ClearFix Tip - When It Goes Yellow Get a New Bottle!

ClearFix is obviously a bit like snow - when it goes yellow beware what you can use it for! To be fair you typically use so little of it at a time, unless you are making a plane per week you may never ever use a whole bottle. In my case, years will go by before you pull it out of the storage tin (which may or may not help being away from direct sunlight). Indeed as I found out to my cost when making my Vietnam helicopters, ditch it if it goes gloopy and yellow. Clearfix (though slow in drying and bonding clear plastic to normal plastic) is however the way to do aircraft canopies .. otherwise the terrible chemical affect that I do not understand ruins the cockpit look. ClearFix is a wonder chemical when clear but buyer beware avoid the yellow (see below, RHS clear and "Good", LHS gloopy-yellow and very bad!):   

I had to resort to covering up a smeared mess on one helicopter's side windscreen [reconnaissance Gun-Ship Loach, if you really wanted to know] with Tamiya X-25 transparent Clear Green. Note, authentically it was used on top horizonal window covers of Vietnam Huey's and Loach's alike to cut down on glare from the sun above [?] I am guessing - but I don't think side windows were typically covered - but I think the "look" seems to work (see below, my Italeri 1/72 "Little Bird" festooned with decals - grinning shark mouth underneath):  

You have to be careful when handling Italeri as they are delicate, but beautifully made!

Paint Conversion Site: Humbrol to Other Makes

This site was of great help identifying other paint manufacturers matching to Humbrol colours from Airfix kits (see below, as there is nothing more frustrating as chasing and having duplicate colours in different ranges):  

https://www.modelshade.com/paint-conversion-chart/humbrol/241

This helped me greatly with two recent projects (the RAAF Boomerang and Luftwaffe Fiesler Storch from the Airfix Vintage releases).

ACW Confederate Army update: Humbrol Acrylic Varnish Stage

And finally it was time to be varnish them "in the sun" (or rather while there was sun) and the ACW Confederates were crowded in "spray painting formation" in appropriate easy to spray lines - or so I thought (see below, the ACW Confederate Army, the thing a I discovered and something my Physics teacher never told me was that the force exhorted from the Humbrol Acrylic Matt Varnish spray can, was so mighty it blew some of the figures all away across the table (light plastic on card, say no more)! - Goodbye Bedford Forrest, nice knowing ya! They were safely recovered from the weed patch, but it was a much different experience than spaying 25/28mm fixed to coins - "catch the pigeon" fashion):   

Once the strafing run was complete I stood back to admire my handiwork (see below, that is a 'goodly' bit of painting [by my standards] done over the summer in the "lock-down holidays" - my fingers were firmly crossed hoping that nothing was going to go amiss with the "varnish drying" stage): 

The inspection revealed a good matte coverage over most of the figures. The (Vallejo) paints were nicely dulled down (so that the Vallejo matched the Tamiya finish nicely) but there were one or two horses and one artillery piece that had been affected by the dreaded "white varnish seal" of painting doom. On the horses I used some suitable coloured Vallejo ink to soak in and on the artillery piece I simply repainted the affected wheel and cannon. Methinks I will have to check out the Army Painter (or even Games Workshop) alternative as it may be a better product.

Return of the Airfix Acrylic Grey Primer (01)

Just when I thought all was lost, I came across my favourite primer in Edinburgh's treasure trove of a model shop Wonderland! (see below, hopefully it means they are back online and available):

I bought two just in case ;)

Note: It also means (for better or worse) I can put my primer spray cans to the side for now!

Farewell my Airfix Grey Acrylic Primer (01) it looks like the end of a beautiful relationship!

To the tune of American Pie (the Don McLean song, not the movies that is):

"I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd bought the "paint" years before
But the man there said the it wouldn't "sell"

Apparently I was the only one who liked using it :(
Gone even from the Airfix website
The HobbyCraft girl said Humbrol were cutting back on their paint range :(

Confession: When in need for "Light Relief" and "Inspiration" .. I to turn to Science Fiction!

Why?

Because I view it as throwaway "fun" but intelligent "fun" and model-craft "fun". It is just "fun". In short it breaks the "Am I really doing this right?" painting block that can descend on me from time to time. Is that the right shade of WW2 French 1940 camouflage? Blah, for things that don't yet exist .. how can anything be wrong". The upshot is that I just 'bundle' into stuff and 'progress' is made on a great heap of otherwise dorment plastics. In this case it was preparation for my next "beer and pretzel" venerable GW Space Crusade game. It was also a great excuse to test out the Humbrol DecalFix, my least liked part of modelling, fixing "decals". So the Imperial Fists got some cute Space Marine decals (see below, left shoulder pad and very nice those 'fists' look too!):

Application of the magic DecalFix was to the "target" area on the model (in this case the Space Marine's shoulder pad) and the actual decal itself instead of water. This had the effect of creating a friendly landing spot and making the decal much more flexible and bendy to conform to the curved surfaces (see below, right shoulder pad: decal on decal, white arrow followed by a tactical Roman Numeral "I"):

One wash of the magical potion was not enough. The DecalFix dries shiny and the first application left bumps and ridges because the shoulder pads are in fact quite curvy. Another wash made the decal more pliable still (Note: Tip, watch you do not tear it) and the decal was simply pressed onto itself with good effect (see below, an ID mark placed on the Space Marine's boot, "skull" meaning "grunt" in my Science Fiction world, heavy weapon dudes got a "lightning strike" .. not as GW have it in but so what, please refer to the reason why I am doing this in the first place ):

I left them overnight to dry and then used Humbrol Matte Varnish to dull down the glossy shine and give a protective coating (see below, a half squad of Imperial Fists that simply cannot wait for their next Space Crusade mission):

A close-up shot for the Space Marines version of Signal (see below):

All-in-all a nice next step up from the basic paint job I had without decals. I may revisit these chaps at a later date with a view to doing something with those heavy weapons, a colour scheme revamp and perhaps drilling out the barrels of the guns. Pipe dreams at the moment.

They are certainly "combat ready" for the "beer and pretzels" outing number four in the Space Crusade campaign series! Watch this space for the AAR.

New (for me) Airfix/Humbrol Acrylic Paints and a "Man" foiled at the first step, but saved by the Wife!

As part of the recent Saturn 1B project I had to acquire some "Satin White" paint. As a local shop stocked the latest range of Humbrol/Airfix acrylics and the Saturn 1B  instructions handily told me which specific tin I needed (aka 170) I opened up an account at yet another manufacturers range of paints (something familiar about this story perhaps? Humbrol Enamel, Tamiya Acrylic, Games Workshop Citadel Acrylic, Revell Acrylic, Airfix Acrylic, Vallejo Acrylic, Anita's Acrylic).

I was actually relieved to see the paint was was acrylic rather than the dreaded smelly enamel I was expecting from my childhood! (See below for a look at my first tin of new paint, is it time to pop the lid off?):

Hang on, this is harder than it should be. Screwdriver and sharp modelling knife were used, but to no avail!

Note: OK I lied (170) was not the first tin I used, in fact the first one was (1) "grey primer" (which I am very impressed with), but take a look what a mess I was making of the tin lid! (See below):

Luckily my wife was at hand (my head was literally in my hands) to point out that like most wines these days it was actually a screw top, ahem. Surely not, foolish woman! A flush of embarrassment later and yes, she was right (see below):

It came off so easily in the end. My excuse? I'm a 'Bitter, Best  or Lager man", rather than a wine drinker ;)

PS: That "grey primer" (1) is the business for preparing the ground for further paintwork. Out goes my old technique of using Tamiya matte black (XF1) on planes, ships and tanks!