Humbrol Acrylic Made in the UK mini review.

[sapperastro]

Hello all,

 

After scouring the internet, harassing UK modellers, hoping to find whether the new formula, made in the UK Humbrol Acrylic paint was any good, I came up trumps. I decided to order 5 colours myself and put my life on the line in order to see whether anything had changed with this much maligned paint. Is it still paint on sandpaper? Does it have enough pigment to cover a white primed wingtip? Well, things have certainly changed...

 

The colours I ordered were 33 black, 34 white, 29 dark earth, 60 scarlet and 64 light grey. I wanted a green and blue to round out the colour spectrum, but there wasn't any in stock, which we will get to later...

 

The paints come in tall, somewhat narrow plastic bottles with fliptop lids. I believe many other acrylic paint brands use them, including citadel 20 or more years ago. I am too lazy to post photos, so google search for them under Humbrol acrylic 18.2ml. Yes, 18.2ml. Same price, more paint. This leads them up against Revell Aqua, Vallejo, etc favourably, leaving the old 14ml in the past. Just regarding the bottle, if you are one of those people that must paint from the bottle (I am not) then make sure you blue tack them down; they look like they could fall over quite easily...On to the paint!

 

After giving them a thorough stirring and ladeling a small amount onto my mixing area, thinning when required and painting with a brush on unwashed white plastic dessert spoons;

 

H33 black: a good consistency. A lazy person could brush from the bottle, but don't. I thinned it slightly with demineralised water, stirred it up, and glided it on to the spoon. One coat covered it neatly. The paint leveled out by itself, and no brush strokes at all. The finish is slightly satin, and reminds me a great deal of Model Master acrylic paint. So far, things are really looking up for Humbrol...

 

H34 white: Here we go. Flat White. Always a nemesis, but....not so much here. The paint was extremely thick in the bottle. I thought I was looking at Revell Aqua for a second (which I didn't mind, Aqua being my favourite acrylic paint), and I even put some demin water in before stirring it further. This was tricky, as the paint almost filled the entire bottle to the top, but I managed. I then ladeled some of the still very thick paint onto the mixing plate, and thinned it down further with water, bit by bit, then, after mixing it all up with the brush, glided it over the spoon. Again, the paint leveled out excellently and, while not fully opaque, did a damn good job of it. The second coat completed the coverage. Yes, I just said that. Again, satinish finish, and excellent coverage for a white. Humbrol has good paint? Stop those cat calls gentlemen...

 

H29 dark earth: Ah, my favourite shade for this RAF/Commonwealth colour. I know this is always in dispute, but I don't care. Moving on... Same consistency as the 33 black, same procedure, same excellent leveling. Took two coats to cover to full opacity, no brush strokes. Almost an exact match for the H29 new enamel, just the tiniest bit lighter, I think. My vision is pretty good, but the difference is incredibly small. Things just keep getting better....

 

H60 Scarlet: Red, another problem child of the painting world. Coverage is usually poor....well, consistency is the same as the 33 and 29 above. Same procedure. Two coat coverage, with the possibility of a third here. I am fairly happy with the two coats, but a third might make a slight difference. In any case, really good result. Again no brush marks, good leveling. What can I say?

 

H64 light grey: Same as above in all details except one coat coverage.

 

Well, Humbrol has turned a corner. I haven't bothered airbrushing them, but since they don't have the sandpaper grit in them, which was the airbrush killer for the previous iteration, I cannot see why using usual procedures with water based paints cannot be used. For brushing, I can say: go and buy a few pots and see for yourself. I cannot see you being disappointed. as I am pretty fussy with paints.

 

About bloody time Humbrol. Now start getting these things into the shops in numbers, and take back the old rubbish still sitting there. Oh, and expand the colour range to at least match the enamels.

 

Enjoy

 

 

[Bonhoff]

Picked up 2 pots of the new stuff last week - 01 primer and 165 Medium Sea Grey - My experience matches yours so far.

 

IanJ

[Giorgio N]

Glad to hear these new paints work well, with Humbrol paints being easily available in many places and having some important colours for modellers of British subjects it's good to know that they can offer a good alternative for modellers who like acrylics like myself

[sapperastro]

I am pretty chuffed about it myself, but we still have to wait for a) the old rubbish to depart the stores and b) the new paints to ramp up production wise.

