When Steve Collins asked for volunteers to try Italeri’s new acrylic paints, I jumped right in there. I was doing a Monogram battleship as the USS Wisconsin, and I needed something to use as Deck Tan and Battleship Gray.

• 4763AP Flat Gull Gray FS36622
• 4726AP Flat Dark Green FS 34079
• 4673AP Flat Wood FS 30257
• 4313AP Flat Medium Sea Gray FS36270
• 4709AP Flat Dark Tan FS30219

The paints come in 20milliliter bottles with a snap-open cap which allows you to take a small amount of paint from the top, which is great for doing fine work. You can also unscrew the lid and get a big dollop for painting a large area. The snap cap makes it very difficult to spill the paint, a plus when working with several colors at once.

Introduction

For the past 50 or so years, I have built plastic models and painted them using various types of enamel paints. For the earlier wooden models, before plastic kits became popular, I used regular model airplane dope (actually, lacquer), sometimes laced with talcum powder to achieve a matte finish. I started airbrushing relatively early, still using enamels, and eventually settled on the Testors’ Model Master series, which I have found to be entirely satisfactory. The only problem with using enamels indoors is that my wife constantly complains that the odor is overpowering, although I don’t think that it is really that bad, certainly not as bad as the smell of onions cooking in a frying pan, which has to compete favorably with the Geneva Convention’s definition of “gas warfare”. But that aside, I requested several colors of Italeri’s new acrylic paint series for evaluation.

Packaging and Initial Impression

The paints are contained in 20 ml plastic poly bottles with flip caps. The clear gloss is contained in a 35 ml plastic bottle with a flip cap. The bottles are clearly labeled with simple instructions of “shake well” and “for airbrush dilute properly”.

My sample bottles tended to spit paint a bit when “flipping” the cap open, but that may be a simple consequence of opening them at 7500 ft where I live. The dropper in the cap and a squeezable bottle provide a nice controlled dispensing of the paints and clear coat.

In 1944 the Soviets were starting to take the offensive. The Wehrmacht was still in Byelorussia and the Ukraine, but after Kursk the Russians had taken back almost half of the territory the Germans had won in 1941-42. The Americans and British had invaded Italy, making things even more difficult for the Axis side.

Another pain in the Germans’ side was the continuing partisan activity in Yugoslavia. And someone at Headquarters decided that the way to neutralize this particular threat was to remove its leader, Josip Broz, known as Marshal Tito.

This book is about the special operation, undertaken by the 500th SS Parachute Batallion, which descended on Drvar in northwestern Bosnia, using glider-borne soldiers and paratroops. While much of the book covers the actual landings and subsequent combat, I have to say that as an aircraft modeler, I was intrigued with the use of the DFS 230 gliders, which were towed by Henschel 126s. Never heard of THAT use for the Henschels!

This latest tool from CB Model Products is one of the best yet. This high precision punch and die set consists of 12 hardened steel punches and a clear acrylic/metal guide plate assembly. There is a desiccant included to help keep the rust off the metal parts. These pieces are contained in a compact plastic case with a nice hint and procedure sheet.

The steel punches are machined with a slight angle. These punches are designed to be used on up .030 styrene. The punches come in .040”, .051”, .058”, .069”, .080”, .088”, .101”, .110”, .119”, .127”, .140” and .151”. That should take care of most needs in 1/72, 1/48, 1/32, and 1/35th scales. You may want to wipe the parts down with some WD-40 and a rag to preserve these delicate parts for the long term.