What is best white and black enamel paint nowadays ?

[Merlin]

The battle between usability of enamels and the pros and cons of Acrylics. The latters keeness to dry quick is counter productive to brushing, but try finding white enamel paint, Telford was all acrylic !

 

Humbrol Enamel when Health and Safety didnt exist and EEC rules hadnt ben thought of painted out beautifully by hand , self levelling, took to the plastic, result looked as if it were airbrushed on.

Then the rules changed as did the formulation, and it was syrupy, didnt go on like cream but like thinned treacle, one had to coax the brush strokes together,that never works really anyway, and that lovely finish was memory. Tried some other brands, no better, tacky after a day were some, whilst Humbrol was handleable after it had dried in 10 mins or so, hair dryer helps make that a minute !  Others wouldnt even cover in one coat, and the second coat lifts the first when one is carefully painting around something. The sort of situation when one needs to be hand painting !

Now my stash of old Humbrol (and I am not the only one hoarding and cherishing my stash, and frightened to even use it), has gone, opening my last tin of white and seeing a yellowy white interior...cry....I wonder what I can mix with my other old Humbrol paints from the stash, so as to keep their performance. I open a tin of Revell and its cream coloured and gloopy, wont even drip off the screwdriver end.

 

When I last used Hannants it was still tacky after weeks, Phoenix Precision, tendencies same, White Ensign second coat lifts the first when hand brushing. And they werent at Telford.

 

If one runs out of white the local model shop used to be the quick dash to, so no good relying on these other exotic brands.

 

I try for Acrylics, and Tamiya wont paint by brush like enamels, none will , I can spray Enamels and not have the airbrush flow die on me, they clean out dead easy, and one can also hand paint them.No problems.

Acrylic, bungs up more readily, a pig to clean out of airbrush, a pig to hand paint by comparison, dries too quick to self level, add retarder and what tests I have done sees it tacky still, after a few days, but try adding retarder in the suggested dose to a custom  mix one has made of 5 drips of black to 3 of blue and 2 of white and a touch of yellow, try working out what 5% or whatever the ratio is of that puddle in ones chosen mixing vessel ! Impossible. A drip of retarder might be too  uch into that lot. Then there is flow enhancer, should I also have some of that to make it self levelling, and same % issues apply there.

 

None of those headaches with enamels, if only I could find such with same properties as of old.

 

Had to spend ages masking off areas to spray when I could have hand painted same in minutes, because the acrylics I was using wouldnt hand paint and are warned about this issue, Tamiya .

 

The days of reaching for a brush and airbrush for the same brand of paint are gone. Gunze Sanyo same issues, awful job brush painting, tacky draggy stuff.

 

So what white and black enamel can I go for ?

 

Merlin

[bentwaters81tfw]

There is only one way I will handle white. Halfords Appliance White. Spray it as a base coat if necessary and detail over the top.

It depends on the subject matter of course. It's a bit heavy handed with 52mm figures.

[John]

Old but unopened Humbrol comes up on Ebay quite regularly.

 

J

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

White Ensign don't own Colourcoats any more, I do.

 

Our C03 Matt White is very robust and covers well, being a matt paint. You're the first person I've heard of who's managed to lift (any) Colourcoats with a second coat by brush, so I suspect that either it wasn't stirred before use, or you were recoating before the first coat was dry with an aggressive or non-compatible thinner.

 

I have complete confidence in C02 Matt Black too, FWIW.

[Giorgio N]

Can't help with the best white enamel, but I'm really surprised to hear that you find acrylics difficult to use with a paintbrush. I use Vallejo flat white almost exclusivel whenever I use a brush and these paints are some of the easiest I've ever tried

[Graham T]

Well, currently (& most recently on my current Lancaster III(FE)) I used Humbrol gloss white & black.  The black is especially good IMHO, giving a good coverage from the airbrush & a great gloss finish for decalling.  I'd really LOVE a decent gloss white enamel, never really getting a satisfactory finish from either Humbrol or Xtracolour although I find the former slightly better.  HTH

[sapperastro]

Just a thought, and I know they aren't available locally, but have you tried mail ordering some tamiya enamel? I have always had good results with them, and even though they have a lack of colours, a few like the Black, white, and other standard colours are very good as fall back options (especially after recently using the new Humbrol matt black....)