Italeri Acrylic Paint: Red, Yellow, and Gloss Clear Coat
Packaging and Initial Impression
The paints are contained in 20 ml plastic poly bottles with flip caps. The clear gloss is contained in a 35 ml plastic bottle with a flip cap. The bottles are clearly labeled with simple instructions of “shake well” and “for airbrush dilute properly”.
My sample bottles tended to spit paint a bit when “flipping” the cap open, but that may be a simple consequence of opening them at 7500 ft where I live. The dropper in the cap and a squeezable bottle provide a nice controlled dispensing of the paints and clear coat.
Product/Stock #:
- Flat insignia red 4714AP
- Flat insignia yellow 4721AP
- Gloss clear 4638AP
MSRP:
- red/yellow € 2.80 20 ml bottle ($3.50 USD)
- gloss € 3.15 35 ml bottle ($3.95 USD)
Colors Comparison and Coverage
The paints seem to be a little bright compared to the FS samples in my fan deck. When diluted 25%, the colors stayed the same and showed good density. A white primer appears to be best for these paints, although silver tones down the brightness some. The clear coat is initially milky, but dries to a high gloss. The paints leveled well, but the gloss coat seemed to level better with a very slight dilution of water. This slight dilution was done with a very wet brush.
Ease of Application
Hand-brushing the paints and clear coat with a damp brush seemed to work best. Airbrushing with 25% dilution with water was acceptable, but I am not an expert on airbrushing with acrylics. There is no easily-found information on Italeri’s website about airbrushing with their acrylics, what dilution ratios to use, and so on. There is a thinner available (5049AP, 60 ml bottle) and this may work better.
Durability
The paints appear to stick well. Lightly-burnished blue painter’s tape did not tear up any of the paints and clear coat. Heavily-burnished tape did tear up some paint, but not as much as I expected. Flexing the plastic test card that the paints were applied to did not cause flaking or cracking. I really hope this isn’t something to be considered in construction, but it does speak well for the durability!
Recommendation
The Italeri paints I tried were very easy to hand-brush, and will likely airbrush well, with a little more experimentation on my part. I suspect that the dilution ratios and using specific Italeri thinner may make a difference. Overall, the Italeri line has a very similar feel to Vallejo paints. I really appreciate new acrylic paint lines for many reasons. I am trying to reduce the number of unhealthy materials in my shop.
I recommend these paints for hand-brushing and suggest considering how important color matching is to your project. I am also certain that I can airbrush effectively with a bit more practice and refinement.
Thank you to Akiko Kimura of MRC and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me the opportunity to try out a new product! I hope you find my opinions helpful.
Image Captions
- Typical bottles and labeling.
- Comparison of flat insignia red paint to a 31136 paint chip from FS 595B (JUL 94). The left side is hand-brushed straight out of the bottle. The right side is also hand-brushed, and is coated with clear gloss. The middle red paint “square” is diluted 25% with distilled water.
- Comparison of flat insignia yellow paint to a 33538 paint chip from FS 595B (JUL 94). Both sides are hand-brushed straight out of the bottle on white and silver backgrounds.
- Comparison of flat insignia red paint, flat insignia yellow, and clear gloss topcoat on white and silver backgrounds. The A-labeled squares are hand-brushed straight out of the bottle. The B-labeled squares are diluted 25% with distilled water.

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