I continue to put together more models. Another pandemic coping mechanism of mine.
The part of the process I’m enjoying the most at the moment is painting by airbrush. There are so many layers of fun in painting.
First, what color? I spent some time on the internet, looking up what colors real Lamborghinis are painted in. When I’m biking around my neighborhood, the back of my mind is always watching out for colors of cars that draw me in. Colors in the real world are so much more complex. For the first time, I’m starting to understand people who love shopping! And I’m the kind of guy who hates to choose!
Then there’s the moment you paint. When the dull boring white of plastic turns into a beautiful color of my choice. With a hand brush, the transition is binary; As you move your brush, one side of the brush is white, the other side is painted. With an airbrush, it takes a second or two for the color to appear because it takes time for the surface to catch enough paint. That makes the transition smooth. It’s almost as if I’m just applying some pixie dust and the color is coming out from within. This is the magic moment when a generic mass product becomes something uniquely mine. I love it.
And oh the surface it creates! I’ve amassed enough trial and errors that now I can create a really nice smooth surface that you can never match with hand brushing. And details remain sharp. It’s amazing how the sub-millimeter difference in thickness is so noticeable.
In the end, when it’s all said and done, I’m left with a tangible beautiful yellow Lamborghini, which is great, but what I no longer have is all the possibilities of other beautiful colors it could have been.
You know what, I need to do another one.