Category: Colour Schemes
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The Curse of the Were-Decal

A modeller’s Halloween horror story… I had just gotten to the decal stage for a new model – a tiny little Academy 1:72 Sopwith camel. Lovely model, with interplane and cabane struts that just fell into place. And a simple colour scheme for mine – the RAF museum plane at Hendon; khaki and linen. The…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Five – Hendon’s Prize

On some occasions I will have all I need to decorate a model but miss out on one thing. In this case it is a set of small decals for the airframe number. There is one on the Academy decal sheet, but it’s wrong for the Hendon camel. I adopt a sensible attitude to these…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Three – Decision Time

Decision time comes at many stages of a build – Shop, Shelf, Box, and Bench. For the desperadoes amongst us we can add the Screen. a. Shop. Which one to go to? The closest one? The one with the biggest range? The one who gets the newest kits in? The one with the best prices?…
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Sopwith Camel – Part One – A Kind Gift

A gift camel. I feel like a middle eastern potentate. Actually a second gift Camel. One came from my friend Paul and one from my friend Warren. This latter one is the Academy kit, and as I’ve just completed a Revell WW1 fighter, I thought I would have a change and do the Academy. It…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Seven – Why Was It Not Named?

Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Hellcat…all good historic names for US Navy aircraft. The Army Air Force had Mustangs and Thunderbolts and such. Why was the BT 1 just a code, instead of a name? I suspect it is because it never established itself in the affections of the press – or at least in the press…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Six – The Arcane Scheme

I occasionally go to our local bottle shop and buy beer or wine. It is a big shop and has hundreds of varieties of booze, and the only way to differentiate before you buy is by the labels. I have given up being a gourmet or a gourmand and have finally come down to being…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Five – A Pit Of Cocks

Settle down class. Stop giggling. You in the back, too. The cockpit on the BT 1 had every chance of being awkward – PE rudder pedals and control knobs and such Czecherie – but I refused to let it daunt me. I have already made a Douglas SBD-4 and I am dauntless… The green colour…
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Piper J3 – Part Three – Yellow; Mellow Or Perilous?

The heading image is not yellow – it’s a combination of Mr. Surfacer white and some old Mr. Color flat white. The bottles are low and a combination of forces was needed. The end result is fine – and is absolutely essential for any yellow painting. I discovered this long ago while painting an Avro…
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Piper J3 – Part One -The Household Word

Hoover. Not Herbert, you herbert. Hoover like in vacuum cleaner. The brand name. Except, in England it isn’t a brand name – it’s the name of a class of product – the vacuum cleaner. People don’t vacuum the house, they hoover it. Losing that capital letter was the greatest piece of industrial and advertising good…
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Junkers Ju52 – Part Four – Czech Junk

Old Czech junk. Actually old French junk that was foisted on the Czechs. And happy they were to get it, too. The scheme of the Junkers 52 that you see in the finished product is listed as being in service with the Police Air Service in 1950. A bit of googling shows that the Police…
