Another in ICM’s range of paint sets, which is intended for use with any kit of a WWII RAF training aircraft; the box illustrates a Hampden and Tiger Moth. The set contains the following six 12ml paint pots; I have listed their likely intended uses:

• 1003 Deep Yellow – Yellow (aka ‘Trainer Yellow’ – the RAF had only one Yellow during WWII)
• 1023 Aluminium – Aluminium Dope
• 1050 Saddle Brown – Dark Earth
• 1053 Leather Brown – alternative Dark Earth
• 1069 Extra Dark Green – Dark Green
• 1072 US Dark Green – alternative Dark Green

The back of the box has a drawing showing where to use each color on a Hampden and two Tiger Moths, one in overall Aluminum Dope, the other in early Temperate Day Scheme with Yellow undersides and ‘trainer bands.’

Neither of the two browns is really a good match for Dark Earth, the actual color being somewhat between the two, while the same can also be said for the two greens, although the 1072 US Dark Green is closer than the 1069 Extra Dark Green. In fact, I used the 1069 on an early war Bf109E as an RLM70 substitute, for which it is a very reasonable match!

This is because ICM has a limited number of generic colors in their range and for the purposes of this set they have included what they feel are the best matches within that range to the stated colors. This might be useful for a newbie or less fussy modeler, but for those of us who like to paint their models in as near accurate colors as fairly possible, this is less than useful. The Yellow is also not a good match, it is too ‘lemony’ and not nearly ‘orange’ enough.

ICM’s standard dumpy little pots have deep lids with rims to prevent the paint drying in the screw-top thread, something I appreciate! The paint is very thick and from the pot is intended for brush-painting; they will need to be thinned for airbrush use, using distilled water or acrylic thinners, by around 50-60%. They dry with a very flat matte finish. For the purposes of this review, I brush-painted two coats for even coverage onto a piece of white card. The paint dries quickly and overcoating the same day is easily possible. Coverage was good on all the paints except the aluminum, which, frankly, is awful. It looks more like a pearly grey than aluminum and did not brush at all well. It might spray nicely, though I didn’t try. I did spray the 1069 Extra Dark Green on another model and it worked very well when thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner, though not with water. Again, it dried very matte and the paint will need smoothing or varnishing before adding decals, for example.

Although I do like ICM paints in general for brush painting, the fact that ICM doesn’t provide particularly good matches for the colors they are supposed to represent makes it unfortunately difficult to recommend this particular set or its intended use.

My sincere thanks for the review sample to the hard-working folks at ICM, who still manage to turn out lots of product, despite being in the middle of a war zone.