Category: Modelling materials
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The Bow Pen Revisited
An earlier post mentioned the draughtsman’s bow pen as an instrument to paint the lines on 1:72nd canopies and I sad I was going to experiment with it. Experimentation finished, I have decided that it is the preferred method of work for the future. I admire the people who can mask canopies and spray paint…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Three – The Grey Ghost
I am currently working with three bottles of undercoat paint – but not because I need to. Any one of the three choices would be fine…except I cannot resist trying new brews as they appear in the hobby shop. I am perfectly satisfied with Tamiya undercoat in the spray can and have used up many…
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Spitfire Mk IX – Part Two – The Patchwork Quilt
I am always in awe of the kit builder who has every seam perfect, every wheel straight, and every panel line scribed out. Awe and horror. Awe, horror, and unreasoning anger… Well, it’s not quite that bad, but I do regard perfection with some suspicion. Fortunately the Matchbox Spitfire Mk IX is a very soothing…
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Blu, White, Or Yellow?
Tack, I mean. Which stickum do you prefer? I’ve been googling about BluTac just now and apparently the formula is non-toxic, rubber based, and secret. It is made by the original people and half a dozen imitators – two of which I’ve been experimenting with. Useful for tacking posters to dorm wall and kid’s drawings…
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The Sock Drawer
Whenever some cartoonist wants to suggest that someone has no life – and way too much time to spend living it – they have the poor individual sorting out his or her sock drawer. It is meant to be hilarious and pitiful at the same time, like parliament in Ottawa. I think this is entirely…
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Consolidated Liberator B. VI – Part Eight – Decalcomania
That was always the way it was written in the older English instruction sheets – decalcomania. Until i started doing the artwork on the Liberator I didn’t make the connection between decals and mania. I have learned much in two days. That’s how long it has taken to put on all the horrible little stencils…
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Rain, Rain, Went Away
And the humidity dropped and the sun came out. Shows you that sacrificing virgins really works, eh?* Having secured the Mandate Of Heaven…or at least the mandate of the Meteorological Department, I mixed up 50% Supercheap clear acrylic lacquer and 50% Mr. Color Levelling Thinner and started spraying. The mixing was done in a large…
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The Courage Of The 1:64th Customiser
The great days of the hot rod and custom car were…ummm…well, actually they were yesterdayand went all the way back to the 1940’s. They’ve been held over for the present and will be still continuing for the future. No-one manages to tell the customisers that they can’t do anything so they just go ahead and…
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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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Good Morning, Walter – Part Three – Steel vs Wood vs Plastic
Walter, you and your Mum may have been wondering why I went off on a tangent about Meccano, Erector, and Dux sets last time we spoke. Let me explain. We live in a world of plastic. It’s a wonderful material and can be made to simulate nearly anything – from bricks to steel girders, to…
The Little World 