ICM continues to come out with interesting paint sets for their kits, and this one is no exception. As with all of the ICM acrylic paints that I’ve tested so far, I’ve found these to be smooth and creamy with no pigment separation in the bottle. They have excellent opacity and cover nicely with one coat and are clearly intended for hand painting rather than airbrushing. I’m finally overcoming my reluctance to paint figures with acrylics because of the excellent quality of these paints.

This set includes all the basic colors necessary to paint British infantry of World War 1. However, it is also applicable to British infantry in World War 2, U.S. Infantry in World War 1, and various Commonwealth forces in World War 1.

Here are the paints supplied in the set:

• Camouflage Green: This color is primarily used for helmets and other painted metal objects, both British and American.
• Hull Red: This color is useful for red leather equipment, shoes, and boots. I found it to be a bit bright, so toned it down with a little black on my applications.
• Green Ochre: This is a suitable color for canvas webbing, satchels, gas mask bags, and the like. Basically, it reproduces undyed cloth.
• British Khaki: Obviously, this replicates the basic uniform color of both British and U.S. forces in the first world war.
• Brass: Suitable for buckles, buttons, insignia, and other accoutrements typical of that era’s uniforms. As I’ve come to expect, this is a very good metallic color for an acrylic, but is somewhat grainier and less definitive than a comparable enamel.
• Matt Varnish: A very nice topcoat that dries absolutely flat with no “milk” effect common to some acrylic overcoats.

For testing, I worked on a variety of WW1 figures that were already in various stages of completion to see how they looked. In every case, the coverage was excellent with no separation in the bottle whatsoever. Every color dried absolutely flat and mixed with other brands of acrylic without fuss.

As I am continuing to discover, these paints by ICM are really exceptionally suited to figure painting. They consistently dry dead flat, and are opaque enough that I can usually apply light colors directly over dark without fading. The coverage is outstanding and they’re remarkably easy to work with. Highly recommended.

My thanks to ICM for continuing this excellent range of paints, and to IPMS/USA for a chance to try them out on some of my beloved WW1 figures. Happy modeling, everyone, and stay safe!