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sapperastro

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Everything posted by sapperastro

  1. @Casey https://theartshop.com.au/collections/liquitex-basics-acrylic-fluid-118ml Half the price of Soflat. I will have to try them out. If they work out well, I doubt I would need the entire range. Unless pinks and so on are important for mixes. So you have many correct formulas already? Have you posted any of them up yet? And apart from perhaps old Tamiya bottles, have you found a good storage medium jar with an air tight lid?
  2. Hello all, With the partial demise of Humbrol enamel paint, and the ridiculous hoops needed to source other enamel lines apart from Revell here, I have been casting around for acrylic paint lines that I find to be good for hand brushing. I have found success in the past, using Pollyscale and Model Master Acrylic, but these two are gone. I have tried; Humbrol Acrylic; depends entirely on what version. The original line they released was ok. Later versions have been a lottery. Revell Aqua; Pretty good stuff, and I could probably head over to it if the colour range was better. Tamiya; doable but sometimes painful. Hataka; not too bad. Requires ordering from Poland though. Vallejo MC; fairly good, but very fragile. Breaks down easily with thinning too. Requires Italeri thinner* to get the best out of it. Vallejo Air; Bit less fragile, but very thin. Italeri acrylic; Basically Vallejo Model Color in a bigger amount, in different colours. Works well with Italeri thinners. The best water based acrylic paint I have tried so far was on a whim; Golden So-Flat. This stuff is incredibly easy to paint on, is fairly tough, settles out very well, and is heavily pigmented to boot. It is also cheaper than model hobby paint by a fair margin. The draw back is that it has a very limited range of colours, and requires mixing for pretty much any sort of military application. It does have decent primary colours (unlike many hobby lines). Anyone have anything to throw in the ring here? * just a word on Italeri thinner. It is a thicker than water, milky substance that requires mixing itself before use. I am guessing it is some sort of extender, but I am not familiar with all the various mediums that water based acrylics use.
  3. Brush painter here, use all three regularly, and I thin it out of the bottle with enamel thinners. I can't see what would stop it being used in an airbrush though, just thin it like you would enamel paint. If you are asking about thinning in the bottle, no idea. I might have to try it myself on a bottle and see if anything bad happens. I have read a lot of horror stories about Humbrol enamel going bad when this happens, but it has never affected any of mine doing this.
  4. Just to put the final lid on things, I emailed Humbrol asking them about the discontinued colours from the list I posted earlier. The reply; So there we go. Get em while they are hot I guess, because they won't be coming back.
  5. Yeah, I watch the guys videos from time to time. Chilada? He does some great work.
  6. Oh. I thought I read in your chart that H253 was the closest Humbrol colour to RAF Dark Green?
  7. I was going to suggest that paint looks to have been frozen. I number of hobby acrylics get affected this way. Not acceptable in any case. Casey, it seems from looking at your charts (wonderful work by the way), that Humbrol 253 (when it isn't frozen), appears to be a close match for; RAF Dark Green and NATO green. It is also the closest "out of the bottle" Humbrol colour for SCC15, the British late war olive drab for their army vehicles and tanks. Coincidence? Or have we stumbled across an all too human "we have plenty of this stuff, looks good enough, slap her on"? Just out of curiosity, is H253 a good match for the RLM it is purported to be? (I wouldn't be surprised at this point, after seeing all the debacles with colour, that it isn't haha). Edit from a user on here a few years back; Mike Starmer is one of the most experienced colour matchers for British/Commonwealth vehicles from ww2. Interesting.
  8. Hmm, very artistic. On a serious note, they had a decent range starting up with those 18ml pots, then they turned to dropper bottles and....this stuff. It's like the initial screw tops after the failure of the flip top versions. The first screw top paints were fine, and it looked like things were on the up, and then suddenly the pot label, and the paint in them, changed into some oily, sandpaper like substance. Same with the enamel paint. First release tins from the new guys were fine. Then whoever they contracted out to, sent production off into the never never, and we had all sorts of problems. So they brought it back to the UK, and all new problems have emerged. New Humbrol has to be the most unlucky company in existence, or something.
  9. No worries. I have never had to do it with Vallejo, as all of their paints I have used have been matt.
  10. Humbrol acrylic (screw top), Revell Aqua, Model Master acrylic, Tamiya acrylic and Gunze aqueous. All of them have worked fine for me afterwards. I know Tamiya acrylic is alcohol based, the but flat base itself doesn't seem to care what acrylic paint you put it in. Of course, you should always test first with whatever paint you are thinking of using it in.
  11. I also use X-21 in other acrylic brands to make their satin and gloss colours matt. Same can be done with the Tamiya enamel variant in other enamel paints. Good stuff. My father used to use Talcum powder in paints to do the same thing when I was young, but I haven't tried this myself. Would be a lot cheaper.
