Osprey Publishing continues to expand its weapon series, this time by adding a book on the exemplary Finnish-made Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun.

The book has a very reasonable breakdown of the following chapters: Introduction, development, use, impact, conclusion and bibliography, plus an index.

I’ve found particularly interesting the development, use and impact chapters. They were clearly really well researched and it included descriptions of the weapon characteristics, as well as the description of its use in combat by the Finnish ski troops against the Soviet troops. It should be noted that this submachine gun could also be used as a sniper gun, giving its high accuracy up to distances of several hundred meters.

Perhaps one of the best compliments to the overall design and performance is that this particular submachine gun was somewhat copied by the soviets and issued to their own troops in the later years of the war.

Vallejo continues their line of specially made weathering products called “Weathering Effects”. They are formulated with permanent pigments and water based acrylic resins. All of these products are available in 40 ml bottles. The two types of Weathering Effects reviewed here are “Splash Mud” and “Environment Effects”.

The Splash Mud is very paint-like in consistency but too thick to be airbrushed as is, very similar to Vallejo’s Model Color range. The recommended application is via the splatter method. One does this by loading a stiff bristle brush – where the stiff bristles will snap back very quickly after being bent – and using your fingers to flick the Splash Mud from the brush bristles to the surface you want to muddy-up. For this review, I used a completed Jagdpanzer IV (L48) that had been lightly weathered, but not with any of the thick products reviewed here. This way, the effects of these products can easily be seen.

Tamiya masking tape (yellow) has been known to modelers for many years and it is still one of my favorite tools in the bench. This tape for curves is made of a different material; it has a plastic feeling to it so it is not the typical Tamiya tape trimmed to a few millimeters.

This tape is designed to mask curves. It easily “bends” for a curve, but it does not stretch as well as it bends. I like that property of the tape actually as it ensures its width is kept as constant as possible.

In this test I used a scrap wing –which I used for some paint tests- and placed both the 2 mm (Stock 87177) and 3 mm versions (Stock 87178) of the tape on the wing, as you can see in the pictures.

I’ve found that the best way to “bend” the tape is to actually anchor it –I use my thumb- where I want to have a bend and with the other hand twist the tape left or right, while burnishing the tape against the plastic.

Tamiya is expanding its line of Textured Paint, this time with two different snow effect paints: Snow Effect and Powder Snow. This particular package also included a third bottle, which is “dark earth”, perfect to show some groundwork underneath the snow.

The first thing I noticed is that the snow bottles weight at least twice as much as the earth one. I suspect a different kind of “pellets” (texture) is being used here.

The Snow Effect paint has small micro-balloons (0.05-0.35mm) and the Powder Snow even smaller ones. I honestly could not see them - in the powder one, but I could feel a bit of the texture when I put a dab of the paint between my fingers. You can certainly hear a bit of a “grinding noise” when you spread the paint on a base. By the way, don’t use a brush as it will damage it. I used a plain wooden stick to spread the paint.

Tamiya acrylics can go down grainy in the right conditions (dry atmosphere, high pressure, big distance) & this retarder helps prevent this, it can also help with airbrush dry tip issues.

You mix it in with the paint or you can mix it with the thinner before thinning the paint. It can be used up to a 1:10 ratio with Tamiya Acrylic Paints.

You must remember that like most other retarders, adding too much retarder causes the paint to not dry.

Also, it is ideal for painting glossy finish surfaces and what I found very useful is using it when brushing Tamiya acrylics. As when brushing the paint starts to cure between brush strokes and using a good mix of paint, Tamiya X-20A thinner and Tamiya's Paint this can help prevent the quick drying that normally occurs.

Summary

This is a fantastic product to add with the use of Tamiya paints and I have found it a great addition to my tool box!