ICM continues to be prolific despite the ongoing Russian initiated war in Ukraine. While most subjects released by ICM are welcome, fans of modern soft skin US vehicles are having to make do with older kits. ICM recently released a 1/35 M1097A2 HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly called the Humvee in all its guises). Acrylic Paints Set for Humvee US Military Cars is the paint set specially released to accompany/compliment this excellent new kit.

Acrylic Paints Set for Humvee US Military Cars consists of five 12ml paint bottles and one 17ml bottle for the primer (the primer bottle is slightly larger), that are surprisingly not dropper top, but rather are wide-mouthed. The colors include:

• Primer Black (No. 2005)
• Light Earth (No. 1056)
• Hull Red (No. 1052)
• US Dark Green (No. 1072)
• 4BO Green (No. 1073)
• German Grey (No. 1038)

Painting instructions are on the side of the packaging, stating

• Shake well before use
• Paint is prepared for a brush, for the airbrush dilute with water or thinner, 40-60%
• Use primer when painting with airbrush
• Colors can be mixed with each other
• If the ambient temperature is above 25^oC, use retarder
• When applying from airbrush, first use primer

The packaging includes a front view of a left front oblique M1097A2 in tan paint and the rear shows left views of a NATO tri-tone and tan M1097A2 with color callouts. One side panel shows the paint bottles, the other the paint instructions; the end panels have ICM contact information, and the other has the product name and item number.

I used spoons for the paint samples. The spoons were all given a primer of gray, followed by the top of the spoon being airbrushed, then the bottom brush painted by hand, with the line delineated by blue tape. Airbrushing was a challenge to get the consistency correctly, especially for the lighter colors, but worked well with Tamiya acrylic thinner to the specified dilution. Brush painting was remarkably easy. Both were applied in one layer, dried quickly and have a flat matte appearance. I was impressed that some of the colors were hard to differentiate between airbrush and hand brush.

I will use this paint set on ICM’s Kit No. 35435 (Humvee M1097A2) in another review, per the kit instructions. My only minor complaints are that dropper-style bottles are readily accessible and control paint distribution much better than this open-topped style, and the paint bottles were filled between 1/3 and 1/2 full.

This is a good, one-stop acrylic paint set for modern US tan and NATO tri-tone camouflage, although some might argue that the Hull Red is too dark for NATO Brown. The inclusion of Russian 4BO is also interesting but looks like it will work well for the seats. This is good paint for figures as brush marks disappear, the paints are sturdy and dry matte.

Profuse thanks to ICM and IPMS/USA for providing the review sample.