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Humbrol paints rubbish?


wavodavo

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Recently I have been using some new tins of Humbrol paints but the quality has seem to have gone down hill. I have used their Humbrol 1 primer and 85 stain black. Both have both dried with a gloss finish. I even used 33 matt black and that has dried with a gloss finish. All my work is brush painted and have been using Xtracolor and Revell but gave Humbrol a go again. Any one else had the same problem?

 

Dave

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I agree with Beard, if the matt solution isn't mixed properly with the thinners then the result would be glossy or at least have a satin sheen.  I normally use the back end of an old paintbrush and just keep stirring; followed by a test paint on some scrap plastic.

 

Mike

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In a former life as a laser engineer, I had trouble with some optical grade epoxy not curing. The manufacturer's customer support advice was, basically, when you think you've mixed it enough, do it all over again. That's proven to be very good advice on many occasions. I always do this with paint.

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How new is new?  New to you, but how long had it been on the shelf?  It is generally agreed that Humbrol suffered severe quality problems with overseas manufacture of their paints, and if you've now got some residual tins of this stock, then yes some of them were rubbish.  (To be honest, fortunately I largely passed through this time living off old stock and other manufacturers, so am mainly relying on multiple postings on this board, and others.  I did have a couple of dodgy ones.)

 

Otherwise yes, keep on stirring.

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My impression of most of the newest, made in the UK Humbrol paint is that it is rather thick and needs to be thinned before use, even  when brushing. While it could be seen as a bit of a pain, I consider it akin to Campbell's condensed soup in that you get a lot more paint for your money (rather than the taste!).

I can't ever remember a time when I have thought, "hmm, maybe I've stirred this paint *too* much."

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Thanks for the reply guys, I get my paints online from Wonderland Models but I don't know how long they've been on the shelf for. 

I spending 10-20 mins stirring before use and still stirring when using it. Perhaps I've just got to persevere.

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Hi davo as others have said i think you might be having stirring related issues!

 

Even my 80's/90's humbrols can dry iffy if i dont stir enough... My suggestion would be find a piece of thin metal rod ideally an old bicycle spoke bend the end section so the metal piece looks like an L But make sure the bent piece fits in your humbrol pots!

Get a battery drill put the metal piece into the chuck.. Put it in your tin and hold down the trigger! Works superb!

I do this with any old or awkward humbrols! Only new humbrols i would avoid are the RLM's the rest i think are thick but fine!

 

regards :)

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The latest Humbrol enamel paints have a paper label on the lid. I believe these are the newer re-formulated paints

I found in the recent past that a number of matt paints were slow in drying and went glossy. I added a few drops [6 to 8 drops] of Terebine Dryers to the tin which sorted them out

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And don't paint from the tin. Stir it good, and once everything looks thoroughly mixed in, take some out to your mixing utensil, and then add your choice of thinners to create the consistency you like before applying with the brush. As Graham said, there is always there chance you have one of the duff tins that did the rounds too.

 

Even with the rlms, I have found it was the first batches that were terrible (and a few other colours. I had an 83 ochre with the same weak, dry in a century, issues) and the later ones were the 'thick but usable once stirred/thinned' variety.

 

If you want easy to use Stir thoroughly/decant/paint enamels that never have an issue, use Colourcoats, otherwise you will have to get to know how each manufacturer behaves in order to get a decent finish.

 

Just read the 10-20 minutes stirring...I have never come across a paint that needs that much. Get an electric coffee frother, take off the coil at the end and have a metal bent L shape and use that. Or, get a metal stirring stick/spoon like the tamiya stirrers, and use that to gouge the chemicals, etc off the bottom and then slowly mix them in, getting faster as the goop melts off the stirrer (this is for older Humbrols, the newer variants don't seem to get 'stuck' on the bottom as much), then spoon it out with the tamiya stirrer spoon onto your mixing area before thinning. Don't forget to give the rim of the tin a quick wipe before replacing the lid for a tight seal.

Edited by sapperastro
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On 24 January 2018 at 21:43, degsye39 said:

Get a battery drill put the metal piece into the chuck.. Put it in your tin and hold down the trigger! Works superb!

 

Don't try this with a Dremel, I know someone who did (no, it wasn't me) and tried stirring the paint at its slowest setting of 10,000rpm.

 

I'll leave the mess to your imagination....

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An old Airfix magazine had the plans for making a battery operated paint stirrer.

In short; take old tin lid, drill hole in tin lid, attach battery motor to lid, extend shaft and make fitting for stirring. Put tin lid onto paint tinlet, attach battery to motor, stir paint with no spray mess

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6 hours ago, Tony C said:

 

Don't try this with a Dremel, I know someone who did (no, it wasn't me) and tried stirring the paint at its slowest setting of 10,000rpm.

 

I'll leave the mess to your imagination....

Haha :D:D:D

 

I forgot to add my dewalt drill has a soft start function, degsye39 will not be held responsible for enamel paint damage to kitchen tables, celings and shirts! :D;) 

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9 hours ago, Black Knight said:

In short; take old tin lid, drill hole in tin lid, attach battery motor to lid, extend shaft and make fitting for stirring. Put tin lid onto paint tinlet, attach battery to motor, stir paint with no spray mess

I remember that. Didn't it use a Tamiya motor from one of their motorised 1/35 tanks?

 

John.

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  • 2 years later...

Well, I have been using Humbrol enamels for over 50 years and, sure, sometimes there seems to be less pigment in the paint, and sometimes more, but I have been (and still am) pretty happy with the stuff. Someone mentioned Colorcoats.  I love their colours, but it usually takes me three or four coats to get a decent finish!

Chris

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I use this paintstirrer from trumpeter ...it is cheap and it does the job in a short amount of time..

Even when I used the paint the day before i use it to stir..no problems with Humbrol paint with me since i used it👍

And I have it allready for years
https://www.hmhobbies.co.uk/paint-mixer-trumpeter-tools.html

 

cheers, Jan

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I used to use Humbrol a lot, particularly when I made armour and aircraft models and when I used to brush paint a lot. They were excellent paints for that. No other paint was quite as nice to use for dry brushing the uniforms on my figures. Since I now only make auto stuff and predominantly airbrush every part that I can I use them very infrequently. Preferring lacquer paints on the whole. However, in recent times I did try a few Humbrols again and the quality had suffered from the old paints. Kind of gave up on them to be honest..

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On 1/30/2018 at 5:08 AM, degsye39 said:

Haha :D:D:D

 

I forgot to add my dewalt drill has a soft start function, degsye39 will not be held responsible for enamel paint damage to kitchen tables, celings and shirts! :D;) 

I put a paperclip into the end of my dremel-clone:

spacer.png

 

Worked fine until the day I didn't grip the paint tin tightly enough:

spacer.png

 

That happened in 2006 and I haven't had another accident like that since I bought a proper paint stirrer!

 

Dave

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