Ammo by Mig Jimenez Oilbrusher Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Ammo by Mig Jimenez produces a wide range of paints, filters, washes, and other products designed to improve your scale modeling efforts. Last year, they released the first of a series of oil colors in interesting packaging. While the tube holds the oil paint, the cap has an applicator brush and it reminds me of some of the cosmetic make-up packaging on the market. What is nice about this concept is that the colors are not as thick as the squeeze-tube oil paints and can be applied directly out of the applicator.

In their latest releases, Ammo by Mig Jimenez has released another selection of oil colors including:

• AMig 3523 Dusty Earth
• AMig 3525 Red Tile
• AMig 3526 Space Purple
• AMig 3527 Marine Blue
• AMig 3531 Mecha Dark Green
• AMig 3532 Starship Bay Sludge
• AMig 3538 Silver

You may have seen the oil dot technique for color modulation, but I had been reluctant to try this out on one of my models. I remember a decade ago, where someone had suggested applying a wash of lamp black oil paint on a tank model to create shadows and highlight recesses in the model. When I applied the black wash as directed, I was horrified - the green tank had turned black! When the mineral spirits had evaporated however, the model was green again, though slightly darker. The writer was correct, the details were indeed framed nicely in the black wash and dry-brushing the original base color in the appropriate places added more depth to the effect. Of course, there are far more technical approaches to highlights and shadows, but the first step was one of faith.

I decided to see what color modulation would do for an otherwise sterile gull gray over white Atlantic camouflage scheme on my SB2C-4 Helldiver.

I started off by applying a fresh clear-coat using Future on the model. When the Future had dried, I applied oil dots using the Oilbrushers from Ammo by Mig Jimenez. In the image above, both sides have had the dots applied, but the right side has been brushed with Odorless Mineral Spirits which put the dot colors into solution and they are brushed in parallel with the direction of flight. In this image, the right horizontal stabilizer is still wet, but the mineral spirits dry quickly and where there was a plain gray surface (with a fresh gloss coating), now there is subtle variations of the gray that replicates the look of lightly weathered/oxidized paint and the finish is now dead flat.

With the horizontal stabilizers modulated, I got a little braver and applied (too many) dots to the wings and fuselage. Once again, I brushed odorless mineral spirits over the dots to disolve them and blend the colors into the background. The nice thing about this technique is you can dab away what you don't want off the model with a paper towel and continue blending the remainder into the surfaces.

While modulating gray with a variety of colors makes sense (and works nicely), white is another matter. I used dots of browns and grays to modulate the white and this worked well. Once everything had dried, I applied dark gray panel line wash on all of the engraved panel lines.

Here is the model with the grays modulated and the panel lines washed. I also added exhaust and gun smoke stains and called it a day. What is interesting is that the modulated colors and panel lines don't really show up at any distance, but your eye also knows that the paint scheme isn't a monotone gray over white either. Interesting stuff.

You'll find a variety of interesting articles online and in print on different ways to use these Oilbrushers to modulate something as dull as a monotone olive green paint job, yet be so subtle that you wouldn't know how the paint was modulated without having done it yourself. Give some of these a try on your next project!

My sincere thanks to Ammo by Mig Jimenez for this review samples!