So often we are like a lone ship at sea pressing on without a compass, happy as clams, but not realizing that we are headed in a distinctly wrong direction! As always, it is always reassuring to again hear common sense from so many respected modelers, and that the course one has chosen is still correct!

The advice to await complete drying of the base paint coat (no smell!) before applying a paint of different formulation is about as good as one can get in avoiding big time problems. The advice to apply only thin coats is only very slightly far behind.

Several people off list have commented on the need for "primer". Long recognizing the fact that "primer", either Floquil or the late lamented Accupaint, is really only flat gray paint, I continue to use them to provide me with a uniform pretty neutral shadowless flat color without any contrast or reflection. In so many ways, this simple action visually "ties" together for the first time a model that heretofore has only been seen as a bundle of disparate, if attached parts. By completely eliminating contrast and reflection, this also gives the model builder a last chance to detect and correct surface and other flaws that had been otherwise lost in the clutter.

Of interest for aficionados of Scalecoat I history , I note that some of my jars of paint - obviously of some vintage- specifically announce that they "contain Toluol, Xylol, and Lead"! Other jars say that they "contain no Lead"! No wonder Scalecoat has had such vibrant colors for so many years, and it is even more of a wonder that in more recent years they have been able to maintain the colors without the lead.

Denny


Denny S. Anspach MD
Sacramento