Candy colours are created using a type of painting technique using a clear colour paint applied over a metallic base. Whilst generally used on car models, they can be used on a variety of other subjects such as Gundam. How the effect works is that the Clear Colour itself is a transparent paint that has no solid pigmentation to it. They are coloured using tint dyes which will retain the clear transparency whilst keeping a strong, vibrant colour. In this tutorial, I'll show how easy it is to create an effective Candy effect on a model car.  For this tutorial, we will be demonstrating the effect on a 1/64 diecast Oz Wheels Panel Van.  To begin with, after first priming the model, we apply a base coat of a gloss Black. In this case, I've used Chassis Black first (which is a semi gloss black) and then top coated that with Super Clear to...

The South Australian Plastic Modellers Association (SAPMA) held the 41st South Australian Model Expo over the weekend of September 28th & 29th 2024. It was an early start on the Friday, leaving home at 4:30am to travel west to Adelaide as we once again hit the road and travelled over to be a part of the show. Rolling in to the City of Churches just after 11am, first stop was to see our friends at Hobby Habit in Melrose Park, to drop off a restock order for them and to catch up to see how everything is going. Hobby Habit is considered to be the largest hobby store (across 2 locations) in Adelaide, stocking a wide range of hobby products including our full range of paints. I also managed to find a couple of the new Oz Wheels 1/64 scale diecast cars that feature our logo on the rear panel!...

Our friends at Diecast Distributors Australia (DDA) have been kicking many goals of late, first with their plastic kits of the HQ Holdens, then following up with the HJ Panel Vans, the XW/XY Falcons and, recently, the LC/LJ Toranas, so I was very excited to get my hands on their brand new Torana A9X kits. The A9X was a special option available on the LX Torana that was produced in the late 1970’s. It featured different options such as the bonnet scoop, rear spoiler, rear disc brakes and a heavy duty differential amongst others. It was famously raced at Bathurst, where it was driven by Australian motoring legend, the late Peter Brock. Once the kit arrived, I quickly got out the body, bonnet and rear window / boot lid, and began to paint. I didn’t want anything boring, so went with something a little more exciting, Colour Shift Extreme ‘Supernova’....

Billed as the premier scale modelling event in Queensland, the Queensland Model and Hobby Expo (QMHE) has always been on my radar to visit ever since I got into building models way back in the mid 2000s. Over the past few years, our involvement with sponsoring QMHE has continued to expand and along with that came invitations to attend the show. Finally, in 2024, I was able to make the trip up to Brisbane to attend the show as a special guest and I must say that it was one of the more enjoyable shows I have attended yet. The whirlwind 3 day trip began bright and early at 4am on Friday the 16th of August when I hit the road to drive an hour and a half from home down to the Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine to jump on the 8:20am flight to Brisbane. The flight up was quite...