Tag: Masking
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Three – The Double Mask

The look of this Swiss trainer in RAAF service is a bit daunting – all that colour and complex markings. Yet, like every paint job in the world, it yields to careful study of individual parts. You just have to mentally look past the complex decals to the basic colours – red, blue and white.…
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Queen Mary – Part Two – Club Afternoon

I frequent two hobby clubs: The One You Admit To and The One You Conceal. To be fair, I change the designations around from month to month so that everyone can feel uncomfortable… The heading image is the amount accomplished at one 3-hour session. Airfix were precise and sensible when they wanted to be; you…
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The Curse Of The Rivet

The curse of the riveted kit is most often seen with the older moulds. The days were when it was simpler to represent the details of an aircraft fuselage or wing by drilling minute depressions in the mould block. Everyone did it, and only in the last 20+ years have they made an effort to…
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Mi-2T Helicopter – Part Two – When I’m Washi-ing Windows

Wi’ nod to George Formby… My relationship to clear plastic parts and canopy windows has changed over the decades. My original plan was to cover them with cement fingerprints and I can report that my first years in the hobby were entirely successful. Even if the Mounties in Kaslo B.C. lose my 1966 fingerprints (…
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Sikorski Sea Dragon – Part Two – Changed My Mind

Not the JMSDF – this one will be the US Navy version. It has the big refuelling probe and the Gunship Grey overall finish. I was given a bottle of Model Master Gunship Grey enamel a few years ago and this is exactly the model for it. Model Master worried me for a whiie as…
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Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part Two – It’s All Outside

One of the distinct advantages/failings of the 1/144th scale kit is the fact that the insides are rarely seen. Indeed, for many of the airliners there are no side windows to cope with – it is all to be done at the decal stage. I welcome this if the decals are decently printed. However, you…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part Four – Mask, Spray…

Rinse, Repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s all your own fault, you know. You chose a scheme that has more than one colour and spurned the maker’s decal sheet. You could have done it as a prototype with bare metal, a works number, and be done in time for tea. But no, you had to pick something…
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Curtiss Model 75 A-4 – Part Four – Ugly Duckling

The painting stage for some models can be a beautiful and uplifting experience. Car modellers may experience this as they apply colourful and glossy finishes. Railway modellers also have bright colours in the liveries. In the case of this Curtiss 75 the chosen palette seems to contain nothing but expired motor oil and dirt. Of…
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Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part Three – Who Was That Masked Whale?

Balance it up in your mind – whether you trust the decal makers to put a product out that will look like a painted surface, or whether you can make a painted surface look like a decal. If you can fold a 2-dimansional sheet of plastic paint to conform to a 3D surface with convex…

