Humbrol tinlets is colour label atop lid replacing painted lid ?

[Merlin]

Hi,

Seen a few Humbrol tinlets in Model shop with a circular cmyk printed label in the tinlet top with a white number on it, does anyone know if this is replacing painted tinlet lids with impressed number ?

 

If it is, there will be all sorts of issues Model shops and modellers will face, because :-

1. it is impossible to recreate pigment paint colours using cmyk printing

2. A modeller paints out the contents then finds it doesnt match the label and returns tinlet to shop, shop says its been used, so no refund, take it up with Humbrol. Best of Luck.

3. One big advantage of existing system was you get to see exactly what paint you are looking at so when searching for a certain colour you need, to mix in with something, you can spot the best tinlet for the job.

4. Custom mixing colours, or painting something domestic, you need to see the colour you are getting.

5. a gloss lid shows the colour as gloss, which will be more saturated and a bit darker then matt equivalent, will the labels reflect this difference or will they just say gloss and use same cmyk formula for matt and gloss versions ?

 

I needed a light neutral blue, so have selected a pot with sticky label of that colour. Frightened to open it incase label wrong and I can't return it !

 

Decades see us able to see what we get with painted lids in the general range of colours. One reason I have always used Humbrol. Why change it.  If I buy tamiya I have to buy a few to see which one is what I need, and return the rest, but prized off lids show up usage !

 

Recently needed a beige colour rattle can from halfords, went by the printed gloss labels, they have stopped showing true colours, sprayed out three cans and none matched the labels, Halfords refunded , but I cant see all shops doing so on used goods ! Hycote have gone same way and chap in shop couldnt believe it when we did a test and found contents didnt match label.  Told me EEC had decreed that its bad for environment paint making plants spraying the lids. Worse surely spraying out three cans to see which one is the wanted colour ! People spraying then returning cans. they dont use filtration, manufacturers do so new idea = more pollution.

 

Merlin

[pigsty]

This isn't new.  Humbrol Authentics used a label instead of a painted lid, or just printed the name and number on a white lid.  Plus, the colour of the lid can't be guaranteed to match the colour in the tin, even with the good stuff.

 

From the dedicated modeller's point of view, the colour of the lid is only an indication, and it's not really vital.  I know, for instance, that 123 is Extra Dark Sea Grey, even if Humbrol have given it some rum names in the past, and in the good old days it was HX6.  Sites like this are excellent resources to help you consult over colours before you commit yourself, and you can get a lot of help with all sorts, not just the specialist modelling gear.

 

There was one occasion where I chose my colours purely by eye, and that time it was helpful to have painted lids.  Mind you, that was to paint an Iranian P-3F, for which there are no definitive references, so the fact that the paint inside wasn't necessarily a perfect match for the lid didn't matter too much.

[sapperastro]

The coloured tin lids have been off for decades. The new Azure blue is a case in point; it looks like the old, dark greyish blue, but when you open it up and paint, totally different. I know the colourcoats lids are actually painted with the paint itself so you can usually get a good idea of what the coat will look like, but humbrol, revell, etc all are a 'suck it and see'.

[dogsbody]

My Humbrol collection. Some of these are at least 35 years old. Some may be a bit older. Others are fairly new.

 

 

 

Chris

Edited February 24, 2017 by dogsbody

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

17 hours ago, Merlin said:

<snip>

 

Decades see us able to see what we get with painted lids in the general range of colours. One reason I have always used Humbrol. Why change it.  If I buy tamiya I have to buy a few to see which one is what I need, and return the rest, but prized off lids show up usage !

 

<snip>

 

14 hours ago, sapperastro said:

<snip> I know the colourcoats lids are actually painted with the paint itself so you can usually get a good idea of what the coat will look like, but humbrol, revell, etc all are a 'suck it and see'. <snip>

 

I can maybe offer a little insight here.

 

The big manufacturers haven't painted lids for many years. They don't for the same reasons that small companies do - it's the most economic solution for the scale of production.

 

We do paint lids because I happen agree with Merlin that the printed sticky labels would not flatter our product and the alternative requires a large capital investment and much higher sales than we have for the coated coloured lids (and still don't represent the contents perfectly).

 

Painting for us ticks off coloured lids and a vital part of our quality control because I personally see, handle and use a sample of every single batch by virtue of painting the lids. The lid painting stage is where I/we catch quality concerns with the paint on the few occasions it has occurred. It's labour intensive though and whilst it's a good fit for relatively small volumes of production it would be completely impractical for a company like Humbrol making and selling the volumes they do, which I know because I have a view on the sort of level of sales and production at which we would probably have to change to another system.

[davecov]

I learnt a long time ago not to trust the colour on the lid as a guide to what is actually in the tin. It is only after stirring the contents that you know what you actually have.

 

It is much cheaper to have labels than tins with numbers embossed on their lids as they can cause confusion if the manufacturer has a shortage of a particular tin lid! I once went to my paint drawer to get a new tin of H85 Satin Black and pulled out the tin shown on the left of the picture below:

 

As you can see, the lid is a Humbrol Matt 65 Aircraft Blue lid that has been sprayed black!  On opening it, the colour was indeed H85 Satin Black.

 

I like the labels as not only can you see what colour is in the tin but the number is easier to see.

 

Dave