Hints & Tips #01 - Using Spare Transfers

A common practice among many hobbyists is to keep what they don't use - be it spare plastic parts on the sprues or transfers.

When building a kit and using the transfers or decals which come with it - you will invariably be left with some left over. This is especially the case when the kit comes with several 'options' - perhaps to depict models from different time periods or nationalities. Keep what you don't use and over time you will build up a 'spares' box of decals.

They can be handy for replacing damaged decals on existing models; or for adding more markings to kits where you don't have too many kit-supplied transfers.

They can also come in handy if you wish to do a common kit in a different scheme - like the model below.

This 1/48 Spitfire Mk Vb was originally an Airfix Tropical Spitfire Vb. First the airframe was painted in the appropriate colours plus some 1/48 Soviet Russian markings which had been left over from a Gavia La-9 were applied. The end result is a convincing (and unique) Lend-Lease Spitfire Vb.