Category: Lacquer
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Savoia Marchetti S.79 Sparviero – Part Six – It’s All A Whitewash

And all the better for it. Never mind whitewash in politics or on your back fence. When you whitewash a model it is a sign that you are getting somewhere. In this case it is Mr Base White 1000 diluted and blown on with a single-action airbrush. The white 1000 is about as good as…
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Savoia Marchetti S.79 Sparviero – Part Four – The Green Of A Service Station

A service station on the Autostrada. At 4:35 PM on August 7th. With the door open and the smell of pasta sauce in the air. Not that watery sort of sauce – the real thick stuff. Well, you need to know what you want to do before you do it, or you’ll never know whether…
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Mitsubishi Dinah – Part Three – Standing Room Only…

The Mitsubishi Type 100 – the Dinah – was delivered to the Japanese Army Air Force in several versions – bomber, reconnaissance plane, trainer, etc. and there were several configurations of nose and canopy. The thin nose and multi-step greenhouse is characteristic of the training aircraft – probably to allow and instructor to oversee the…
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Mitsubishi Dinah – Part Two – The Bright Bird

I knew at the outset that the Dinah in IJAF trainer colours was rather special. The yellow is not the pure chrome of the RAF or RCAF trainers nor the red/yellow of a prewar US Navy aircraft wing – it has a distinct orange glow to it. I wasn’t sure whether the plastic that the…
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RCAF Twin Otter – Part Six – Over The Line

Way-hay – completed the De Havilland Twin Otter before teatime. And onto the photo floor just afterwards. The planned assembly of the plane went well – I propped the fuselage up on the jig and glued one wing and supporting strut with liquid cement. An hour later I was able to flip it over and…
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RCAF Twin Otter – Part Five – The Clown Car

Sorry about that, Folks…but you have to admit that bright yellow and red has a certain circus feel to it. In this case a flying circus without the WW1 reference. The illustrations for this sort of aircraft paint job are nearly always spectacular – remember what I wrote about box art being based around yellow…
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Grumman F9F-2 Panther – Part Four – The Simoom

Or is that sirocco? Whichever, it is the hot dry wind that blows nobody any good, and it blew into my workshop the other day. Had I been smart, I would have closed the flaming door… The day was hot, but not the spectacular heat that drives people into air conditioning and makes the newspaper…
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Airbrushing Outside The Box

My learning curve with the airbrush was a bit steep a few years ago. It has become easier lately, but occasionally jags upward again. To be fair, it’s me kicking it up. I continually decide that I need to improve upon proven techniques. Even if I got a good result last time. I seem incapable…
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Grumman F6F Hellcats – Part Two – The FAA

The Fleet Air Arm has always been a thing unto itself. Not quite the Royal Navy but certainly not the Royal Air Force. Attached to the stuffiest of the traditional services but trying to operate the newest of the weapons. While not always given the newest of the weapons. Sort of the ” special ”…
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Wait. What? Chapter 2…

Got a definitive answer on the Testor’s question. The shops here are selling out of their stocks because Testors refuses to ship to Australia. Too far? Too high a cost? Too small a market to justify keeping staff busy? Advice from some new MBA in the accountancy department? Boss had a bad experience in Queensland…
