Strips can be glued together for leaf springs, make new grills, etc. If you cut it to shape, then paint it, and glue it in, it looks very realistic. Paint Washes are liquid detailing devices that can be made from heavily thinned paint. For engine, transmissions, and general chassis details, black wash is ideal because it brings out details from the rest of the model. For other things, such as seats, dashboards, panel lines, etc. use the same color darkend a bit with black.
Paint is also easy to detail with.
For instance, instead of painting the whole engine block aluminum, I would paint the front steel, the bottom magnesium, etc. It also can be used in different finishes. This adds a very realistic finish to models. These will be updated every week starting on mondays. Square-used for making parts fit better, changing appearance of part, etc.