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Metallic enamels, Humbrol vs Revell


Oddball

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Okay, finally got my tins of Revell enamels in the post, so it's now time to do some comparison tests. I'm going to be opening up the tins and giving you a look at how they look, my first impressions etc. I'll then try them out on a couple of different pieces of scrap plastic, following my usual methods, and we shall see how they perform. In the silver corner we have three tins of Humbrol: 56 Aluminium, 191 Chrome Silver, and 27002 Polished Alu MetalCote, my up until recently go to for any detail and small scale metallic painting. And in the...uhm...other silver corner, we have the Revell: 90 Silver, 91 Steel and 99 Aluminium.

I'm going to be looking at initial quality/consistency, how well they cover and how many coats it takes to get a good finish, plus drying times. And I'm sure I'll come up with a few more tests too.

Pointless you may be thinking? Well, if you are like me and use enamels for detailing due to their excellent suitability for brushing and drybrushing, then you may be aware that Humbrol haven't exactly been wowing the masses lately with their new run of paints. It used to be that Revell were seen as the scruffy cousin, but recently many people have been comparing them favorably to Humbrol, and even going so far as to say they are better. Well, we shall see.

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Odd.

Edited by Oddball
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Righty ho, I took the liberty of opening up the jars this morning. All the jars are unopened, no stirring or shaking has been done.

First off were the Humbrol contenders.

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Please note that these are all brand new tins, yet there seems to be small amounts of spillage on each one. Now the lids, while being secure, are raised higher than they used to be, I used the thick end of a pair of tweezers to open them and they came open very easily, almost too easily. This makes me wonder if the spillage is from filling, or if it's paint seeping out. The apparently poorer seal than before might also account for the numerous reports of paint going off in the tins. The consistency is slightly different in each one swirly for the MetalCote and a strange blotchy look for the 56, and out of the three the 191 seems to be the least well mixed, there's very little pigment floating in the carrier liquid. Other than that, the other two seem to look about standard for an undisturbed tin.

Next, onto the Revell.

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I'll tackle the lids first, which is exactly what I spent 5 minutes doing. They are sunk down good and tight, much more like the Humbrol tins used to be. I had to drag out a small screwdriver to even get in underneath them. Unfortunately the lids are made of a pretty soft metal, as a result they got pretty chewed up in the struggle. Don't fret though, when it came to closing them up again, each one popped (and I do mean popped) closed with a very tight seal. Overall the consistency between them is very uniform, with what looks to be the same amount of pigment floating around in each one.

Preliminary findings, well, not much difference between the two but I'd say Revell is slightly in the lead at this point due to the superior sealing of the lids and the uniform consistency.

Time to do some stirring and shaking, and then it'll be time to do some hairy sticking!

Odd.

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Nope, these tins are the new UK manufactured ones. Union Jack proudly displayed on the back (they were also putting the new UK paint in the old tins for about 9 months before these new ones came out) and they came from models for sale, their turnover must be enough to have weeded out most, if not all of the Chinese rubbish by now.

Odd.

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  • 2 years later...

Get some colourcoats or mail order some tamiya enamel.

 

But if you simply must use something here, use the Revell (or Revell aqua which has excellent metallics) as the Humbrol is rubbish these days.

Edited by sapperastro
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On ‎05‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 11:00 AM, sapperastro said:

Get some colourcoats or mail order some tamiya enamel.

 

But if you simply must use something here, use the Revell (or Revell aqua which has excellent metallics) as the Humbrol is rubbish these days.

Hi Merlin,

    I agree with Sapperastro, Revell aqua metallics are excellent, after some attempts with other brands now I am happy at using them.

If Revells are easily available they may be  very good alternatives.

My experience is based only on brush painting.

I use distilled water and few drops of flow improver to thin Revell Aqua, the resukts for me are good as painted surfaces have a smooth finish without brush marks.

Paolo 

  

Sorry I mean results not resukts

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