Category: camouflage
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Boulton Paul Defiant – Part Two – The Paper Work

Every kit I get has some form of paper work associated with it. Mainly instructions, painting sheet, and decals. The BP Defiant is a good example of current Airfix practice. The Instructions these days can be quite complex – if the makers are good communicators. This can depend upon whether they are a large firm…
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The Wrong Shade Of Black

Resign yourself – you may have made a fabulous model of a P-61 or a Lancaster or a Mosquito and a great deal – or all – of the thing will be a very definite black colour. But as soon as you show it at any exhibition, someone will tell you you’ve used the wrong…
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Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIX – Part Three – A Spiffing Spitty

There really should not be any basic problem with an Airfix kit – even the historic ones with their rivets and misshapen crew members are moulded to eventually yield a representation of whatever is on the front of the box. If you are diligent you can end up with just this. It may have some…
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Can It Be Done Better? Watch…

I have written in another post about Occam’s Airbrush but it was not until I treated myself to the live tutorial series that Phil Flory has produced on basic airbrushing that I realised how many devious pathways of error I have actually trod. And this is just a year or so after getting the sprayer……
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Junkers 52 – Part Six – A Lekker Job, Eh?

Well, the final rush to finish the SAAF Junkers 52 went as expected. The only hindrances were integral to the design of the plane. a. The corrugated nature of the external cladding meant that a flat paint would never have accepted decals without showing silvering or separation. Each roundel or fin flash position, therefore, needed…
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Junkers 52 – Part Five – The Research Pays Off

Having done some research into masking and finishing this year – some of it reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote and the Acme Manufacturing Co. – I have come to practical solutions for impractical problems. Impractical problems are those that no-one else has, that need not exist, and that leap out from behind the door and…
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Junkers 52 – Part One – The Call Of The Mild

Not all my model aircraft builds are warplanes – though the economics of the model industry mean that they make up the bulk of offerings on the shelves. And even if they are military aircraft, not all of them have to be fighters or bombers…as evinced by the Douglas Dakota with RCAF markings. So there…
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Vultee Vengeance – Part Five – We’ll All Pull Together

Our winches between our knees. As they say in the recruiting posters ” It’s Men’s Life In The Target Tug Crews “. It sure is. Of course the men are nervous gibbering wrecks who shy away from sudden movement and loud noises, but that’s beside the point. Someone has to tow canvas cones behind an…
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Vultee Vegeance – Part Four – Lacquer

Now before you start writing in to the editor to complain about the appearance of the heading image, let me remind you that I am the editor. And there is nothing wrong with the image – it is a plain and simple Vultee in conservative colours. It’s your eyes that are wrong… The new target…
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Vultee Vengeance – Part Three – How Green Was My Vultee

If the fumes from the paint don’t kill me, the bad puns will. Probably through the agency of enraged listeners seeking me out to stop them. Actually, I am very proud of this one, as it involves real thinking and research. As I am building a Vultee Vengeance in RAF or RAAF service ( not…
