Rick Galazzo and Scott Cohen started Tru-Color Paint in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008, based on their experience in formulating paint for the commercial market. They reformulated the former Accupaint formulas and created this paint line. It is refreshing to see that in today’s day and age with model kits and supplies moving overseas, that these paints are made in the USA. They have five paint lines including automotive, aircraft, naval and military colors, including many sets to make a project easier by having all the colors in one box. Another huge bonus for me is that Scott Cohen wrote a personal letter explaining the paints for review, a request for new paint color suggestions, and genuinely supporting modelers and IPMS. Based on all this, I was eager to try these paints for myself.

This is new release from Tru-Color solvent-based paint system labelled 10704 IDF Ground-Armor & Uniforms Paint Set consists of six 1-ounce bottles set labelled for the Israeli Defense Force armored vehicles. The paint set comes in a sturdy box complete with the six bottles of paint, a sample of their masking paper (fristkit), and two inserts (one an instruction and information side, with available paint sets on the other side, and a paint set-specific sheet with color illustrations/photos of Israeli Shermans, a column of Pumas, Merkava and soldiers. The following paints are included:

• TCP-1436 Armor: O/D Green, 1948
• TCP-1437 Armor: Sand, 1959-1980
• TCP-1438 Armor: Sand, Gray, 1981-1990
• TCP-1439 Armor: Modern Armor
• TCP-1441 Uniform: Medium Green
• TCP-1442 Uniform: Dark Green

I have seen TCP paints at the IPMS Nats but bypassed them as I typically work with acrylic paints. When this paint set came up for review, I jumped at the chance. And I am glad I did. Being a solvent-based paint intimidated me, but it shouldn’t have. While TCP has their standard thinner (TCP-015), they mention you could use acetone for cleaning the airbrush afterward. I found TCPs useful “How to Use Tru-Color Paint’s Sprayable Paints” on YouTube ((93) How to Use Tru-Color Paint's Sprayable Paints - YouTube). After the informative 9 minute, 8 second video, and reading their enclosed flyer, I jumped in and was impressed with the ease at painting the Academy 1/35 M-51 Super Sherman in its Israeli Sand paint.

The paint dried hard and held up to further washes, weathering, and handling. I airbrushed the Super Sherman and both the uniform medium and dark green on the crewmen, with no issues at all. Being used to the eyedropper acrylic paints, a pipette was used to load the airbrush. I am not going to start an argument on the efficacy of the IDF sand color, but it looks right to my eye. The only issue I had was trying to brush paint these colors for touch up as they were thin. There is a separate line of flat, brushable paints in the TCP-800 to TCP-899 series. This is not a deal breaker to me, and I will experiment further as I am enamored with these paints.

Tru-Color Paints will be an addition to my paint bench as I am thoroughly impressed with the airbrush color right out of the bottle. Following their easy-to-understand instructions makes painting ridiculously easy and could be a great way to start airbrushing paint, as long as the precautions and instructions are followed. Thanks to TCP-10704: IDF Ground-Armor & Uniforms paint set, I will now pull out an early Sherman, Magach, and Merkava so I can paint them in IDF OD, Sand Gray and Modern Armor Sand, respectively.

Profuse thanks to Tru-Color Paints and IPMS-USA for providing the review sample.