BR DIESEL ERA COLOURS
The Ammo by Mig range of paints and modelling accessories doesn’t offer too many products aimed at railway modellers, but this pack of six acrylic paints purports to offer authentic shades for British locomotives from ‘Epoch IV’ (approx. 1960-1980). Supplied in 15ml plastic flip-top jars, the colours provided are Engine black, Reefer yellow, Deep green, Dark blue, Medium blue and Signal red.
Made in Spain, the paints are odourless and require shaking before use (mixing balls are pre-loaded into each jar). Drying to a matt finish, the paints are equally suited to applying by brush or spraying through an airbrush. Acrylic thinners are necessary for spraying and I enjoyed good results using Lifecolor’s formula. Touch-dry in 10-20minutes, the paints require 24 hours before re-coating.
As for the veracity of the shades, the blues and green are not close enough to Rail blue or Standard Locomotive green to be accurate, unless aiming for a faded appearance. The red and yellow are better and the black is, well, black. That aside, the paints are clearly of a high quality and a little inter-mixing can produce more authentic shades, if you have the eye for colour-matching.
Rail Center AMMO.R-1002 British Locomotives paint set
£16.99 www.scale modelshop.co.uk
Product: Price: Availability: OPENING THE BOX
This pack by Busch provides an instant cameo scene of a man prying open a wooden crate. The (real) wooden crate stands on a timber pallet and the figure comes fully painted. A useful 148mm by 105mm sheet of card paving is also provided. (PM)
Busch 7977 figure set £14.50
Busch stockists www.golden valleyhobbies.com
Product: Price: Availability: Web: DOWN ON THE FARM
The latest additions to Osborn’s Models’ range of 3D-printed animals are a handsome trio of Belted Galloway cattle. Just the thing for intimidating hikers in the landscape! A quintet of pigs is also available, complete with a pig farmer figure. All figures come fully painted. Additionally, a laser-cut kit of a brick-built pigsty has been added to Osborn’s Arch Laser range.
OSBF115 Belted Galloway cattle (£9.25) OSBF120 Pig farmer and five pigs (£12.95) Arch Laser ALFSOO02 pigsty kit (£15.95
Osborn’s Models www.osborns models.com