Matt black

[steelpillow]

Today my local stockist was all out of Humbrol Matt Black enamel. Said they had re-ordered but it was not in the delivery. A few weeks ago I scoured Worcestershire and Gloucestershire for a Matt Black acrylic - both Humbrol and Tamiya firmly out of stock everywhere I went, until eventually I found one last Tamiya pot languishing in the middle of Cheltenham.

 

What is it with matt black? Has there been a hugely popular "Paint it black" craze, does it use a rare earth available only from under one rock in a mine in a protected rainforest, or what?

Edited September 28, 2016 by steelpillow
clarify

[LaurieS]

A very dark subject

[Raven Morpheus]

This is why I do my shopping online, I rarely find an online retailer has run out of a paint such as Matt Black.  Especially if you look on ebay - there's always someone who has it.

 

But given that Matt Black is a common colour to use, for things like undercoating, pre-shading etc. and you can end up using a lot of it, it's no surprise some LHSs run out of it.

[Beardie]

I wonder if there is something wrong with the pigment/matting mix. Certainly the last tins of new humbrol enamels (matt and satin black) I bought were seriously wonky, gummy and wouldn't dry and a new tin of Humbrol matt enamel varnish I opened looked to contain about 90% powdered glass or whatever fine powder it is that they use to create the matt effect. An absence of humbrol paints would, I imagine produce a run on alternatives like Tamiya leaving the shelves empty.

 

[LaurieS]

Our shop in Jersey is visited by Airfix/Humbrol and they take note of the paints missing in the rack for replacement.

 

Suspect that they only have one of each colour or perhaps two. Black being popular as some others

they disappear and remain empty until the Humbrol man appears again.

 

Laurie

[TonyTiger66]

2 hours ago, Beardie said:

I wonder if there is something wrong with the pigment/matting mix. Certainly the last tins of new humbrol enamels (matt and satin black) I bought were seriously wonky, gummy and wouldn't dry and a new tin of Humbrol matt enamel varnish I opened looked to contain about 90% powdered glass or whatever fine powder it is that they use to create the matt effect. An absence of humbrol paints would, I imagine produce a run on alternatives like Tamiya leaving the shelves empty.

 

 

Was the Humbrol black strange in any other way Beardie?

My most recent tin, brand new, is not Matt at all. Gloss. A very nice gloss, but not what it, er, says on the tin.

 

Until now, with the exception of Airfix M1 when I was a wee lad, Humbrol Matt black had been one of those cornerstones of my life. Something I could rely on. A true friend. A tinlet I would be happy to share a trench with in wartime .

 

I feel a traitor to have resorted to Tamiya. The latter is the mattest black I have ever seen. Black as a priest's socks, and as Matt as a gospel writer.

 

 

 

 

I also concur with the Humbrol Matt varnish, currently seems unusable. As for their Matt cote (sic) in bottles .... ooooh that stuff -consigned 3 of mine to the Drawer of Doom  

 

I don't want to digress, but Humbrol M23 doesn't seem yellow anymore; mustard is more an appropriate way to describe it (Colmans English), but I wonder if it can go 'off' in the tinlet, even if unopened and relatively new?

 

Could the black have gone off too? 

 

All the best

TonyT

[Beardie]

The enamels definitely don't go off. I have tins of Humbrol that are from the eighties if not earlier and even a few tins of old Airfix branded paint and they are all still in perfect condition although I wouldn't recommend trying to put the Airfix colours through an airbrush as the particle size is too big as I found on a couple of attempts.

 

I think the plain and simple fact is that Humbrol have screwed up a large part of their paint selection of late. As well as the blacks, of different finishes I have had junk tins of nos 29 and 30 and there are a few other new tins in my paint drawers that I haven't used as yet and dread to open. God alone knows how they managed it as it isn't really rocket science and they should have been able to simply follow the old Humbrol recipes which is a crying shame as they were the best enamels once upon a time.

[TonyTiger66]

I agree. They were a dream to use. Could be applied with a hairy stick and would self level to a lovely Matt finish; drying quite quickly too. I still have older tinlets like that (e.g. some very nice 149 Foliage Green).

 

If they don't go off in the tinlet, then the yellow has certainly changed shade  ,

 

I thought they had transferred their production out of China, back to the UK? I read after that the problems were ironed out?

 

Makes me wonder if they're using up some old stocks?

 

My recent tinlet of Matt black is like unrefined oil. I had considered sending it to them! I've also had some of their acrylic, set solid in the plastic tub thingie, from new  . 

 

Their QC dept needs a bit of a chat from the boss.....

 

Best regards

TonyT

[Beardie]

Lord alone knows what they have been up to. I don't think these are the Chinese paints, surely the Chinese wouldn't manage to produce something quite this bad.

[steelpillow]

2 hours ago, Beardie said:

Lord alone knows what they have been up to. I don't think these are the Chinese paints, surely the Chinese wouldn't manage to produce something quite this bad.

 

But that's why Humbrol brought production back to the UK. The Chinese way has always been to start cheap-and-nasty and then improve year on year. Humbrol's customers evidently weren't prepared to wait.

 

Recent tinlets arriving at my local stockist have had a plain lid, unpainted and unstamped, with the number and colour printed on a sticky paper label and the main tinlet bearing a Union jack with the legend, "Made in the UK." I suppose it takes a while to restart proper production once you have closed a line down, sacked everybody and sent your recipe book away to the other side of the world.

 

The matt white I bought on that basis is very nice. If the black has had quality issues, perhaps they have pulled it off the market until they can fix it.

 

I would assume that anything with a painted and stamped lid and anonymous tinlet was made in China.

 

I have the mustard problem with the (presumably) Chinese matt yellow too, although Humbrol yellow has always tended that way. Worse, the gloss white is more of a pale cream.

[Graham Boak]

It must take a long time for the supplies of the poor paint to work their way through the system, and years before they disappear from retailers' shelves.  Perhaps one of the retailers who visit these pages could pass comment on their stock rotation times.  I would, however, have thought that matt black would have been one of those quickest to need renewal - perhaps this was linked to a larger initial buy by Humbrol?   This thread could have appeared, alongside all the others on the same subject,  almost at any time in the past few years, except for the phrase that it was thought to have been fixed.  Perhaps it hasn't.  It would be good PR, I believe, for Humbrol to have made a more public apology for a poor product and a clearer guide to their work to return to high quality, rather than our reliance on a Chinese Whispers approach to what is happening - or isn't.   Perhaps, of course, what would be good PR inside the hobby might not work so well on the open market.

 

However, the modeller can always look to other suppliers for even the more basic colours.  For example (and there must be many others) Colourcoats will provide you with a good white, yellow and black.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Graham Boak

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thank you once again Graham

 

(he's not on commission - I promise!)

[Graham Boak]

I'm still using the older WEM tins, not yours.  I'll stick another order in when I need 12 colours, (probably not too soon).

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It's fine by me Graham - it's still a mention of the same paint formulation and it all helps