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Sorting ancient Humbrols.


Neil.C

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Spent an hour or two yesterday sorting out my ancient Humbrol paints that were stored in the garage, quite a few of them are probably forty years old!

 

Very tiresome job but productive. It involved opening every tin, many with jammed down lids, and inspecting the contents.

 

Some were difficult to decipher as the numbers on some had gone a bit rusty but in the end only  five were solid and unusable.

 

I made a note of all the paint numbers as I went through them so at least I now know what I have although quite why I have four number 33 Matt black I have no idea!

 

At least my new stock list should prevent me from buying any more matt black!:o

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I also found that I had a couple of H33 Matt blacks but it was because I though one of them had gone 'off' and wasn't matt any more, so I bought another one. However, the original tin was sorted by stirring thoroughly and adding a drop of thinners - it behaves really well now and dries really quickly. This has made me stir all the tins really well now every time I use them, not just when I think they have been sitting a while. Lesson learned!

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Thanks for that listing Chris, very comprehensive.

 

I do have silver MC17 that doesn't seem to  appear though.

 

Wonder what that was for?

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Humbrol Authentics were broken down into small groups.

Standard Figures

MC.13 White

MC.14 Black

MC.15 Flesh

MC.16 Gold

MC.17 Silver

MC.18 Brass

 

Likewise there were groupings of Rail, GWR, LNER, LMS, SR, BR (Freight), BR (Passenger), German Railways No.1, German Railways No.2, WW1 Aircraft, Cockpit Colours, Russian Aircraft, Luftwaffe, RAF (European), RAF (Overseas), RAF (Post War), French Air Force, Fleet Air Arm, Japanese Air Force, USA WW2, USAF, USAF (Navy & Marine Contemporary), USAF (Vietnam), Italian Air Force, Swedish Contemporary, Israeli Contemporary, Naval Vessels, USN Contemporary, Sailing Ships, Scenic (i & ii), WW2 & Post War Tanks, Military Vehicles, Military Equipment, Combat Uniforms, British Napoleonics, French/Prussian Napoleonics and another set for figures Ancients.

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I wonder how many modellers in the early 1970s first came across FS numbers through Matchbox specifying Humbrol Authentics for the A-7 Corsair. I see also from the card that if I'd bought the German railways set I'd have encountered RAL specs as well.

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39 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

I wonder how many modellers in the early 1970s first came across FS numbers through Matchbox specifying Humbrol Authentics for the A-7 Corsair. I see also from the card that if I'd bought the German railways set I'd have encountered RAL specs as well.

Me, for a start! I may have been just a kid at the time, but I still wanted to get the colours right.

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I love old Humbrols and have a fair old stash of them...mostly 30 to 40 years old and all work perfectly. Bagged a few very old trade packs of Humbrol 11 at a boot sale recently, probably date from the mid 70s at a guess. Back in the very early 80s, my school mate and keen modelling buddy always referred to Humbrol 11 as "Silver Fox"...was that an official Humbrol thing as the list above just says "Silver"?

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Thanks Ratch!

 

Does that mean that if the tins I have are about 40 years old, I can call them Silver Fox to be authentic? I'll have to send my mate a tin...I was always borrowing his "Silver Fox" back in the day.

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Alas, that Authentics chart isn't the full list (you might guess this from the LSD prices at the bottom!).  It misses out, for example, the USN range for the modern US Navy, and the HT range for WWII Russian aircraft.

 

When Humbrol dropped the Authentic range they published a quite useful leaflet that gave conversion charts for the normal Humbrol range, plus some attempts at matching to RAL, BS, FS, Heller, Revell, Testors, Gunze Sangyo and Tamiya.  (In case you want to look for one, it was a six-panel Z-fold with the Humbrol name in ten colours at either end and a Marfleet address.)  Like many they were approximations, but I've always found the Authentic-to-Humbrol table helpful, and if nothing else it shows you how cunningly they were packaging matt black under umpteen different names.  A bit like all the chocolate bars that turn out to be nothing but Cadbury's Dairy Milk in drag.

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15 hours ago, pigsty said:

When Humbrol dropped the Authentic range they published a quite useful leaflet that gave conversion charts for the normal Humbrol range, plus some attempts at matching to RAL, BS, FS, Heller, Revell, Testors, Gunze Sangyo and Tamiya.  (In case you want to look for one, it was a six-panel Z-fold with the Humbrol name in ten colours at either end and a Marfleet address.)  Like many they were approximations, but I've always found the Authentic-to-Humbrol table helpful, and if nothing else it shows you how cunningly they were packaging matt black under umpteen different names.  A bit like all the chocolate bars that turn out to be nothing but Cadbury's Dairy Milk in drag.

Sounds like the Humbrol Colour System - I have a 1996 edition in a binder

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Conversion charts for different brands and the equivalent Humbrol paints
413419748.jpg

 

The colours required for modelling in each genre, with a straight from the tin Humbrol or the correct mix of Humbrol paints as listed
413419749.jpg
413419750.jpg
413419751.jpg

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21 hours ago, Ratch said:

Humbrol 11 was originally described as Metallic Silver Fox

Funnily enough Ford had a colour called Silver Fox metallic in the early '70's.

 

It mostly fell off!

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2 minutes ago, lasermonkey said:

My parents had a Cortina Mk III in Silver Fox. Indeed, it did mostly fall off!

Shocking real!y, the other offender was Blue Mink. Used to come off in sheets!

 

I bought a flaky Blue Mink mkII Cortina cheap and resprayed it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've found out that Hu 87 bluegrey these days actually are Hu 175 greengrey.

 

So, no it aint usefull for the undersidor of Swedish Viggen and Draken any more.

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