When Steve Collins asked for volunteers to try Italeri’s new acrylic paints, I jumped right in there. I was doing a Monogram battleship as the USS Wisconsin, and I needed something to use as Deck Tan and Battleship Gray.

• 4763AP Flat Gull Gray FS36622
• 4726AP Flat Dark Green FS 34079
• 4673AP Flat Wood FS 30257
• 4313AP Flat Medium Sea Gray FS36270
• 4709AP Flat Dark Tan FS30219

The paints come in 20milliliter bottles with a snap-open cap which allows you to take a small amount of paint from the top, which is great for doing fine work. You can also unscrew the lid and get a big dollop for painting a large area. The snap cap makes it very difficult to spill the paint, a plus when working with several colors at once.

I used the 30257 Flat Wood for the battleship deck and the 36270 Gray for the rest of the ship. I brush-painted most of the ship, as I found the multiple decks and corners just too difficult to consider masking and airbrushing. I did airbrush the stacks, and had a problem with the paint cracking as it dried. I now know I should have added a retarder to make the paint dry slower. A drop of liquid soap will work as a retarder.

Experience with other acrylics tells me that if you’re going to spray them, be sure to clean the plastic parts as the acryls don’t stick if there’s any mold release present on the parts.

The paints matched my color chips for the FS numbers indicated.

Brush painting was easy, the paint was thick enough to cover nicely with one application. If I was using a color for more than 5 minutes or so, it was necessary to clean the brush, as the paint dried up between the bristles. A quick dip in Windex, followed by drying on a paper towel, fixed this. The same was true of cleaning the brush or airbrush – Windex worked marvelously.

I used the 36622 Flat Gull Gray on the interior of an Encore 1/48 A-37. The paint dried nicely and played well with the other paints I used in the cockpit and on the seats, which included Testors acrylic hull red, Floquil lacquer grimy black, and Model Master enamel olive drab.

Recommended.

Thanks to Italeri for supplying the toys I played with, and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to experiment and tell you about the product.