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Best Enamel Model Paints


Tarheellaw

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I have read a lot about the supposed demise of Humbrol paint quality - despite my great experience with them - so I was wondering, if I was looking to experiment with other enamels which might you recommend? I airbrush only.

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You don't say which nations you are interested in modelling. To be honest, I wouldn't avoid Humbrol on the basis of comments, however legitimate, until you actually run into problems yourself with specific colours. Not all Humbrol paints seem to have suffered from the quality lapse of a few years ago. I'd also add than some of the reported disappointments have been with low pigment content, which would be less important for airbrushing as dilution is normal practice.

I would have recommended the wide range of British and German colours in the White Ensign Colourcoats range, but until they get back into production that wouldn't be a lot of use. Xtracolours have a smaller range.

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I build AFV ww2 and modern tanks. Thank you for the information, sir! I will look up White Ensign Colourcoats on eBay.

You might get lucky and find some on ebay, but White Ensign recently closed and their stock was bought up by another company - see here and here

HTH,

Cheers,

Stew

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I use Humbrol & have for years & years. I don't airbrush & my only complaint in recent years would be a 'thin" paint in one or two colours but other than that, they're still my preferred paint & readily available.

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Hi Phil.

There is a thread on paints further down in tools and tips , there you might have an answer.

Got any pictures of an AFV build you are doing.

foxy :coolio:

Yep. I'll take a picture of the lower hull I'm painting for the Greek Leopard A3 (meng).

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In my opinion, you can't beat Modelmaster II . You have to be careful because regular Modelmaster is much grainier, leaves a rough finish and it is very hard ( maybe impossible ) to cut a fine freehand edge with it. Modelmaster II , on the other hand, leaves a very smooth finish and sprays to a very fine freehand edge. Fortunately ,most WWII colors (RAF, USAAF, Luftwaffe, etc) are in the Modelmaster II line. Modelmaster tends to feature USAF Southeast Asia, European I and other colors of that generation ( they came out in the 1970's). In the US they can always be found in seperate racks in the Hobby Shop. Modelmaster colors are identified with four digit numbers that begin with 17(ie, 1706 or 1726). Modelmaster II shades begin with the number 2 (ie, 2054, RAF Dark Earth or 2110, Italian Sand). I noticed the difference between the two lines when II came out 25 years ago. It continues to amaze me that Testors has never reformulated the original colors to match the clearly superior Modelmaster II.

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In my opinion, you can't beat Modelmaster II . You have to be careful because regular Modelmaster is much grainier, leaves a rough finish and it is very hard ( maybe impossible ) to cut a fine freehand edge with it. Modelmaster II , on the other hand, leaves a very smooth finish and sprays to a very fine freehand edge. Fortunately ,most WWII colors (RAF, USAAF, Luftwaffe, etc) are in the Modelmaster II line. Modelmaster tends to feature USAF Southeast Asia, European I and other colors of that generation ( they came out in the 1970's). In the US they can always be found in seperate racks in the Hobby Shop. Modelmaster colors are identified with four digit numbers that begin with 17(ie, 1706 or 1726). Modelmaster II shades begin with the number 2 (ie, 2054, RAF Dark Earth or 2110, Italian Sand). I noticed the difference between the two lines when II came out 25 years ago. It continues to amaze me that Testors has never reformulated the original colors to match the clearly superior Modelmaster II.

Yes, about a month ago, I bought the bright yellow MM2 for my tamiya Enzo Ferrari model. I'm glad I accidentally bought a good paint for it! Thank you.

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Hi Phil.

There is a thread on paints further down in tools and tips , there you might have an answer.

Got any pictures of an AFV build you are doing.

foxy :coolio:

See the Afghan patrol somewhere near this on the Armour WIP.

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Ebay. I have to ebay for hobby stuff all the time even here in the US. No brick and mortar carries much inventory anymore so I don't really bother with them. Nearest hobby shop for me is over 30 miles away anyway and I live in a metropolitan area. Not worth driving all that way to find out they don't carry something anymore or whatever.

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