Another in ICM’s range of paint sets, this time for use with any WWII US armoured vehicles.

The set contains the following 12ml paint pots; I have listed what I believe to be their intended uses, with designations from Specification 3-1 1943:

• 1041 Buff – Sand No.306 or Earth Yellow No.305
• 1027 Gun Metal Metallic – tracks
• 1071 Camouflage Green – Light Green No.321
• 1072 US Dark Green – Olive Drab No.319
• 2005 Black Primer – Black No.10
• 1001 White – White No.11

The back of the box has a couple of drawings showing suggested uses for each colour.

ICM’s standard dumpy little pots have deep lids with rims to prevent the paint drying in the screw-top thread, something I appreciate! The paint is very thick which is good for brush-painting, but they will need to be thinned for airbrush use, using distilled water or acrylic thinners. They dry with a very flat matt finish. For brush painting, two coats are required for even coverage, but the paint dries quickly and overcoating the same day is possible.

As for the accuracy of the paints, it is difficult to compare to contemporary photos, whether colour or not, as film emulsions differed back in the day. Compared to modern restorations, the paints do seem to match up pretty well; of course, paints varied from batch to batch, and in the field they do fade and stain easily with use, so to my mind there’s no need to worry too much about exact shades and it can be easily mixed with other colours from the range.

I used a Tamiya M4A3E8 Easy Eight as my guinea pigs and you can see the results in the photo.

These are good little paints, smaller and less expensive that other brands which is ideal if you only require paints for a specific project, and a set means you have just about all you might need in one handy pack. My thanks