Background

For the 10-15 years, modelers have been enjoying the “golden age of weathering products.” Be it in the form of pre-mixed washes, filters, effects such as mud, dust, grime, streaking, etc., or pigments in all shades, it’s never been so convenient or easy to come up with convincing weathering effects on our models. One of the leading innovators in this field has been Mig Jimenez, who has brought us many of these off-the-shelf, ready-to-use products. Ammo by Mig Shaders are the latest addition to this growing product line.

The Product

Mig’s website touts Shaders as “acrylic based paint specially formulated to apply shadows with the airbrush,” which are packaged in handy little 10mL dropper bottles. This review looks at the following Shader colors:

Background

A variant of the iconic M3 series of half-track vehicles originally fielded in World War II, the M16 was fitted with 4 each .50 caliber machine guns in an electrically-drive rotating turret adapted from aircraft use. Used primarily as an anti-aircraft platform, the M16 also held great utility in suppressing enemy infantry. First seeing service in 1944, replacing the twin-gunned M13, the M16 proved a valuable asset for the remainder of the war and following, namely in service with US and South Korean forces during the Korean War.

The Publication

This softbound volume sports 24 pages consisting of a brief 1-page introduction, with the remainder of the book devoted to black-and-white line drawings with descriptive captions in English and Polish and 3 loose, large, folded sheets with vehicle and detail drawings in 1/72, 1/48, 1/35, 1/16 scales.

Iliad Decals is a firm based in Canada that produces decals for many subjects in both 1/48 and 1/72 scales. Printing is nicely done with all colors in register and true. They’re traditional water slide configuration, are thin and look good.

The sheet carries markings for seven F-104s. All aircraft depicted are combat aircraft.. There are a variety of schemes worn by these warriors, so there is a nice selection of colors and nationalities present. There are three USAF birds, two of which that were flown in the Southeast Asia scheme that were based at Udorn Thailand in 1966-67 during the Viet Nam war and escorted F-105s into action. The third one is a sleek looking bird in white over ADC gray that has an interesting back story, with the pilot being held as a POW in China for about 8 years!!