ICM hobby company has provided the IPMS/USA reviewer corps with a six (6) bottle acrylic paint set based on the colors of the Medieval Warriors.

In The Box

The paint set contains six, 12ml bottles with nontoxic, water-based acrylic paint. The following colors are included:

• Natural Steel (1025)
• Oily Steel (1026)
• Tan Earth (1058)
• Leather Brown (1053)
• Gold (1017)
• Rusty Brass (1019)

Straight out of the bottle, the paint viscosity is thick and purposely prepared for brush painting. The instructions do recommend thinning 40-60% with water or thinner for airbrushing. All surfaces are recommended to be primed prior to painting. Volume wise, the paint takes up about 70% of the bottle and has “room” to add thinner if so desired.

Note that the bottles are not the usual dropper style (think Vallejo) but a twist off cap and a large opening to allow paint brushes easier access.

Review Process

For this review I used white plastic spoons that I prepared by sanding with a 400-grit sandpaper to roughen up the surface. This was followed by an airbrush coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 White on both sides. Then, on the outer side, I taped off half of the spoon and airbrushed Mr. Surfacer 1000 Gray for color contrast.

Next, I airbrushed each color to the outer side of the spoon. For this process, I added about 50% Vallejo Airbrush Thinner to allow it to flow more easily. The airbrush I used was an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS with a 0.50 mm nozzle. Several thin coats were applied to build up the color saturation, and I used the airbrush to help accelerate the drying process between coats.

The thinned paint flowed and atomized well. The color of the base primer coat will have an impact of the final hue on some of the colors, since there is some transparency bleed through even after several coats. The finish is dead flat for Tan Earth and Leather Brown; however, a satin sheen is present for the Natural & Oily Steel, Gold, and Rusty Brass. A note about these metallic colors: due to it having metallic mica powder, there will be a tendency to clog the needle tip, so a higher air pressure will be needed. After about 12 hours of curing time, the paints are durable to the touch.

For the inner side of the spoon, I applied the paint with a round No. 1-size brush using applications straight from the bottle and then thinned with varying amounts of water. Initially, all the paints left brush strokes with no thinner, but with multiple coats, they do disappear. The trick is to find that “sweet spot” of thinning ratio which will be just right for brush application. The metallic paints are more challenging since the makeup of these colors have mica powder and a satin finish, which gives them more transparent properties. Several coats were needed to get a well saturated surface, and ample drying time between coats helped. I recommend using a wet palette for brush painting to control the moisture content and extend the life of the paint, since drying of acrylic paints is relatively fast.

Conclusions

This is a good acrylic paint set for our hobby. It applied well using either an airbrush or paintbrush. The Tan Earth and Leather Brown have a dead flat finish, while the metallic paints have a satin finish once dry. All these paints are durable when fully cured. A necessary first step is to have a quality primer coat before painting and apply thin coats to build up the color.

I want to thank ICM for providing this paint set and IPMS/USA for allowing me the opportunity to perform this review. I recommend these paints for everyone looking for a set with these colors.