Category: Painting
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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 Three – The Flying Bomb

I wonder if the bright spark who numbered the US Navy drones used in the Korean War deliberately ran them on from V1 to V8? I’ve seen two authentic pictures of V6 being launched off USS BOXER from one of the catapults and it has the V number clearly painted on either cheek of the…
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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…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Six – Don’t Touch Me…

I’m clean. And socially isolated. And I want to remain this way for at least five minutes… There probably never was a clean Coastal Command Wellington. Or Liberator, Sunderland, Digby, Whitley, or Hudson…or anything else that started life as white on the underside. Think about it. Underneath is where things run to when they leak,…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Five – A Whiter Shade Of Pale

A confession – I was courting when ” A Whiter Shade Of Pale ” was new on the charts and I tried to be cool by dancing to it. It goes on longer than a Methodist sermon but without the jazzy language or uptempo beat… I hated it then and I hate it now. The…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Four – Mr Ghost

Are we ever ready for the undercoat in our lives? Probably not…but when we make model kits there comes a time when we are definitely going to have to reach for the spray. I say that as an airbrush user, but I think the rattle can people are in much the same boat. I have…
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part Three – Lemme Up Youse Mugs!

I’ll murdalize ya! Just lemme up! The building table was well in use in our heading shot as I sought to get the tailplanes level and even on the Wellington Mk 1C. The fuselage had been cemented with Humbrol Poly tube cement due to an article I found featuring a build of this same plane.…
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Who Do You Believe?

Not about religion or viruses or the economy. These things cannot be determined by debate or belief – they just have to be fought over with artillery. I mean who do you believe about paint colours? Specifically, the paint colours printed on call-out sheets in model kits. Every kit has something that pretends to dictate…
