Category: Lacquer
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The Unmarked Car
People who model detective’s cars have it easy – they are always supposed to be unmarked and that means you do not have to worry about the decal sheet having deteriorated in time. I do not have the luxury of insouciance when it comes to 1:72 aircraft. From the daggiest little trainer at the local…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Four – Decal Phobia
Fear of water-slide transfers, if you wish to be pedantic… It strikes us all at one time or another. We see a commemoration scheme on the box lid and are lured into getting a kit with complex curved surfaces. The real-life plane or vehicle is painted by professionals with masks, spray guns, and a lot…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Three – The Double Mask
The look of this Swiss trainer in RAAF service is a bit daunting – all that colour and complex markings. Yet, like every paint job in the world, it yields to careful study of individual parts. You just have to mentally look past the complex decals to the basic colours – red, blue and white.…
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Atlantic Wildcat – Part Three – White And Grey
Like a West Point dress uniform. The Wildcat build started on Saturday and finished on Monday – with plenty of eating, drinking, and sleeping time in the interval. It was not the most complex nor puzzling kit ever built. But what a sweet model. There is a current air show Wildcat flying in North America…
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YF23 – Part Three – Trial Duo
Well, it didn’t get the contract. Despite the design and the twin engines of this McDonell Douglas/Northrop, the ultimate choice for the air superiority fighter went to the YF – later – F-22. The two test aircraft were relegated to museum pieces. I suspect that this Trumpeter lkit – a 1999 product – was drawn…
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YF23 – Part Two – Scale Effect?
I have watched videos explaining the idea of scale effect upon paint schemes. They seem to make a great deal of fuss explaining that you mix grey, yellow, or white into darker colours when you are painting smaller-scale models. This is in direct contrast to many manufacturers of trains and cars who want the exact…
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Ardently Argent
There is an El Dorado for all of us. The Spanish Conquistadors looked for a Golden Man. I am not as ambitious – I will settle for a silver airplane. I am driven by memories of shining jets and passenger liners of the great travel age. Not now, when everyone can be crammed into a…
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Boeing Clipper 314 – Part Five – A Soul At Rest
It took an extra week, but the time was worth it. The aggravating mistakes of the first Boeing Clipper 314 have been corrected. The mental image I had of the result has come into focus. I can rest easy. The duraluminium surface has been all I could ask for – taking decals perfectly and keeping…
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Boeing Clipper 314 – Part Four – The Horse
When we fall off a horse we are counselled to get right back on – before we develop a fear that would paralyse us. Sound thinking, and as I was unhappy with the finish of the Boeing 314 DIXIE CLIPPER I considered it advisable to go out and buy another kit…and finish it to a…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part Four – Mask, Spray…
Rinse, Repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s all your own fault, you know. You chose a scheme that has more than one colour and spurned the maker’s decal sheet. You could have done it as a prototype with bare metal, a works number, and be done in time for tea. But no, you had to pick something…
The Little World 