  12. I have had tins like this, but then I have had tins that need multiple coats to get full coverage. For example, I have been finishing up a Panzer IV; the 94 went on ok for a primer and first colour coat, though it took 3 coats (poor compared to my last tin of 90's paint, that did the job in 2 coats, with one almost getting there). The new tin of 160 was one thin coat coverage. Perfect, and apart from the fact you couldn't get away with the old "paint from the tin" like you could with the ancient Humbrols, it easily matched up with the oldies in performance. The new tin of 117 however is absolute rubbish. I did 4 coats, and it still didn't have full coverage. Even painting it straight from the tin onto a spare bit of plastic didn't have full coverage. My last tin of old 117 had one coat coverage. All the new ones were the sticker with number and small label new tins. 94 on bare plastic, the others on top of 94. So it isn't that they CAN'T make a new, decent enamel paint, it is that the quality control seems to be shocking, rather than the fault of environmental laws, or what have you. And it isn't like we aren't paying through the nose for this stuff. The price per ml of hobby paint is astronomically higher than even the most expensive DIY stuff in the big tins. Indeed. And it isn't like people haven't been badgering them for years for certain colours. The whole "Humbrol 30" for RAF dark green really says it all though. The fact they haven't changed that colour, or stopped putting it on Airfix instructions for decades tells its own story. That's another can of worms entirely, especially for brush painters. Out of the brands I have tried, they all have shortcomings in one way or another, and the couple of brands that worked really well for me have been discontinued. Have you managed to find any acrylic paint lines that tick all the boxes?
  13. I didn't notice any real difference between the 70's and 80's paint. Even the 90's stuff wasn't far off, quality wise. What enamel paint were you using apart from Humbrol?
  14. I just noticed these for sale at one of the hobby shops I sometimes do mail purchases from; https://www.heller.fr/en/category/colours Anyone tried them yet? If so, how do you rate them? Interesting numbering system too. I wonder where I have seen those numbers and colours before...hmm
  15. They did have some reliable acrylic paints back in the old Hull days when Humbrol actually made paint, I still have a number of pots here, and all of them are still fine and work well. They came in little white plastic pots, with 12ml of paint. These ones I have must be 30 odd years old now. Since that factory went up in a fire, and the original company died, these new paints are all contracted out. It would be interesting to know who is making these new versions that look so dire. Just a shame all round.
  16. Micro Sol and Micro Set. All your problems will vanish (usually).
  17. All good. It's a shock to the system when a big part of your paint system is turfed. This happened to me when I tried switching over to acrylics long ago (after Humbrols earlier demise) with the ending of Pollyscale too. Then Model Master was tanked, which made up another part of my go-to paint line. It's getting pretty old now trying to keep enjoying a hobby when my tools keep getting either "reformulated" into crappier products, or taken away altogether. Just remembered that Mike's Humbrol colour mixes for armour models are out the window now too, of which I made a lot of use. I wonder if Mike Starmer can work some of his magic with other paint lines (preferably Revell and Tamiya enamels, haha).
  18. You made me get excited for a second, but alas, as I saw when I first looked at it, those entries are gone from the enamel column. The acrylics have picked them up.
  19. Did you try the variant that was in the 18ml pots? They were from the same manufacturer as the Cote D'Arms and P3 paint, and weren't too bad. Nothing to set the night on fire, but usable. I have also seen a video where Humbrol has already put out a "gen II" of their acrylic paint in the dropper bottles, so I wonder if this is, yet another, attempt to get past a failed launch. They seem to have had a lot of those since the brand was re-animated under Hornby. Putting super thick paint in a dropper bottle is insanity. I would just remove it and put it into one of my many empty tamiya or model master jars.
  20. What are the new acrylic paints like? I tried a couple of the type in the 18ml pots, and found them to be ok, but virtually impossible to get more. Prior to that, the stuff in the screw and flip top pots were terrible, though I didn't mind the variant they had in the 80's and 90's. Still have a few of them left from those days, and they still paint fine. None of the new dropper bottle stuff is available in Australia.
  21. I usually use Revell enamel Carmine red. Covers brilliantly. But if I use something else, I start by using orange first, then putting red over it. Works the same for yellow; put a coat of orange (or orange yellow) and then put the yellow over the top.
  22. Not sure if this has been already laid to rest, but after searching through the Humbrol website, I found this https://d63oxfkn1m8sf.cloudfront.net/7616/6980/5182/Humbrol_-_Shade_Chart_28-11-22_Online_Version_Web.pdf As you can see, the enamel line has been gutted. Totally useless now for many applications, including the RAF/FAA of all things. For enamel enjoyers like myself, this leaves it all up to Colourcoats (and in Oz a possible 6 month to 1 year turn around for out of stock paints). I could go for "close enough" by using remaining Humbrol, Revell and Tamiya enamel, but this doesn't really cut it. No Xtracolour in Oz unfortunately. I have some reserves, but these will eventually be used up. Another thing that really gets my goat, is the total lack of good enamels for certain areas now. Humbrol 75 was my go to for RAAF Foliage Green, with 149 being too light, and the Colourcoats variant also being too light to my eye. Both of my SCC15 easy equivalents, Humbrol 159 mixed with some black, or Humbrol 253, gone. And a couple of my preferred shades for French WW2 aircraft are also gone. I am sure there are others that I haven't thought of. The hope is that they will continue to add to the numbers over time the same way they have done with the Acrylics once they got a new mixture. Not holding my breath with the state of enamel paints these days, as it wasn't long ago Model Master enamels were discontinued. By the way, has anyone actually tried the new enamel formula they they were supposed to put out after the chemical change restrictions? Is there any way of identifying it? Is it any different?
  23. sapperastro

    Matt varnish

    After seeing a few recommendations for W&N I see all the choices available to me claim to be removable. Is there actually one that isn't removable?
  24. Hi Colin, Which one of these is the correct version? https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=winsor+and+newton+matt+varnish&i=office-products&crid=E8G4ZT1OKE6E&sprefix=winsor+and+newton+matt+varnish%2Coffice-products%2C311&ref=nb_sb_noss
  25. Just a tip regarding the pots; make sure after opening you use some sidecutters to cut off the little tabs, as they never line up, and prevent the tops going on properly, leading to paints drying out.
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