I am very appreciative of Acrylicos Vallejo for sending new products for review, and I am equally appreciative of all the Review Corps crew members who take care of all of the legwork to get materials to reviewers and the completed reviews published for the modeling community. It is a privilege to be part of this manufacturer-modeler group effort.

Description

I am pleased to see more specialized paint sets in the AFV series from Acrylicos Vallejo. Each of these sets is designed to effectively create one of a number of different, accurately-toned paint schemes. The AFV system reviewed here is for US Vietnam–era, olive-drab vehicles, but could easily be adapted to other similar color requirements. Six 8-ml eyedropper bottles of related acrylic, non-toxic colors are packaged in a vacuformed plastic tray in a 7.5 inch x 5 inch cardboard box. A detailed suggested sequence of application is found on the back of the box. I find the packaging convenient for storage and otherwise attempting to stay organized.

Since the review is evaluating paint quality and application, and the reader may have several subjects in mind, I did not paint a model, but instead made a “test-bed.” I positioned white and silver plastic sheet next to each other. I used a plastic piece as a mask, similar to an outlet cover, with a hole in the center. I airbrushed each paint in the suggested application order at 10 PSI with a Grex airbrush held 6 inches from, and perpendicular to the plastic sheets. I intentionally allowed some overspray to see what the color transparency was like. I shook each bottle 100 times to make sure the paint particles were all “on the move” in suspension. Each sprayed circle consists of 8 drops of paint.

Opacity, or lack of transparency, in general is very good. As to be expected, lighter colors (245 and 075) did not cover quite as well. Step 5 suggests a 50% mixture of 043 and 017 for highlighting. I made a pair of random stripes with this mixture, one wide and one narrow, resulting in good coverage and slight tonal differences. The lighter, more diffuse oversprays show good coverage as well. Please look at the test bed photo to see the contrasts.

The included paints are:

• 608 - US Olive Drab Surface Primer
• 043 - Olive Drab
• 254 - Bright (that the whole name!)
• 075 - Sand
• 017 - Russian Green
• 035 - Cam. Pale Brown

Conclusions and Recommendation

These paints worked flawlessly. I am pleased with the tones, and look forward to putting them to work. My airbrush was easily cleaned with Vallejo thinner, airbrush cleaner and water, and the paints have no nasty chemical fume issues. A possible con to this set is that there is not too much paint included. These small bottles may limit the paint set life to 3 or 4 models.

I recommend this paint set without reservation.

Thank you again to Acrylicos Vallejo and the Reviewer Corp, it was a blast!