IPMS/USA Reviews

The Flex-I-File "Touch-N-Flow" (Photo 1) is the ultimate capillary action gluing system. Nothing else I know can get cement into hard to reach spots with such accuracy. It enables a modeler to put solvent cement exactly where needed, with very little chance of missing the target and marring an outside surface.

The #7000 system is composed of three components (Photo 2): A bottle of thin Plast-I-Weld solvent cement, a squeeze bottle, and the Touch-N-Flow applicator, along with an instruction sheet The Touch-N-Flow is a thin glass tube with a very fine needle applicator at one end. The squeeze bottle is used to pull the thin solvent cement up into the tube. Once the cement is in the applicator, a touch of the end of the needle releases cement.

Mottling on model paint schemes is becoming more and more popular. The item for this review makes the project much easier than trying to do it freehand.

All models require different levels of paint layers to get that realistic look. Mottling has become one of the layers of a lighter color of the basecoat to get the color variance and depth. The stencils help paint in the weathered look. People have used various freehand airbrush techniques to break up the basecoat, whether it is shading within a panel's lines or indiscriminate lines throughout the basecoat to get color depth.

Masterpiece Models has a stencil with varying cut shapes that allows paint to be sprayed through and onto your model. The stencils are made of a compressed thin card board type material that can be laid right on your model or held away from the surface to get feather edges around shapes of the stencil. You can turn the stencil, say in a 90-degree direction on your model to get different shapes from the ones just sprayed.

Mission Models Paint (MMP) has released some new metallic colors to add to their acrylic paint range. The colors reviewed with this release include.

MMP paints include the following:

• Gun Metal MMM-010
• Brass MMC-002
• Gold MMC-003

Mission Models also provided Gloss White Base MMGWB-002, Grey Primer MMS-003, and MMS-007 Clear Primer. The Gloss White Base can be used as an alternative to Gloss Black Base under metallic colors to provide a lighter shade of the finish paint. Mission Models Clear is an interesting primer that can be tinted to match finish paints for a more uniform color coat. Blaine Singleton has provided a nice review of MMP's clear primer here.

Mottling the paint scheme on a model by hand can be difficult and rather time consuming. Keeping the paint at a consistent density, avoiding a semblance of a "pattern" in the layout of the mottling, and paying attention to panel lines are all issue that need attention when applying a "mottled" finish.

Masterpiece has addressed these issues with an easy-to-use set of templates. The templates are sturdy pieces of a cardboard-type paper. Each template contains a multitude of holes and openings that are of a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some of the "knock-out" panels that make up the openings in the template are still in place. Removing them will bring about a diverse pattern each time you use the template. Also, reversing which side of the template you use (top or bottom) as the surface in contact with the model, will provide additional diversity.

Copied from the Masterpiece Models website, About Masterpiece Models, "Masterpiece Models manufactures and sells the highest quality resin assembly kits on the market today. Featuring kits for a variety of interests including WWII, Vietnam, Sci-fi, and aircraft bases. We have acquired the rights to a large selection of the Custom Dioramics line that are now available through us as resin assembly kits. Our kits are manufactured at our Vancouver, Washington, USA fabrication and casting shop."

Among the items that Masterpiece Models offers is a jig, sized for 1/72^nd and 1/4^8th scale models. There are no assembly instructions, per se, but that is not a problem. There is a 3x4 inch piece of paper included in the box and all that is required to assemble the jig is to reference that picture. If, for any reason, that slip of paper is not present then one can visit the Masterpiece website and find an image there. Or, just view the image of that slip of paper that shows the assembled jig that is included with this review.

Some notes on assembly of the jig: