it badly or well, but you will be doing it for nearly every model you work on. I’ve just been taping up the Grumman Duck and it has prompted me to set…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Three – Decalling The White Bird

The paint job on the Lavotchkin was simplicity itself – if you discount the fact that you spend a lot of masking tape doing it. Fortunately the bigger bits can be done with the cheap DIY store stuff instead of the thin hobby shop rolls. They do the details. Now, remember I was nervous about…
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Lavotchkin 5-FN – Part Two – The Russian Jig

It’s like an Irish jig…but with vodka. My first impressions of the Zvezda kit were not wrong – it is well-built. The cockpit was adequate, without being overly complex, and Ivan, the pilot, fit well into his seat. Unlike Airfix aircrew, I did not have to Douglas Bader him to get him into his seat…
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Boulton Paul Defiant – Part Three – We Appear To Have A Winner

I am always surprised by the end of a build – it seems to come so suddenly. Of course, this is because I have been beavering away in the background doing sub-assemblies while waiting for paint layers to set, and the final clapping on of these portions is quite a quick thing. One moment it…
