Category: Painting
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Junkers Ju-86 – Part Two – The Four-Part Scheme

You have no idea how hard it was to resist writing ” Four-play “… The horror I experienced painting my first four-part camouflage scheme still exists in my display cabinet – wrapped around a Morane-Saulnier fighter of the French air force in early WW2. I was relying upon a back-of-packet colour call-out and masking fluid.…
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Is It Light Into Dark?

Or the other way around? I can’t remember the correct sequence for mixing custom colours that need several hues or shades in one pot. Do I put light drops into a dark base or vice versa? I ask this because I need a purple for the top of a WW1 German aircraft and there are…
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Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Four – Borden Baby

Or ” The Jolly Green Midget “. Say what you will about the green paint on this Valentine, it is the closest I can get to the distinctive colour on this tank and an adjacent Matilda as they sit in the CFB Borden museum right now. The colour illustrations that show these are taken in…
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Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Three – World of Wheels

I get on quite well with wheels in my model aircraft building – because I normally only have to paint three of them for each plane. Open a tank kit and start counting the round objects. No matter who made it – Germans, Russians, or British, they all decided that more wheels were better and…
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Handley Page Heracles – Part Four – Night Flight To Hyderabad

This aircraft model gave two choices of registration – G-AAXC or G-AAXF. I chose the latter – ” Helena ” and noted that it was assigned to eastern flights for Imperial Airways – when there was an empire in the east to fly to. As I intend to do with most 1:144 models in my…
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Handley Page Heracles – Part Three – Mask And Silver

I shall never understand the remark that someone once made about silver-finish aircraft being boring. The amount of work that goes into preparing a model for a silvered finish – and the sheer terror involved in spraying it – would seem to be enough excitement for anyone. Follow this with decaling and sealing and you…
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General Dynamics F111 – Part Three – The Masked Bandit

Every model you build teaches you something – this little one showed me how to conquer the tri-tone scheme. Normally I hate ’em – the Armée de l’Air or USG or Italian three-colour camouflage that looks so cool and takes so much masking and spraying time. I have been known to chicken out more times…
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General Dynamics F111 – Part Two – Library Day

Every fortnight I repair to the Cambridge Library in Floreat for an afternoon of modelling, coffee, and chocolate biscuits. As it is a public place there is no booze allowed, and I drive home clear-headed. Except if there has been a lot of cementing and painting. Fortunately 1/144 involves very little of either and the…
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Full Moon Is the Worst Time

That’s when the special modellers shop. The hobby shop staff know what’s coming; they brace themselves. The cowards call in sick, but the old hands just stand to the till and face the storm. ” Do you have this in 1/296th? Why not? “. ” I want the best kit. I’ve got $ 12. Hit…
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Bristol Type 130 Bombay – Part Four – Hot Little Feet

I really should hie myself back to the hobby shop that supplied this Valom model and see if they have any more inter-war British aircraft. This one has proved delightful. SOOTB, and grateful for the opportunity to do it. The moulding was fine and the decals superb. I did not even object to the W/T…
