A couple of pictures from yesterday as I forgot to take them whilst gardening but during more cat time later in the day with Watson I took some then.

That plastic frame will go over the raised bed with some new netting over it after the seedlings have been transplanted. It is too cold currently to move them and I need some more compost for the pots. The fence panels at the back have come loose in places so I need to attend to that. The alley is a favourite spot for ne'erdowells and druggies. The panels wouldn't stop a squirrel but they do keep the various assorted lower primates out. The drugs house down the road has seen police and paramedics attend several times over the last two weeks with yet another overdose victim removed on a gurney. The police have arrested a couple of the more aggressive tosspots who had kicked off and created a disturbance. Such is the local drama...

Watson looking cute and wanting attention. He is the neediest of our four cats and we think he might have been the runt of the litter as he is much smaller than his brother Sherlock. He often jumps up on to the kitchen sides and frequently misses! He has a sixth sense for when we are about to cook a meal as he can be missing, fast asleep somewhere in the house and then he suddenly appears in his usual spot beside the microwave. The two boys are now seven years old and in cat terms have apparently become oldies but there is no evidence of Sherlock slowing down. Time for breakfast...

TTFN

Part two...

The two completed builds of the Fiat BR 20 bomber and the Fiat CR 42 fighter with the two Italian aircraft awaiting their turn for building.

The little CR 42 only required four lines for rigging and I used a combination of Acrylic paints and to enhance the yellow acrylic I added some yellow oil paint. All of it brush painted as it is a tiny build and the amount of time it takes to strip and clean the airbrush before, during and after spray painting is very irritating. The Neo Iwata airbrush I use is a very cheap entry level brush and it does the job but I think at a future date I will buy a better one plus a compressor.

For Blue Witch, I found the recipe for home made paint thinners for acrylic paints. To make 500 ml of home made acrylic paint thinner you require:

67% of distilled water.

33% of Isopropyl Alcohol.

10 ml of Acrylic flow improver.

10 ml of Acrylic flow retarder.

This is for modelling but I guess Mr BW could look at how this can be applied at larger volumes for acrylic paints.  What is flow retarder and flow improver I hear you ask? Water is a flow improver although it also thins or 'waters down' the paint.

I looked it up and found this helpful video but he doesn't say what they actually are apart from water being one flow improver. I also found this helpful page but I just realised one trick where when I apply a wash of oils or enamel to a model, having first clear coated and sealed the paints underneath, I add a drop or two of washing up liquid which breaks the surface tension for an enamel thinner and allows the enamel or oil paint to flow more easily. Digging further for the actual chemicals involved and I found this which provides some of the answers and perhaps Mr BW with his scientific background might be interested but glycerol has been identified as one ingredient. For a modeller this is fascinating as well as getting it right and saving money. I can buy distilled water fairly easily but I will order the other ingredients off the bay of evil. The one video that I first looked at a year or two back is what set me off in considering making my own thinners and airbrush cleaner. Hopefully that is useful and this time it really is...

TTFN.