ICM has been releasing quality kits, figure sets, and recently paints to support their vast library of releases. Today we see the second of a set dedicated to Wargaming paints. These are water based acrylic paints that can be brushed as is or airbrushed after thinning with either distilled water or ICM brand thinner. They come in screw top bottles that are wide mouth and not dropper bottles, so I used my handy pipette to dole out smaller quantities for testing.

What’s Inside the Box

This set includes six 12mL plastic bottles featuring the following colors:

• Gold (No. 1017)
• Green Ochre (No. 1059)
• Tan Earth (No. 1058)
• Brass (No. 1018)
• Light Flesh (No. 1043)
• Hull Red (No. 1052)

I must admit to some confusion about the choice of colors. Gold, Flesh, and Brass are great for gaming figures, as are the green ochre and tan earth for terrain or regular underclothing for armor. Hull Red seems like an odd choice for inclusion here as it is more for primer coats for tanks and such—although in a pinch it could easily stand in for darker shades of rust.

I used the tan earth and green ochre for the abdomen of this giant spider queen. The opacity of these two shades was quite nice—with only one coat needed. I used the light flesh on her head and upper torso and felt that was not at all opaque and needed subsequent coats to get even what you see in the photos—I needed to go over those parts again afterwards. The gold on her crown was quite nice and needed only one coat.

I used hull red for the drill on the dwarven locomotive and brass for the bell.

I used my airbrush to coat parts of a Dungeons and Lasers airship balloon in the green ochre. I didn’t have any of the ICM thinner (maybe including a small bottle in the sets would be helpful for new painters?) so I used a small amount of water to thin instead. I thinned about 50/50 and the coverage on the coat was splendid—no clogging in the airbrush and easy to clean up as well.

Conclusion

These paints work quite well for painting gaming miniatures—I would love to see more sets and colors released. Whether hand brushing or airbrushing, I could find no faults with these paints. The opacity of most were excellent and will save paint in the end.

My sincere thanks to ICM and IPMS-USA for the review samples.