Category: Masking
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part Four – The Curtiss Lollypop
Having mastered the Mr. Color range of metallizer paints I do not cringe in fear from natural metal finishes. Indeed I welcome them where appropriate. Thus my delight in the pictures of the prototype Curtiss SB2C rolling out of the factory in the early 40’s. Still early enough to have the pre-war yellow wing. A…
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Ol’ Stinky
In the social world of liquid masking agents, Humbrol’s Maskol is the one you rarely invite to the cocktail party. It is purple, stringy, and smelly. A lot like some people I know. I’ve tried it for masking camouflage patterns in 1:72 and found it to be problematical. It sticks, alright, but sometimes long after…
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Pink Poles
Before you start to wonder if this has turned into a porno site, let me assure you it always was. But we were using code-words. If you didn’t get it, you weren’t the one the code was intended for. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, look at the two pink airplanes. They…
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Curtiss Helldiver – Part Five – Jackson’s Art Supply
Jacksons Art Supplies – or Drawing Supplies, if you prefer, is a dangerous place to visit. Like Officeworks, Bunnings, or Dan Murphy’s you are surrounded by too many temptations to resist them all – you inevitably succumb to buying something and there’s the food money for the week gone. The kids will just have to…
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Petlyakov – Pe-2 – Part Three – Plugging Up the Holes
I had no idea when I was building model kits as a youngster that there would be a need to plug up cockpits, bomb bays, wheel wells, and every blessed hole in a fuselage. That was well before spray paint cans and any thought of an airbrush. Plain old manual brushes were the go –…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Three – Sandwich Size
The primer stage emphasises just how small this fighter is. And how much effort was put into streamlining it in an art-deco fashion. The side panels fit very well, the horizontal tail plane locks the fuselage halves together, and the tailpiece smooths the rear. I’ve followed the practice of temporarily sealing the landing gear covers…
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Ilyushin 4 – Part Three – I Give In To Zvezda
I have written before about my technique of painting the canopies of my aircraft – how I use a bow pen to add the framework at the end of the build. It is closer to my past experiences and very effective in most cases. But looking at the glass nose of the Ilyushin I knew…
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Douglas Skyhawk – Part Three – Freehand
The Skyhawk is almost done, and so am I. I elected to give this one the full pre-shading and then a freehand three-tone camouflage scheme…as much to see if i could do it as to make it look authentic. I am not sure about the authenticity, but I did discover that I do not like…
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Douglas DC-3 – Part Four – Keeping The Faith
If you have shares in 3M or in the Ustar manufacturing company in Taiwan, take heart – your yearly dividend is assured. I have been masking the Douglas DC 3 and it has taken slightly more tape than would have been required for the full-sized aircraft. You need to have a vision as you do…
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Potez 540 – Part Four – IKEA Day
The day I assemble the fuselage from the flat pack with a little hex wrench. I almost seemed like that was going to be the case when I first saw the way the aircraft had been sectioned. But Heller was wise – if the Potez was rectangular in cross section there was no point in…
The Little World 