There is somewhat of a recent trend in home furnishing circles that gives renewed life to older furniture and kitchen cabinets. The painting technique of which I speak is dry brushing. The trend has even caught the eye of Bob Vila, once and former host of the PBS series 'This Old House'. Bob is no longer affiliated with the program after lambasting (allegedly) a homeowner for being a lazy twit, but that's a story for another time.

This dry brush technique involves dousing your paint brush into the paint of choice, removing almost all of it from the paint brush bristles and applying the minute amount of remaining paint onto the selected object. In the case of a home improvement project that might be cabinet doors or the odd tabletop but for our purposes this missive will focus solely on scale models.

I have been using enamels for many years (decades) now. Enamel hobby paints are getting harder to find and there are the health considerations on enamels, so I have been exploring different acrylics options out there. I was excited to see I had the chance to review the AMMO products, as some of my modeling buddies had good things to say about them.

Readying the AMMO website, you learn that these paints are odorless, water soluble, and non-toxic. All of those above make these paints interesting alternatives as non-toxicity is a great thing and odorless makes the rest of the family happy.

I have to say that I did find a very faint smell on these paints. It is not strong at all and it is not offensive nor headache-inducing as enamels or lacquers. The best I can describe the smell is ‘earthly’. A bit like mud or clay, from a pottery workshop.

This new photo book series presents various selections of rare wartime photographs. They are selected based on numerous subjects. Each volume introduces photographs from battles, operations, vehicles, or complete photo albums from soldiers who fought in World War Two.

This volume is divided into two separate subjects. The first part presents a number of new photographs from the personal photo album of Oberleutnant d.R Peter Prien who began his army career with Pz.Nachr.Abt.37 with 1.Panzer-Division in January 1941 and finished the war as Führer of the Stabskompanie of Pz.Rgt.3 of 2.Panzer-Division. His album contains mostly photos of his time with 2.Panzer-Division around the time of the Kursk battles. The second part presents a series of photographs of the 8.8cm Flak 18 mounted on the chassis of the Sd.Kfz.8 half-track officially known as the 8.8cm Flak 18 Sfl. auf schwere Zugkraftwagen 12 t (Sd.Kfz.8) als Fahrgestell. Most are new and previously unpublished.

If you are looking for something a little different for your next build, want to have some fun, and even possibly remember your youth a bit, the folks at Round2 have released the kit for you! This Schwinn Continental 10-Speed is part of the MPC line of kits and follows their previous release of the Schwinn “Classic Krate” bikes. This was a quick build with no construction issues, and I would highly recommend it for modelers of all skill levels.

First released in 1960 for an astonishing $86.95, the Schwinn 10-speed was produced for 22 years and was the American standard for this style of bike for many of those years. While the steel frame is now incredibly heavy when compared to the materials used today, for a generation, these were the gold standard. Available in an assortment of sizes and colors, the bikes remain collectors’ items even today.

Painting

I asked for the opportunity to try this new product from the imaginative modeling studios of Mig Jimenez. As many modelers realize, Mr. Jimenez has a vast collection of modeling paints and primers. However, with these new Dio Drybrush paints, he has unleashed a great new line of special effects into the world of dry brushing. This new line comes in a variety of 27 paint products which will allow most modelers the opportunity to further our dry brushing skills.

Two colors were initially sent to me to preview: Light Grey, A.MIG-0601 and Panzer Grey, A.MIG-0604.

I quickly set up a model with three different base colors to see my initial impressions and what results I could get using DIO DRYBRUSH paints. I should also admit being reasonably new to the world of dry brushing and recognize I have much yet to learn about this art form.