Category: Enamel
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When To Reach For The Can – Part Four – Rattle me Timbers, Matey…

The aerosol paint can for model work has been around nearly as long as I have, though I did not come to them as a resource until I was in my teens. The cans were small then, as they are now, and just as expensive in relative terms. An AMT model car might cost $…
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When To Reach For The Airbrush – Part Three – The Fashionable Choice

Ever notice how everyone is using the airbrush nowadays? Is this really an advance or is it just fashion? Well, if you try to do what an airbrush does with a spray can, you can’t. The airbrush can be dialled down to a very small spray indeed and can introduce colour in subtle ways that…
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When to reach… – Part Two – The Cheap Option

I love being cheap. It looks so trendy and cool. And you can set up a camouflage of frugality for 29 days of the month that allows you to go out and spend like a maniac on the 30th… The cheapest way to paint a model – apart from dipping it in a bucket of…
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Good Morning Walter – Part 13 – Mellow Yellow

Good Morning, Walter, and welcome to the wonderful world of crazy old Australians with yellow cars. This might not seem to be unusual, but the cars you’ll see here in this report are from the Western Australian Hot Rod Show that we have every year. They are real, but how real and how old can…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Four – Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Whitemetal us…or Zamac us. But no lead. You are lucky these days, Walter. Many of the hazards of the olden times are gone. No more Hitler, no more smallpox, and no more lead soldiers. I was never in any real danger from the first two but I was exposed to the last ones. And I…
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OD’ing On Olive Drab

Is it just me or is it hard to find The True Meaning Of Olive Drab? I need to paint a number of USAAF planes and I am going to avoid the flashy multicolour of nose art and loud decals. I just want cooking quality Army ships for a diorama. You’d think that Olive Drab…
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North American AT6 – Part Four – Nailing The Colour

I have discovered many interesting things about colour since I returned to scale modelling – both upon the original subjects and on our models: a. The best colour reference is the actual article – untouched by time and not modified by any curators or experts. The fact that nothing is ever this perfect is beside…
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Good Local Advice

I am benefitting today from the fact that this column automatically circulates out to our local social media network. One of my friends has seen the recent post regarding paint and has responded with what i needed to know. He mentioned in a Facebook reply that many paints have more than just evaporation happening as…
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Thin, Thick, Or Solid

I cannot get a consistent answer from other modellers on a question about paints and varnishes. Not surprising – it is the part of the hobby that seems to have the most variability and the opinions echo the numbers of paint products and processes avaiable. Here’s the question – is it good, bad, or ugly…
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I Want Electric Paint

I want fine-grain paint that stays liquid, spreadable and self levelling, and clings to vertical surfaces without sagging. I want it to stay in this condition until I pass a small electric current through it, whereupon I want it to set hard in ten seconds. Thereafter to be sandable and proof against solvents. Is this…
