Anita Davis
Auckland, New Zealand
“Given a challenge to do as best I could with an Airfix Series One kit, with the stipulation all improvements must be homemade and no aftermarket resin or brass was allowed,” Anita chose to depict the 1/72 scale Tiger Moth as a restored plane at an airfield near her home. She sanded off the fabric molding — “it was overdone,” she says — and thinned the slats. The cockpits had seats installed and are detailed with bits of styrene, fuse wire, and foil strips for seat belts; the instrument panels are reduced photocopies, glued on. After airbrushing with Tamiya black and Humbrol silver acrylic, Anita masked off the gold trim stripe, sprayed, then sealed with Pledge Future floor polish (called “Johnson’s Klear” in New Zealand). More fuse wire went into external details such as fuel tank vents and plumbing, with nylon, smoke-colored mending thread for rigging and control cables. Windscreens were cut out and folded from clear styrene sheet, and frames were drawn with a black marker. She printed her own decals for the markings. For gold lettering, she filled in letter outlines with a fine-tipped gold marker. A final coat of Klear sealed the deal.