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.

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:

This is a mask set for the Kinetic Su-33 Kit. This set helps save time masking the canopy and wheels by providing all you need with pre-cut masks.

In the packet is:

• 1 precut masking sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

The masks are for the front windscreen, main canopy and the wheel hubs

Summary

This is very good and time saving when it comes to masking, which is perfect for this kit and really helps.

Thanks go to Eduard for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

One of the lessons that I’ve learned over my years of modeling is that it is wise to use the tool best suited for the job at hand. I have a number of high quality tools and many of them have the label, “Xuron” on the handle.

My latest acquisition is the Xuron Tk 3600 Photo Etch Took Kit. The Xuron webpage featuring the TK 3600 states that this kit was designed for scale model builders working with delicate photo-etch. Is there any other kind of PE? The kit contains three tools for cutting, bending and holding PE parts.

Model 9180ET Professional Photo-Etch Scissor cuts the PE, Model 450 TweezerNose™ Plier holds the PE, and the Model 575 Micro Bending Plier bends it.

UMM continues to make and issue tools that their owner John Vojtech has developed and used to make his award winning models. The UMM™ 3D Center Locating Tool Jig is one of those tools. What you get is two pieces of aluminum bolted together so that the bottom forms a v-shaped notch and the top forms a straight edge aligning with the point of the notch. The purpose of the tool is simple, find the exact center of a round or square object. This is extremely handy when you need that center for drilling out holes or attached things exactly on center.