94 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



A first-rate medium, which should always be kept ready- 

 made, and which will be found most useful for mixing with 

 pigments with which to touch the legs and bills of birds — if 

 unwaxed, — is 



84.— Medium for Oil-Colours (M.B.) 

 Paper-vamish . . . . i part 



Turpentine . . . .5 parts 



This gives just sufficient " quality " without any objection- 

 able shininess, and will be found very useful when colouring 

 fishes or the models of such, ferns, grasses, small pieces of 

 " rockwork," and, indeed, for most purposes. 



"Flatness," i.e. absence of gloss, is gained in two ways, 

 namely, by leaving out oils and varnishes and using only tur- 

 pentine, or by introducing those media into the colours and 

 subsequently "flatting" with turpentine, by this means obvi- 

 ating the objectionable cracking which inevitably takes place 

 when turpentine alone is used. Extreme flatness is gained 

 by the use of benzoline, as a medium, with the tube oil-colours, 

 but this probably causes cracks to appear in time. 



