Finished Ford

The results of a coat of Humbrol Acrylic were OK but I felt the model still needed "something".

I his book on landscape modelling, Barry Norman recommends spraying entire layouts with a coat of a unifying colour - as I recall this was a very watery grey or beige. The colours would barely change but all would take on a similar tone, the idea being that if nothing stood out then the model would appear more authentic.

Since I don't have the model this van will be sitting on yet, this isn't an option. A quick squirt of sating varnish is though and that's precisely what the model received. Now I'm not sure why this worked but in my eyes it has. I don't hold with anything gloss on a model and am a bit suspicious of finishes that aren't matt. Cars are funny though. Look at one from a distance and you see something reasonably clean (unless it's a Landrover) and while not shiny, not matt either. I'm not doing anything revolutionary here, Chris Nevard has written about spraying nice new die-casts with varnish to bring the finish into line with his models - he said he used matt but I still see sheen...

Once the varnish had dried I eshewed the supplied vac-formed glass bubble as it didn't fit preferring to use some Krystal Klear. Even this dried properly first time giving nice flat "glass".

In the end this is a nice model. The wheels lift it a touch above the standard die-cast. Best of all it's another kit out of the cupboard. Now what shall I put in its place ?