Monday, May 15, 2006

My boat of many colours


Beige
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Once upon a time, when you built an Airfix kit, the instructions end with a drawing showing which colours to paint your model.

When you are all grown up kits get more expensive but you don’t get the picture telling you how to paint it. If you are lucky there are some livery notes but after that you have to do your research before heading to the paint counter of the local model shop.

My boat has a whole page devoted to a list of the colours the manufacturer painted the prototype model in. He notes that you can paint your boat any colour you like – possibly more in hope than expectation as most of us will find the colour scheme an important part of the model’s appeal. I certainly did and although I’ve modified things a little I’ve pretty much stuck to the paint job on the model I saw last year.

One thing I didn’t spot until I read the paint page was that the saloon and bridge were different colours. Both versions of beige but one with more yellow in it. Once I had read this, the difference stood out a mile in the photographs. This wasn’t spotted in either of the two reviews I had acquired. One has gone for a very beige look, which is hopelessly washed out. The other had used the yellow, much nicer and sunnier, but it didn’t look as nice as the original to my eye.

Mind you, having painted the main sections of the boat, I know its true for boats as well as trains, the detail brings the model alive. When you decorate a room, it looks nothing without all the bits in it. I need to get the windows, vents, chimney (shiny red !) etc. applied now to offset that beige !

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