Uschi van der Rosten "Blitz Dry" Review

“Hey, the big model show is just a few weeks away and my projects are all done and ready to go”, said no one, ever. Half the fun of getting ready for the show is that delicious anticipation of wondering if you will actually get done in time. Even when I do barely get finished in time, there’s always that embarrassing faux paus when you open up the box you transported your entry in and the six closest people to you pass out from the fumes. One of the really tough planning factors for me is allocating enough time for oil paints to dry. I love to use them for weathering, but they do take ages to dry. I always make sure that they have completely dried before I put the next protective coat on, but there have been a few occasions when it’s taken well over a week for the oils to dry. Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching paint dry, with the possible exception of watching the Detroit Lions play football. I was whining to Dave Youngquist at the Last Cavalry stand at the AMPS Nationals about my inability to get oil paints to dry in a reasonable amount of time when he introduced me to a new Uschi van der Rosten product called Blitz Dry! No, I’m not over excited about the product; it actually has an exclamation point in the product name. This is a really nice drying agent that requires just a small drop to work. My usual technique with oil paints is to cut small cardboard squares that I put small dabs of the paint colors I will be using. After letting the paint sit for a few minutes, I add a very small drop of Blitz Dry! with a toothpick and stir it in. The bottle says it can speed up drying time from a day to an hour. I’ve never checked back after an hour as I usually finish my project and immediately put it in a dust proof drying box. Now my experience with oils is that they take more than a day to dry, but using Blitz Dry! everything is ready for a protective coat or the next layer by the following morning. That’s Big Kahuna in my book. The bottle has a small opening that usually just lets a small drop come out. I say usually because if you have five thumbs per hand, like I do, and go into full klutz mode, a little more than you want can come out. That’s not a bad thing as sometimes good things happen when you screw up. I was working on a Mark IV Tadpole and a Mark I Male that I was using oil dot weathering on. I was adding the small drop of Blitz Dry! when I squeezed a little too hard and got several drops all over the paint. Rather than chucking it out and starting all over again, that little voice in my head kicked in and said “hmmm, I wonder what would happen if….” Since I wasn’t working with hand grenades or explosives at the time, I went with it. I mixed all of the Blitz Dry! in and started working. Turns out, it worked great. I was doing one side of the tank at a time and by the time I finished one side, the previous one was dry to the touch. I don’t recommend spilling stuff all over your paint, but what I did find that this is a great product that you can do a little experimenting with to get whatever drying effect you are looking for. This is a great product and I’ve definitely been able to speed up my painting process with it. It’s available from Last Cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com.