[Olmec Head]

I tried airbrushing the new acrylic Dark Earth (29).  It seemed to go on well onto a few test scrap bits of plastic over enamel and other acrylic and bare plastic.  

 

I then tried it on a 1/48 Spitfire Vc over fully cured enamel Middele Stone (Xtracolor).

 

I used a H&S .4mm head with low 1 bar ish pressure it sprayed well if fast and covered well with some tip drying.  All good.  I then used a 0.2mm head for some detail work again not bad but some clogging.

 

After an hour or so it had dried well.

 

But,  oh dear I was cleaning off the salt wash on the enamel mid stone when I realised the water took the Humbrol Dark Earth straight off!  Basically all the Humbrol came off without bonding to the enamel at all. 

 

Probably I should have left it overnight, but it didn't seem good that a paint should lift so easily and I cleaned the rest of as a precaution.

 

Sadly I won't be using it again.

[Schwarz-Brot]

Acrylic over enamel is always a bad idea. Works sometimes but you're asking for trouble. Most Enamel spray paints explicitly state you cannot use acrylics ontop.

[nheather]

This is good news.  I have no model shops that close by and all the independent toy shops that used to sell models have been displayed by the toy chain stores which don’t.  So I’m stuck with Hobby Craft - so Tamiya which I like but limited choice, Revell which I’ve heard good things about but have never got on with them myself and Humbrol which in its acrylic form has been dire.

 

So if Humbrol is now good, that is a good range that I can access fairly easily.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

On 3/24/2019 at 8:51 PM, Schwarz-Brot said:

Acrylic over enamel is always a bad idea. Works sometimes but you're asking for trouble. Most Enamel spray paints explicitly state you cannot use acrylics ontop.

In the politest possible way, this is simply not true.

 

Applying anything with very aggressive aerosol solvents over enamel is a bad idea, but there is nothing wrong with applying acrylic over enamel providing the latter is actually cured first.

[Dave Fleming]

1 hour ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

In the politest possible way, this is simply not true.

 

Applying anything with very aggressive aerosol solvents over enamel is a bad idea, but there is nothing wrong with applying acrylic over enamel providing the latter is actually cured first.

 

Added to which we are far too casual with the term acrylic, so many different solvents in ‘acrylics’ that some would work fine and others would not.

 

Some of the best modellers I know use acrylic varnishes over enamel and/or lacquer solvent paints

[sapperastro]

I managed to try out 11 silver; not bad at all, but I will have to try it out on a subject to see whether it will match the revell metallics.

 

Overall, these paints (the colours I can access anyway) have been a success and I rank them up there with revell aqua and model master acrylic. Ie: good for acrylic paint (Im mainly an enamel user).

 

How is the range looking over in the uk? Have they worked through most of the old crap yet on the shelves?

 

Not sure what happened with it coming off with water. Nothing like that has happened to me with this paint, though I would suggest to anyone that waiting an hour before rubbing/masking/etc is a very risky proposition. Paints may look dry, but they certainly have not cured to any degree. 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by sapperastro

[Ravens]

18 hours ago, sapperastro said:

I managed to try out 11 silver; not bad at all, but I will have to try it out on a subject to see whether it will match the revell metallics.

 

Overall, these paints (the colours I can access anyway) have been a success and I rank them up their with revell aqua and model master acrylic. Ie: good for acrylic paint (Im mainly an enamel user).

 

How is the range looking over in the uk? Have they worked through most of the old crap yet on the shelves?

 

Not sure what happened with it coming off with water. Nothing like that has happened to me with this paint, though I would suggest to anyone that waiting an hour before rubbing/masking/etc is a very risky proposition. Paints may look dry, but they certainly have not cured to any degree. 

 

 

 

My local Hobbycraft appears to have around 50:50 new/old pots on the stand; I'll have to try some soon.

 

I'm glad to see the switch to those old pots that the Citadel range used as I still have some that I acquired in the mid-90s and most of them are still perfectly useable all these years on.  They keep a good tight seal, even when the inside edge of the lid is crusted with paint.

 

Ross.

[sapperastro]

Indeed. The only issue I ever had with those pots were the the slight lack of stability, but with even a little bit of thought, it shouldn't be an issue. I am mostly happy with the change of paint itself; night and day next to the old rot.