[David Dunlop]

From earlier Posts here, you will know the Flat White paint that arrived yesterday is to provide a reflective background strip on all the luminous paintwork coming up for the various knobs and markers on the 52-Set.

The red and the blue gloss, however, might be more of a mystery.

These two colours are for the Flick Indicator Dots on the Handles No. 72, as shown in the attached photo. As you can see, all these Handles on the Sender received a spray coat of varnish during their last overhaul, which has now turned that typical greenish yellow.

I had intended to redo the paintwork on all the Handles No. 72, but was initially hoping to save these two sets of original paint dots on the handles. These dots are all nicely placed in recessed holes, so a drop of Rubber Paper Cement placed on each would have protected them quite well, and would simply roll off with a little finger rub when the grey paint had cured. The problem was that very noticeable ridges would have been left behind around each dot from the build-up of a new layer of grey paint. It also eventually dawned on me these red and blue dots had also been covered with the aging varnish and, therefore, were no longer close to their original bright colours. This was confirmed when I compared a Handle No. 72 from the 52-Set to the original unvarnished ones on my Wireless Set No. 19 Mk III. The colours on the 19-Set popped by comparison. So I made the decision to remove all the paint on the 52-Set Handles No. 72 and build it all back up. A web search a while back found these two Testors colours were the closest matches to the originals.

So the rebuild of the Sender can continue now!

David