Glossary

To improve the accuracy of a piece.

Paint where the pigment is suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion. Can be thinned with water; often referred to as “water-based.”

Items sold separately to replace or augment what’s included in a standard kit. These can include decals, detail parts, weapons, etc.

Armored fighting vehicle

A miniature spray gun used to apply paint.

Applied with an airbrush, this lacquer simulates natural metal.

The Armor Modeling and Preservation Society.

Armored Personnel Carrier.

Additional armor plates bolted onto an AFV to improve protection.

Fine-art paint. Slow drying and easily blended, it’s often used for figure painting and washes.

Converting a model to represent an earlier version of the subject.

Weight hidden inside the nose of aircraft models with tricycle landing
gear to keep them from tipping backward onto their tails. Also called nose weight.

Fine-grain, easy-to-carve wood often used for scratchbuilding or patternmaking.

Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhota; Russian for Infantry Combat Vehicle.

A model in a nonstandard scale. Early kits were scaled to fit existing boxes.

A nickname given to small-scale vehicle kits (1/72 and smaller), but doesn’t cover pre-assembled models.

A rotary instrument made of steel or tungsten carbide held and revolved in a hand piece and powered by a dental electric motor or air. In modeling, it is attached to a pin vise to drill holes.

A dry-brushing technique used to make a model appear scorched by fire.

Adding detail to an area of model lacking it

Sculptable papier-maché mix used for diorama and vignette groundwork.

A fool-the-eye technique that simulates natural lighting effects by painting highlights and shadows to bring out details on a model and give it a realistic look. Because this is permanent color correction, it locks the lighting and shade orientation regardless of the actual ambient light.

Compresses air to power an airbrush

Models produced in the standard, consistent scales (1/35, 1/72, etc).

A model that has been modified to represent a different subject or variant

A model where the exterior skin has been “cut away” so interior details can be viewed.