Monday, March 3, 2014

If -


Damn your dried up hide!

...you meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same - something - something - something. You're a better man than I am Gunga Din. 

I had a bit of a disaster this morning when I tried to add decals to my Gladiator. I used the decal set that came in the box and they just crumbled as soon as I put them in water. I've only recently started adding decals to things, so I've never had this problem before. I'm not sure what I can do about it - beyond buying another sheet of decals, though these appear to cost about the same as a new kit. This annoyed me greatly and took the shine right off my morning, which was further soured by the necessity of sorting out the House Insurance. 


However, I did have a spot of triumph in the afternoon.  After several false starts I finally managed to get the hang of cutting mounts for pictures - this was mainly due to practice and the timely advice of Mr. Kinch Senior, who worked out what I was doing wrong.  This is a print of an Aubrey Beardsley drawing of a heroine of Mrs. Kinch's. 


Mr. Beardsley looking rather windswept and interesting. 

Beardsley was an odd fish, but a fine artist with a beautiful line. If you're not familiar with his work, I would recommend looking him up. The lady is Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who was a particularly talented and famous actress of the late Victorian stage who is most widely known for her association with George Bernard Shaw. 


Mrs Pat as Mrs Kinch always calls her



The Battle of Luzzara

Once got the knack, which cost me considerable waste of good mounting board and a non trivial quantity of swearing - I knocked out another few mounts.  This is a print that Mrs. Kinch picked up for me last year. It depicts the battle of Luzzara from the War of the Spanish Succession. It's rather nice actually and comes with a satisfactory number of charging horses. 



Interrupted by R. Caton Woodville 

I actually came across this while looking for something else. R. Caton Woodville is best known for his battle scenes, but an eBay seller had listed this along with some other bits and pieces and it struck me as exactly Mrs. Kinch's sort of thing. As it turned out, it was and she's grown very fond of it. I had laid in a stock of moulding as I was hoping to teach myself picture framing. However, Mrs. Kinch Senior has viewed the moulding and pronounced it shocking bad stuff.  She will be appearing with the real deal later in the week. In the meantime I suppose I shall have to busy myself with cutting mounts. 

There's quite a collection of uniform prints to work through. 

Still spitting about those decals though. 

12 comments:

  1. Pop a thick coat of gloss varnish on them and let it dry thoroughly.


    Should hold them together in the water.

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  2. I'm sure I can cobble together some vaguely suitable decals - drop me an email.

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    1. Much obliged Tim - it looks like my fellow countryman may be able to sort something. But who knows I may be in touch.

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  3. After mastering how to mount pictures, hand painting roundels ought to be a snap!

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    1. Well said Ross - I find the two skills are very similar.

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  4. Think it maybe something to do with age (the transfers - not you !) , I've had it happen to me with old kits

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    1. They tell me the bowels are the first things to go.

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  5. I can sort you out with the top half of the following this weekend, provided you send me a text at some point before midnight on Friday and remind me to take them out of the shed.

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  6. Aaaaand.... I forgot to add "the following". Thusly: http://www.hyperscale.com/images/airfixa02052reviewmd_8.jpg

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  7. That would be very welcome. I'll bring those partisans too.

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  8. Would recommend using varnish as well

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