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Rough Humbrol acrylic: a work around.


sapperastro

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I don't know if anybody cares, but I thought I would share a quick work around for some of the current rough/gritty humbrol acrylics that found their way onto the market over the past year or so.

 

I needed to use a shade I had that I knew had this problem, so I forged on and painted the model with it. Sure enough, the rough finish came out. I have heard about people using micromesh, etc, but thought I would be a cheap bugger and try a scotchbrite (green washing up plastic wool cloth). Success. The rough vanished after giving it a good rub down with the scotchbrite. So if you need to use humbrol acrylics and they have this rough issue, it can be worked around if needs be, on the cheap.

 

Of course, wait until the paint is thoroughly dry first ;)

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And I was probably too literal.  I don't know the product but I suspect, like nail polishing sticks, different colours equate to different grades.  Do you think that you and I should quietly slope off and have a shufti of the Scotchbrite website?

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Haha, you know what? My experiment went like this; Hmm, I wonder if one of those kitchen scourers would do the trick? The Mrs isn't in sight, I think I will just nab that one sitting on the side of the sink...good, looks like it hasn't seen much use, lets give her a whirl...

 

You may see a difference depending on what you had on your plate ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, I had this 'rough' problem for the first time last week! I had read about it but had been lucky I suppose. I left it to dry for a couple of days, then gave it the once over with 12000 grit micromesh, and it took the paint off the model! Ooops, I thought, repainted it with the same paint and got the same gritty result, but this time I waited a couple of days again then rubbed it down with a J-Cloth, and that helped somewhat.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

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On 2/8/2018 at 7:23 PM, sapperastro said:

Yep, it seems to come up out of the blue. What colour was it Ray? might be a good idea to flip an email off to Humbrol along with the batch number on the side of the pot.

 

Hello, It was Humbrol 27, Sea Grey. It has been the only one that has caused issues. I have used it quite a bit with no previous problems so probably will not raise it with Humbrol as it may have gone 'off'.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

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Hi Ray,

agree with sapperastro, if Airfix / Humbrol don't know of the problem they can't fix it.

More so if it was a U.K. made pot, (little Union flag on the side) mind you, I don't think they'll be

a problem in the near future, because of the fire.

 

John, Steve, here ya go guy's, knock yourselves out!

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/119555O/scotch-britetm-hand-finishing-systems-brochure-pdf.pdf

 

 

Paul :whistle:

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If this is the first time you have experienced it then I envy your luck Ray. Out of a dozen or so pots bought in a 3 year period it affects virtually every one of the newer labelled red swish with blue writing pots I have, including 2 dark earths bought a couple of years apart, on opposite sides of the world. Those with older labels or even the dreaded flip toppers don't have this issue.

 

Thanks Paul, the reason I suggest sending emails to Humbrol is not to anger anyone, just to barrage them with reasons to get out there and fix whatever the hell is going on. I can brush them easily enough, but the grit just destroys surface detail.

 

I want Humbrol/Airfix/Hornby to succeed as I have used all of their products for many years. Unfortunately, if they have issues, they need to be told, by as may people as possible. If just a couple of gits like me complain, they will shrug their shoulders and forget about it.

Edited by sapperastro
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Hi Sapper,

my understanding of the paint 'situation' goes back a 'few' years, probably pre dating the Hornby takeover.

Paints came up for tender, one of the largest artists paint manufacturers was successful, and promptly

shipped it out to a sub contractor in China..........................and we know how good that move was!

 

Fast forward, Hornby said that 60%(?) of production (acrylics) would return to the U.K.

hence the comment about the Union flag, unfortunately Rustins (London) had a fire early January,

which I believe destroyed all supplies of paint held by them, SO, now is an ideal time to flag the issue to Airfix,

as the manufacturer (Rustins) has / will have a 'clean slate' to work from.

We know it's not deliberate, no one voluntarily produces sub standard product, BUT, accidents happen*,

so, shout out loud and they can't say they didn't know.

 

*As me Gran used to say, "them that doesn't make mistakes is either a bloody big liar, or they do bugger all" Ain't THAT the truth!!

