Review

As modellers we all have our favourite paint brands or blends, but sometimes we are looking for something to meet very specific needs and a number of companies have started to make sets to meet those needs. The Airbrush Company has sent along just such a paint set offering targeting the WW2 Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Colours Pre-War to 1945 from LIFECOLOR a company with a very good number of such offerings.

This release offers eight paint colours in 22m pots which are plastic instead of glass and so less likely to break when you add a ball bearing to aid paint mixing. There has been a change since I last looked at a LIFECOLOR offering in that the sometimes hard to get into and easily damaged flip top carton has gone and it is now a card tray that slides out of a card sleeve. I feel this is an improvement when it comes to making it easier for the modeller to access just what they are after. I also like that the colours in the carton are also in the same order as listed on the carton front.

The acrylic paint offered in this set is good for both brush and airbrush painting and LIFECOLOR does sell their own brand of paint thinner for those like myself who prefers to be sure of the mix before spraying. The colours provided in this set are:

UA 5001 J3 Hai-Iro Grey

UA 5002 SP Amero Amber Grey

UA 5003 D1 Deep Green Black

UA 5004 D2 Green Black

UA 5005 C1 Yellow

UA 5006 Q1 Blue-Black

UA 5007 Blue Actake

UA 5008 H2 Brown

While my ability to accurately check colours and shades is nil, it is my belief that as this set offers consecutive numbers the colours have been blended to match very specific details and I am happy to take it on faith that they are correct. I know that some like to be very accurate down to paint chips but it has been my experience that one colour that is supposedly uniform often looks different on every aircraft. We also need to take into account that how long the paint has been on the aircraft and how the aircraft has been kept greatly effects the paint colour ours eyes perceive or for that matter what is seen in a photograph.

The pigmentation in this paints looks to be rich and despite having sat for a few days before I got to them there is no obvious separation of pigment and carrier. I have used LIFECOLOR paints in an airbrush using their own thinners and with a brush which also sometimes needs the use of thinners and I have been happy with the results. This set is not exhaustive as regards external colours of WW2 Japanese aircraft as at the very least black is missing; however the average modeller looking for a something to tackle a WW2 Japanese then they cannot go far wrong with this set.