Military Model Scene

Title: How to use Shaders
Author: Jose Luis Lopez
Publisher: Ammo by Mig Jiminez
ISBN: 978-84-17846-45-9

A new book in Ammo's Solution Book series, number 13. The focus in this one is on using their new product range known as Shaders, though there is a good deal more in here as well of course. A 66-page soft-cover book which follows the usual style for this series.
These books have a consistent format, starting with an introduction and some background to the various product ranges of paints and weathering materials. These include primers, varnish, chipping fluid, washes, pigments, streaking brushers, masking tapes, adhesives etc, plus of course their recent addition of a range of Shaders. This leads into the bulk of the book which takes you through 14 separate stages to achieve a heavily weathered appearance on a desert themed model. In this case they have used the fine Tamiya 1/48 T-55. This features a basic green coloured AFV which has then been overpainted in sand, which in turn is well worn and clearly well used. The way everything is described is by a series of high quality, detailed photos of the model at each stage. Only a minimal piece of text to introduce each section, and this is provided in 4 languages, English, Spanish, French and German. Just what you do is illustrated by the use of graphic icons to show whether things are brush or airbrush applied, how close to hold the airbrush and a suggestion of pressure setting. With the shaders being used in this build, including the use of stencils to get the random effects of wear, it also adds which colours to use for the different elements. Another benefit of the sequential steps is that it helps answer a quite common query, which is just which order is it best to apply the different weathering effects. It also means that while you can simply follow the sequence, you can also ignore those bits you are happy with doing, and just concentrate on the ones you want to master.
You can buy this book by itself, but it is also available with an associated Solutions Box which contains the various products featured within the book to enable you to reproduce the finish illustrated within the guide. While the book focuses on the T-55, these effects can be applied to any other modern or even WW2 vehicles in use in a desert environment. Obviously the books is another vehicle to showcase Ammo products, and the multi-lingual approach a symbol of their worldwide customer base, this is a book which can be useful whatever your preferred materials to help you master these fine weathering techniques.
Thanks to Ammo by Mig Jiminez for our copy.

Robin