Category: Colour Schemes
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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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Peas And Carrots – Part Four – The Top Coat
The top coat on a model is intended to seal the decals in place and give the surface whatever sort of reflectivity you feel is appropriate. Night bombers might have a matt or semi-matt surface while civilian planes get a satin or gloss finish. I am partial to the latter myself for some of the…
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Peas And Carrots – Part Two – The Colour Coats

Why peas and carrots? Because they are vegetables that always look better in the images on the cans than they do on your plate – and they are always greener or more orange in someone else’s dinner. My experiments are designed to improve their colour and flavour on mine. The colour paint coats that went…
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Peas And Carrots – Part One – Haunting the Shops

And paint mules. A fine dinner combination, but you have to be trained up to the taste. Today has been another day spent in the Lawrence Liverwurst labs, experimenting with finishing materials. I have seen intriguing advertisements for different clear coats and decided to see if they were indeed the El Dorado of painting. I…
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The Museum Approach

Go to your local museum – it doesn’t matter what type you choose; art, science, technology, cars, planes, boats, dolls. If you’ve got an interest, go spark it at the museum. While you are oohing and ahhing at the exhibits, look about you at the facilities. The architecture of a museum can be as interesting…
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1931 Ford Model A – Part Four – Occam’s Airbrush

To get you up to speed – Google Occam’s Razor. It’s a fascinating read – but cut to the bone, it is the business of deliberate seeking the simplest explanation for something. In my case it was the business of making rust. Not real rust, you understand – that is a matter of iron, water,…
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1931 Ford Model A – Part Two – When Art Becomes Burlesque

Relax – no sex here. And surprisingly, not a lot of sex at the burlesque shows either…but that is another tale. The business of making a jalopy or rat rod is quite fashionable today. I see them at hot rod shows all the time and like to look at the details. For vehicles made by…
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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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Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIX – Part One – So Why This One?

For that matter, why any of them? What’s the factor that impels us to choose one particular plastic model over all the others there in the hobby shop – impels us strongly enough to get us to spend money buying it, and time researching and building it? I think it can be many things: a.…
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Chance Vought Corsair – Part Three – We Have Liftoff

I am pleased to report that I have gotten my mojo back. The Hobby Boss F4U-1 is complete and on the tarmac at Wet Dog Regional beside her sister craft – The F4U-1 pre-built model from the same maker. Think I have done as decent a job as the makers themselves, and have certainly restored…
