Category: Colour Schemes
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Should Tiny Models Have Lighter Paints?

I don’t know, but I intend to experiment. Most of my aircraft building is in 1:72 scale, with the occasional foray into 1:48 when someone donates a kit to me. I tend to use lacquer paints and keep the colours strong and pure. The fact that this renders the models somewhat toy-like is a positive…
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Airbus 320-200 – Part Three – Safely Flying

I was going to title the wrap-up post ” Safely Landed “, but then I realised that the gear was up… At the outset I must admit this kit surprised me. I expected little, but got a lot. There have been moments, but these were predictable, and the difficulties were surmounted. Difficulties? Not the fit…
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Airbus 320-200 – Part One – Box Scale

Here we go – doin’ things I said I’d never do again. Box scale, and a factory that has turned out some awful junk before… Be fair, me. It has only turned out junk when the moulds they bought from former moulders were time-expired. Some of them were junk in their first iteration, so they…
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Who Judges The Fantasy Model?

And how do they do it? Okay, if you are tasked with reproducing a model of a Willy Ley space ship as seen on a 1950’s Disneyland show, it is still fantasy – but the responsibility for the imagination has been taken out of your hands. Ley and Disney are the ones setting the pace…
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Vought Crusader F-8 – Part Four – In The Med

And fresh as a daisy. I was delighted to find very clear photographic support for the French naval air service on the web. A number of the Vought Crusader aircraft that operated from the FOCH and CLEMENCEAU were photographed from the islands of those carriers while taking off or landing – and these evolutions were…
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Leonardo Da Vinci’s Cartoons

No, you fools, not the ninja turtles. The real Da Vinci and the preparatory drawings he used to do in chalk and charcoal before launching out onto canvas and oil paint. Think you can pick one up for a bargain price? I mean it’s just a chalk sketch, right? How much could chalk cost…? You…
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The Toy Makers

Some scale model builders look askance at people who deal with toys – whether these are wooden horses or cast-metal cars or life-like figurines. There is more than a hint of condescension when they are compared to the latest Tamigawafix 1:200 kit of the Prince Of Huddersfield. The one with the 1200 separate parts and…
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Convair F-106 – Part Two – Delta Dart

I have been fascinated by this aircraft for decades – they were flying north of my home province during some of the more critical parts of the Cold War. Every new Fifty Cent Fighter Series aircraft seems to be getting a slightly different treatment. In this case it is Mr Hobby aqueous primer and surface…
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Is Your Rainbow Biased?

Relax. Not going all political on you here. But do you have better results with certain colours? Not certain paints – that’s a different debate – I mean a certain hue within the paint range you use. I rarely paint dark sea blue or coal black, but when I do, it is nearly always a…
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Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter – Part Two – The Pied Piper Of Budapest

More than one premiere for this little kit. I was puzzled at the box art for this ground-attack aircraft – The markings seemed to show a bomb strike on a highway amongst green fields – yet the plane was possibly a Middle Eastern one. My silly – it turns out to be a Hungarian aircraft…
