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

In the Box

The paint set contains six 12ml bottles with nontoxic water based acrylic paints. The following colors are provided:

• Deep Orange (1006)
• Deep Red (1007)
• Deep Green (1009)
• Gold (1017)
• Off White (1028)
• Dark Blue (1077)

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

Review Process

For this review, I used white plastic spoons 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 .50 mm nozzle. Several thin coats were applied to build up the color saturation; 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 after several coats. The finish is dead flat once dry but a satin sheen for Gold. A note about Gold: due to it having gold mica power there will be a tendency to clog the needle tip so a higher pressure will be needed.

After about 12 hours cure time, the paints are durable. In one of the pictures, I placed an unpainted spoon for a “before/after” comparison. It is hard to compare the 1028 Off White color to the white primer but there is a slight difference.

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. Gold was more challenging since the makeup of this color has gold mica powder and a satin finish which gives it more transparent properties. Several coats were needed to get a well-saturated surface and ample drying time between coats did help. I recommend using a wet palette for brush painting to control the moisture content and extend the life of the paint since drying of acrylics is relatively fast.

Conclusions

This is a good acrylic paint set for the hobby. It applied well from the airbrush and paintbrush. The colors have a dead flat finish once dry and are durable when fully cured. A necessary first step is to have a quality base primer coat before painting and apply thin coats to build up the color.

I want to thank ICM for providing this paint set and the IPMS/USA for allowing me the opportunity to review. Recommended for everyone.