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Humbrol Enamel Paint Humbrol For many modellers, particularly those from the UK, the Humbrol brand is intrinsically linked with this past time. With a long and rich history in the hobby, there wont be many of us who haven't prised open a tin of their enamel paint or squeezed a tube of their polystyrene cement at some point. Following hot on the heels of their re-launched range of acrylic paints, Humbrol have now re-launched their long-standing range of enamel paint too. This activity seems to have been predicated on their decision to move production back to the UK from overseas, and indeed all of these 14ml tinlets have been manufactured in the UK. Humbrol have sent us the following samples, which represent a mixture of existing colours and new RLM colours: 21 Black (Gloss) 22 White (Gloss) 36 Pastel Green (Matt) 42 Violet (Matt) 44 Pastel Blue (Matt) 46 Orange (Matt) 58 Magenta (Matt) 111 Field Grey (Matt) 112 Field Blue (Matt) 234 Dark Flesh (Matt) 238 Arrow Red (Gloss) 241 RLM 70 Schwartzgrun (Matt) 242 RLM 71 Dunkelgrun (Matt) 243 RLM 72 Grun (Matt) 244 RLM 73 Grun (Matt) 245 RLM 74 Graugrun (Matt) 246 RLM 75 Grauviolett (Matt) 247 RLM 76 Lichtblau (Matt) 248 RLM 78 Himmelblau (Matt) 249 RLM 79 Sandbraun (Matt) 251 RLM 81 Dunkelbraun (Matt) 252 RLM 82 Olivgrun (Matt) 253 RLM 83 Dunkel-Grun (Matt) The tinlets are reassuringly familiar, even if I have been a dedicated users of acrylics for the past couple of years. The only questions I have are over the labelling of some of the colours. According to their website, 36 should be Pastel Green, but it looks much more like Lime Green (38) to me. Similarly 58 should be Magenta but it looks more like Scarlet (60). Still, let's set that mystery to one side and take a closer look at the paint. My early memories of using enamel paint involved lots of shaking and stirring in order to mix the hardened layer of pigment with the yellowish, oily solvent. Whether these new paints were just well mixed from their time in transit I don't know, but they only required a little stirring to get them ready for use. The paint is quite thick and I wanted to try it in my airbrush, so I thinned it using a ratio of 1 part paint to 2 parts cellulose thinners. That seemed to work very well, and I was able to spray nice, smooth coats on a scrap piece of laminated hardboard that I had to hand. As you can see, the paints have sprayed very nicely, with good coverage and opacity. Even the gloss Arrows Red has covered the black undersurface completely. The matt colours are just that, and took about an hour to become touch dry (cellulose thinner helps paint dry quite quickly). The gloss paint takes longer to dry, so I left it overnight and found that it was touch dry by the morning. Overall, the performance of the paint is very impressive. Conclusion Although I'm a fairly dedicated user of acrylic paint these days, my favoured brand isn't available locally. This can be a nuisance if a model calls for a colour that I don't have as I have to order it online and shell out for postage. Happily, Humbrol's range is very comprehensive (particularly with the addition of the new RLM colours) and is widely available too. They appear to spray and cover well, and on this showing have made me re-think my acrylic only policy. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of