IPMS/USA Reviews

I am very appreciative of Acrylicos Vallejo (AV) for sending new products for review, and I am equally appreciative of all the Review Corps crew members who take care of all of the legwork to get materials to reviewers and the completed reviews published for the modeling community. It is a privilege to be part of this manufacturer-modeler group effort.

Description

I am pleased to see more specialized weathering and detail treatments from Acrylicos Vallejo. Each of these relatively transparent stains is designed to effectively cover an engine with sloppy fueling stains, overfill spills, grime and other interesting maintenance or hurry-up oversights. Using these stains will bring an engine from the factory floor to a realistic operating appearance, looking thoroughly used under hard field conditions, limited maintenance, or otherwise. Each 40 ml bottle provides about 440 scale gallons of liquid, so your fleet is covered. A step-by-step guide is available on the AV product page with all sorts of good suggestions for application.

Among several integrated sets of Model Air paints produced by Vallejo for common AFV camouflage schemes is their U.S. Olive Drab set, consisting of four color paints, an Olive Drab Primer and a clear Satin Varnish.

Opening the box reveals a vacuform tray holding six half-size (quarter ounce) bottles, each one holding slightly less than half as much paint as one of Vallejo’s standard bottles. The assumption is that the paint set would be one-stop shop, with enough paint for (at least) single project, although my experience with Vallejo paints is that this set could easily be stretched across three or four normal-sized 1/35^th scale builds.

A brief disclaimer: Let me confess up front that I am a big fan of Vallejo paints, and I have been using them religiously for over a year now, retiring all of my other paint brands as they ran out. I had some up-front frustrations switching from enamel/lacquer to acrylics, but these issues (described below) were worked out and I now use all three Vallejo acrylic paint brands with ease.

I am very appreciative of Acrylicos Vallejo for sending new products for review, and I am equally appreciative of all the Review Corps crew members who take care of all of the legwork to get materials to reviewers and the completed reviews published for the modeling community. It is a privilege to be part of this manufacturer-modeler group effort.

Description

I am pleased to see more specialized paint sets in the AFV series from Acrylicos Vallejo. Each of these sets is designed to effectively create one of a number of different, accurately-toned paint schemes. The AFV system reviewed here is for US Vietnam–era, olive-drab vehicles, but could easily be adapted to other similar color requirements. Six 8-ml eyedropper bottles of related acrylic, non-toxic colors are packaged in a vacuformed plastic tray in a 7.5 inch x 5 inch cardboard box. A detailed suggested sequence of application is found on the back of the box. I find the packaging convenient for storage and otherwise attempting to stay organized.

We live in a Golden Age of modeling, we do. It seems that not a day goes by before some new product is offered to plastic modelers. This time around is a new set of excellent diorama weathering effects offered by Vallejo called ‘Thick Mud’. As the name suggests, each of six varieties offered contains a different shaded sludge mixture that looks, acts, and cleans up like mud.

This is the stuff that we have all tried to perfect: using water, paint, pigments, real dirt, fine sand and some kind of fixing agent. Vallejo has simply taken the guesswork out of it for you, but they’ve smartly rendered the concoction in an easy-to-use-and-clean-up acrylic medium.

The set includes the following shades:

Trumpeter has issued two versions of their 1/32 A-6 Intruder which was on many people's most-wanted list. While the kit is expensive, it is well done, well detailed and builds into a great replica. Of course that doesn’t mean there isn't some room for improvement. While the aftermarket has been slow coming, Eduard has issued sets for the A-6E TRAM version to spice up several areas of the kit as well as a canopy masking set.

The canopy masking set is simplicity for masking the windscreen and sliding canopy. The front parts of the windscreen are two large parts made of yellow kabuki tape, and fit nicely covering that part of the windscreen. The sides of the windscreen are covered in the three corners by three parts. Be careful here as the masks are specific to which side they attach to – follow the great instructions and it will be no problem. Note that these are not full masks and cover only the edges, so either a liquid mask or your own tape are needed to complete the masking job.