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Unsticking – Part Two – The Experiments

The mules were back in business today – 8 plastic panels coated with aqueous acrylic paint – 4 with the same Mr. Hobby gloss red that featured on the Piasecki Flying Banana – four with a Tamiya flat red. I sprayed, then let the paint cure in a hot workshop for a couple of hours.…
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Unsticking – Part One – The Problem

A recent paint job that required three colours sprayed onto a model aircraft fuselage went pretty well – the lightest colour first and then two more in layers with masking tape application between the coats. I have the business of dilution and air pressure pretty well sussed for the types of paint. Note that in…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Three – The Great Azure Blue Quest

I think I may claim a modest victory today. I pursued RAF Azure Blue paint and overtook it. The quest started with that RAF Digital colour chart I found on the net. It lists all the major paints used in WWII RAF aircraft, Shows them in a clear panel, and then gives the RGB and…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Two – There We Was…

Well, Poo…I realised today that I published Part Four before Part Two and Part Three. You must have gotten a disjointed view of the process. Forgive me and read on today and tomorrow – you’ll get the rest of the story. Blame early mornings… There we was at the Men’s Shed session of the…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part Four – The Flying Fellah

Note to readers: This post went out in error several days ago – it was shelved and reopened today, to provide the final chapter. Wheter that makes any sense or not is debatable, but then this is me writing and you reading… See, I didn’t go mad after all. Or madder, if you want to…
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Macchi MC 205 Veltro – Part One – The Speedy Dog

Veltro apparently means ” greyhound ” in Italian and I cannot think of a better image for this WWII fighter. The long snout and the ability to fly at high speed are the first things that come to mind, but when you watch the canine greyhounds you see another characteristic of them; the habit of…
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No Business Like Show Business

Somewhere this afternoon a modeller is putting yet another coat of paint on their show model for the 2019 exhibition. In three days they will buff this off with the skin of an unborn albino ocelot and start to spray the next coat. Then the whole process will be repeated – it is going to…
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Every Dinner Is A New Dinner – Every Model Is A New Model

Every dinner does you good – if you eat it in pleasant company. Keep this analogy in mind when you sit down and think of doing some scale modelling. Every dinner needs preparation – oh, you might go to some restaurant and have it placed in front of you, but you will pay heavily for…
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Morane Saulnier 406 – Part Four – Contact – Ignition – Chocks Away

Actually, in the period between Christmas and New Years and I don’t think I could’ve faced any more chocs or contact. I retreated to the Little Workshop and put the finishing touches on the Morane Saulnier. How different an aircraft can look when the final paint is on – as opposed to the bare parts…
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Morane Saulnier 406 – Part Three – Curse The French

Not for their politics or their agricultural policies. Not for Gen. De Gaulle or the ludicrous Bardot. Not even for their car designers… For their camouflage artists. The maniacs who wanted to paint three-colour camo schemes on a series of miserably inadequate aircraft. The only thing good about these decisions is that it made the…
