Introduction

By now most modelers that are active on the various modeling forums are well aware that Mig is back with a new company, Ammo by Mig Jimenez. His new enterprise has quickly reprised many of the products that he was previously involved with. Some of the first are several of the paint and weathering sets that he was so famous for.

Contents

The two sets that Jim sent my way to try out were the Soviet Camouflages set #7107 and the U.S. Green Tanks Starter set #7413. Both have a familiar look to them and most modelers should not have any trouble working with these new products. Let’s take a closer look at what you get in each set in turn.

Review

First, let’s focus on the US green tank starter set. I am guessing if this is a ‘starter’ set that there is more to come in the near future that may add modulation colors, light streaking grime, dust, and other good stuff. The set comes packaged in a plastic clamshell type blister pack with two bottles of enamel product and one dropper style container of paint. The paint is Mig 926 Olive Drab base acrylic in a 17ml bottle with an attractive orange top. I like the orange screw top because it stands out on the modeling bench. I know it must be an age thing but I can’t count the number of times I shake a bottle prepping it carefully, put it down to pick out the perfect brush, tear off a piece of paper towel for blotting, put a few drops of water in a palette, and find I have misplaced the bottle of paint from one short minute ago! With the new orange tops they stand out much better on the bench, so one less frustration which is always a bonus.

You also get a pair of enamels in the set; Mig 1005 Dark Brown wash and Mig 1206 Dark Streaking Grime in 35ml bottles. These bottles have the addition of a sticker on top that lays out the content, a great idea if you store your weathering and finish bottles in any kind of a container where all you see is the top of the lid, no more checking ten bottles to find the one you are looking for, again a great addition.

I pulled out a Tamiya M4A3 upper hull to give these products their day in court. Impressive all around; the Olive drab sprayed out of my airbrush in a nice even coat without the need to thin at all. I have included a photo of the upper hull after the initial coat of paint. I know that different light setups can mess with color shift but I can attest that the color ‘looks’ very olive drab to me. After giving it a 24 hour period to dry I gave the enamels a chance to shine.

The first one I tried was the wash. I thought it was a bit heavy right out of the bottle and I will thin the paint a bit with some Turpenoid or white spirits the next time I use it (and I will use it). After I say how thick it was I used some white spirits to try to back it off a bit which worked reasonably well. The only thing to be careful of is how easy it is to dig under the layer of OD and see some primer peeking through. Next time I will give the paint a coat of satin varnish before the wash which is normal practice but I got a bit ahead of myself on this one.

The Streaking Grime worked about like I thought it would, a bit heavier than the wash but pretty easy to stump out. I only waited about thirty minutes before I started to work it, I would really recommend giving it a bit more time and definitely add a varnish layer in between paint and enamel products. Even with the limited time it performed adequately and left some nice effects which I hope the photos show to good effect.

The Soviet set comes packaged in an attractive end opening box that can also hang. Inside is a blister sleeve that holds the six 17ml dropper style bottles (also with the attractive orange top!)of acrylic paint. The colors are for Soviet vehicles from 1935 to 1945 and include the basic 4BO green, 3B AU a much darker green used generally from 1935 to 1939, 6K brown used as camouflage with 4BO, 7K sand also used as a camouflage complement to 4BO green. Also, a color called Protective Green, a light green primer/camouflage used before 1941 and washable white for winter whitewashed vehicles. The colors are listed as having scale effect reduction which should be very helpful with color modulation effects.

I took a KV-1 turret shell in order to give each of the colors a try as well as a bit of extra-curricular work with the washable white color. I sprayed every color, the three greens, the brown (which seemed a bit dark), the sand, and the white camouflage color. Just as I found with the US Green set I had no problems whatsoever. The paint all sprayed beautifully without the need for thinning. It seems a little thicker than products that are designed purely for the airbrush, and a bit thinner than typical brush painting products but I don’t have any real hard data to back this up, just how it feels and looks coming out of the bottle.

The one that is a bit different is the white, but only because it is designed to be removed and scruffied up. I did not use any chipping fluid with this, only a bit of water after allowing it to dry for about thirty minutes or so. I used a brush on one side to remove paint and on the other used a cotton bud. Both quickly and easily started to work on the white paint removing it in nice even layers. If you want a better, less uniform look I would use a bit of hairspray or chipping fluid.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Two new sets now available that should be quite popular as Mig reconfigures products for modelers under the auspices of the new company, Ammo by Mig Jimenez. I really like the way they spray out of the airbrush and the orange caps and lid stickers make them just that much better.