 

Paul

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I have yet to come across a pot of acrylic paint that has a union jack on it. The only Humbrol acrylics that I have that say 'made in uk/England' are my old pots of 'hobby acrylic' that are still in service. All of the new variety I have, including those that came from the UK, say 'made in China'. How many of these new UK acrylics are in circulation?

 

I know they sent the enamels to Rustins, and this has been a topsy turvey outcome. They are usually uniformly thick, and while many brush out brilliantly when thinned, you will sometimes come across a tin full of strange paint that doesn't seem to cover properly and takes forever to dry, and adheres poorly, or my latest find; a tin of matt white that is the consistency of toothpaste...I complain about each of these findings, but i am willing to bet Humbrol has put me on a crank list by now. Thankfully the enamels at lest have been slowly imrpoving, but they need to get that 'paint straight from the tin' rubbish off the instructions; that doesn't work anymore ;)

Edited by sapperastro
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Hello folks, I have taken your advice, and I have e-mailed Humbrol with all relevant information, so now I await a response. I will let you know what happens.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/14/2018 at 3:17 PM, Ray S said:

Hello folks, I have taken your advice, and I have e-mailed Humbrol with all relevant information, so now I await a response. I will let you know what happens.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

 

Just a quick update, I am still waiting for an update on this, but I will let you know when something happens!

 

Ray

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On 2/12/2018 at 9:48 PM, PhoenixII said:

one of the largest artists paint manufacturers was successful, and promptly shipped it out to a sub contractor in China

AB Wilh. Becker (Becker Industrial Coatings) the company that owned Winsor&Newton (we were a very small cog in a much larger ‘Corporate group’) decided to ship it out to China on price grounds. No surprises there!

 

On 2/12/2018 at 9:48 PM, PhoenixII said:

so, shout out loud and they can't say they didn't know.

Sound advice!:thumbsup2:

 

To quote myself from a couple of years back:

On 12/28/2016 at 11:07 AM, LotusArenco said:

Our QA bloke, back when I worked at Colart (many moons ago) said as much himself - Colart had the contract for Humbrol enamel out in China. I think that Rustins now have the contract?

 

No official complaints of any sort were passed on to him from Humbrol, other than those few that I’d found myself and passed on from various forums.  Here I must apologise profusely to the entire Humbrol using modelling community for not getting more involved in whatever small way I could (I was just a mere engineer/chargehand/setter/dogsbody). A mix of me not being an enamel user, and the fact that in 2009 they announced the factory closure which made me more than a little disenchanted with the entire company.

 

QA at Colart back then was of a very high level. We produced Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and a few other well-known brands under the same roof (even fingerprint ink for the Old Bill). Machine lines would be shut down if even the label on the tube/bottle was in the wrong place. Entire batches of colour* would be reworked or scrapped if found to be wrong in any way. Thousands of tubes of oil colour would be squeezed out if the ends of the tube were not folded over correctly (referred to as the ‘nips’, and giving us endless fun saying things like ‘your nips are all wonky’:D).

 

Given this level of QA, any sort of problem with Humbrol could, and should have been sorted if information had been passed on by Humbrol themselves. I’m wondering if it was/is a percentage thing. If only a very few out of thousands of users complain, was it worth dealing with?

 

As a side note (please take with a pinch of salt, as this is third hand, vaguely remembered knowledge). The change in formula was mainly due to volatility, rather than the H&S/ EU regulations urban myth that gets banded about. And some of the actual colour formulations were mysteriously lost during the handover to Colart, and the W&N tech dept. had to re-formulate some of the actual colours from scratch. (Very similar to the problems Colart had with GamesWorkshop when they made Citadel paints.)

 

As another side note. One of my few claims to fame is that knocking about somewhere I have the last tube of colour ever to be produced in the UK by Winsor & Newton.

 

 My pots of Humbrol acrylics still have ‘made in China’ on them, and I wonder if Colart still makes those?:hmmm:

 

 

Mart

 

*we always referred to paint as ‘colour’. “This is Winsor & Newton, not Dulux. We make colour, not paint here.”

 

Mart

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