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In-Box Review
Modern Italian Air Forces
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by: Rowan Baylis [ MERLIN ]

The latest in LifeColor's vast range of military model colours is a boxed set of 6 acrylic paints for modern Italian Aeronautica Militare aircraft.

The set includes 6 x 22ml plastic screw-top jars:

UA 531 - Dark Green 28 - FS 34079
UA 532 - Dark Sea Grey 27 - FS 36118
UA 533 - Desert Storm Sand - FS 33594
UA 534 - Desert Storm Sand - FS 33448
UA 535 - Sky Grey 16 - FS 36280
UA 536 - Tornado Interiors - FS 26329

The paints show little tendency to settle out and are an ideal consistency for brush-painting straight from the pot. I've found previously that LifeColor acrylics thin well with their own brand thinners, or Windsor & Newton or Liquitex flow enhancers, and spray very nicely at low air pressures, producing a very fine finish.

The opacity varies with the colour; in this set, the greys produced a solid covering in a single coat, while the sand variations needed a couple of coats to achieve full colour density. All the paints dried with a satin sheen. In terms of accuracy, I applied a swatch of each colour on white card and gave the paint a day to cure fully before comparing the tests against my trusty old FS 595B fan. The results were excellent, with five of the six colours matching very closely to the quoted FS equivalents, only UA 533 being a tad pinker than the reference chip.

From a purely subjective (and thoroughly unscientific) point of view, it's interesting to note how closely many of these modern day paints compare with Italy's WW2 camouflage colours. That's probably not surprising, and it means these LifeColors could well have an additional use for depicting paint variations and weathering on Regia Aeronautica models.

Conclusion
This is another set of well chosen and accurately matched colours by LifeColor. I've found their paints among the easiest to use acrylics that I've tried and have achieved consistently good results. Recommended for anyone modelling present day Italian subjects.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.
SUMMARY
Highs:
Lows:
Verdict: LifeColor's set of high quality acrylic paints will be a real help to anyone building modern Italian military aircraft.
Percentage Rating
85%
  Scale: Other
  Mfg. ID: XS 07
  Suggested Retail:  £15.59
  PUBLISHED: Aug 13, 2010
  NATIONALITY: Italy
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 88.37%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 89.44%

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About Rowan Baylis (Merlin)
FROM: NO REGIONAL SELECTED, UNITED KINGDOM

I've been modelling for about 40 years, on and off. While I'm happy to build anything, my interests lie primarily in 1/48 scale aircraft. I mostly concentrate on WW2 subjects, although I'm also interested in WW1, Golden Age aviation and the early Jet Age - and have even been known to build the occas...

Copyright ©2021 text by Rowan Baylis [ MERLIN ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.



Comments

Recently I started using LifeColor acryilic paints. I am very pleased
OCT 07, 2010 - 06:34 PM
I have heard a lot of complainings about airbrushing lifecolor I need some info about: Thinner Thinning analogy (ex. 50/50) Psi Cheers Nick
OCT 09, 2010 - 08:23 AM
   
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