You’d think after all these years, with dozens of models in the bank, many of them painted in pale colours, that this would have been a sweet cake walk.
20th May 2025
Today, amongst other things, I’ve spent some time painting my Jaguar in its overall sand colour scheme. One colour. Minimal markings. Almost no masking. It’s as simple as it gets.
I’ve attempted this colour scheme three times, including this one. Three. That’s it. Why? Because it’s an absolute pain in the backside, that’s why. Truth be told I knew it would be, but I chose the OP Granby machine all the same. Why don’t I ever learn?
The first time I attempted it was not long after Desert Storm. I’d fancied building a Tornado for a while, so bought the Italeri 1/48 kit which as many will remember contained markings from that conflict. It was one of the first aircraft models that I built where I took the weathering seriously, trying as hard as possible to recreate an actual machine, in as close to a reality finish, as I could. I finished it too. Not only that, I took it to various model shows, including the IPMS Nationals, where it won a gold in its class. I’m sure I schlepped it to others as well, garnering a fews other trinkets along the way, but I’m not sure. It did well at a point in my life when competitions were the be-all and end-all in my life. That was, until it didn’t. From memory, it ended up being broken in a move, probably ending up in landfill along the way. Shame, as I have no images of it, only the distant memories of a successful; model that befell an ignominious fate. I’d love to see what it looked like as these years later.
Fast forward a few years and tried to repeat the trick, this time with an Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer. That model was 80% finished when I decided that the desert sand colour scheme had driven me so insane, I couldn’t bear to look at it any more and tossed it into the trash. Looking back, that seems like an insane end to a project that was so close to being completed and all that from a kit that was notoriously difficult to build. But toss it I did.
I seem to remember that that the real issue with that model was that its finish just seems too flat and too lacking in contrast. It was to put in bluntly: boring. It’s such a pale scheme that it’s incredibly easy to over-darken it and lose the true colour along the way, but it needs something and that model had nothing. That is what I think caused my ludicrous meltdown, the resulting paintwork having none of the interest that I wanted, no matter what I did to it. It was all best intentions and a halfhearted results. So toss it I did.
And so we return to the present day, to the 57 year old me and my White Whale of colour schemes, desert sand, this time applied to the curvaceous surfaces of a Jaguar.
You’d think after all these years, with dozens of models in the bank, many of them painted in pale colours, that this would have been a sweet cake walk. It’s not as though I haven’t years of experience in the bank, all fingers on all pulses of techniques that I can draw on to create a simple, one-colour scheme and yet, and yet, today has lurched from “yes, that’s it”, to “oh for god’s sake, that looks rubbish”.
The problem, as is always the case, is the endless fight inside my head when it comes to aircraft, to not over accentuate the detail. Whereas I’m happy to do that on armour, my preposterous belief that my aircraft models and by extension all aircraft models, should be painted with a subtler touch. It’s nonsense of course, but I cannot move away from my belief in the way they should look, rather than the way they might look if I was a little more willing to push the boundaries once in a while.
So, now it sits on my desk, the airframe done, the accessories and smaller sub-assemblies waiting their turn in the queue to annoy me. In the morning I’ll continue to work on those parts as well, all the time hoping that the additional layers, gloss coat, decals, sealing coat and washes, will help to bring everything together. Maybe then, the image in my head will match the model on my desk and I can put this challenge to bed, once and for all…
See you tomorrow.
TODAY’S PLAYLIST…
The Police: Greatest Hits
The Charlatans: Between 10th and 11th (Expanded Edition)
Cast: Mother Nature Calls
ABC: the Lexicon of Love
Tears For Fears: The Hurting
Duran Duran: Rio
SPENCER POLLARD'S KIT BOX 
oh how i can relate to this fight, and fight is exactly what this is. Do I? Don’t I? Deep breathes my friend. It’ll come to you✌️
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