Military Model Scene

A recent addition to the series of books from Ammo of Mig Jiminez which provides an excellent guide to using some of their products. Produced by ammo, it is of course geared very much to using their products, but I don't have a problem with that as it is so useful, and in this case could be applied to standard artists oil paints of any manufacturer, and applied to modelling rather than simply a flat canvas.
The book uses a number of items as demonstration builds, including an aircraft, a light tank, an armoured rail car, a large scale bust, a small rail diorama scene and a stone building frontpage. The 15 sections start out with a background on 'What is Oil?', then Working Materials and the application of a Primer, Base Coat. Then it moves on to techniques such as Blending: Dry Brushing: Lighting and Shading. Then it moves on to tackle Profiling, which adds definition to the detail of a model, followed by Panel Lines, Filter and Washes. By the time we get to section 11, it moves on to specific effects, with Oil & Grease: Dirt, Dust and Mud: Chipping and Rust: Metallized and then rounding everything off with a section on Painting Figures, which also includes doing the base colours with acrylics before adding the final detailing using oils.
The whole book is quite clearly explained piece by piece, and accompanied by lots of step-by-step photos, all of which are excellent quality in themselves. The various methods of using oils are interesting, and take their use further than I would have considered before reading this book. One of the points about a book like this is that I think it suggests some alternative methods of finishing your models. All of them are worth trying, though one or two I think I will still stick with my old, tried and tested ways of working. For me that's one of the pleasures of modelling, not just that you can learn from others and use readily available tools and materials, but having the freedom to try new techniques however you may choose for yourself. I found this one very useful and plenty of useful tips.

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My thanks to Ammo of Mig Jiminez for our review copy.

 

Robin