Humbrol - useless sludge?

[ndicki]

I've been trying to make a few older models I had in the stash the old-fashioned way, with brush painting instead of my usual airbrush. In winter, opening the windows to air the room after spraying isn't that appealing... In any case, I'm finding that while the old tins of Humbrol (some going back 30 years!) are giving a reasonable finish after 2 fairly thin coats, the latest pots are rubbish. They have no covering power whatsoever, the medium is greasy-looking and the pigment thin and inadequate, and the result, whatever the colour, is simply streaky and covers extremely badly. Two coats no longer suffice, and three are barely better. Meanwhile the (raised) surface detail slowly disappears.

These pots are not the dreaded "Made in China" ones, either. They are the current UK-made ones with the unpainted lids and the colour info on a little round sticker in the recess on the lid. Humbrol's latest, in other words. And they are dismal.

It pains me to say, after 50 years of modelling with Humbrol paints, that this time, they have hit a new low. They've been going downhill for years, but now, they are effectively unuseable.

Revell it is, henceforth, I'm afraid. Sorry, Mr Humbrol, but I'm tired of wasting my money...

Am I alone in this? And what do you use when you're brush-painting a model?

[Graham Boak]

Colourcoats.  Xtracolor.  Precision Paints (to use up old stock).  And lots of old stock Humbrol.  My main use for Humbrol is a first coat/undercoat that is then ideally rubbed down before putting the CC paint on the top.  That way it used up the less-satisfactory paint that does cover well. 

 

People have been saying that Humbrol paint is useless for well over ten years now.  I admit having bought few of them in recent years, but those I did buy were fine.  Memory says that I wasn't impressed with the last new release of Luftwaffe colours, but that was long ago now and around the time that people started complaining.

 

As a brush painter, I find most of the acrylic paints dedicated to airbrushing, thin and fairly useless.  Regardless of their colour inaccuracies.  Frankly, if you want to brush paint, buy Colourcoats.  In all fairness, most Extracolor is fine and I haven't tried Phoenix Precision Paints, but their previous offerings were excellent.

 

PS I have briefly used Gunze Mr. Hobby lacquer acrylics, and was most impressed.  I am about to Try Hataka Orange.

[Jochen Barett]

Is there anything like a "customer service" at Humbrol? Do they have a postal address?

[ndicki]

Totally unaware of Colourcoats, but then as I live in France, I can't get half the products you can pick up easily in the UK. The same goes for Xtracolor - I know about it but can't get it. I used to use Molak, which was similar to the really ancient Humbrol from 40 years ago, but even that appears to have disappeared...

I generally use Gunze Aqueous with my airbrush, and get the results I want without too much trouble. but as you say, they're really for airbrushing. I haven't tried lacquers, mainly because I haven't quite sussed them out yet. There are a couple of pots of Gunze lacquers in the stash, which I bought by accident. May be the moment to take a look.

[Graham Boak]

Your location states UK, so I just assumed.  Perhaps if you'd put that you are French-based in the title you might have got a more directly helpful response.   However, paints can be difficult to get in the UK too, thanks to the airline-driven rules on posting them.  Humbrol is less common that it used to be, with Revell availability perhaps increasing a little.  This is one area where the loss of so many model shops is noticed.

 

For Colourcoats, look on the website of Sovereign Hobbies. Jamie may be able to help with specific postal problems.

[Max Headroom]

I agree the new enamels are just rubbish. The last I will ever buy was Light Aircraft Grey. Shaken and stirred to an inch of its life, the first stroke with a brush told me it was utter pants.

 

I’m now 99% acrylic. I believe the Humbrol 14ml squeeze bottle paints have excellent colour density. Not had any yet so can’t comment.
 

I’ve also used Vallejo, Lifecolor and Hataka and am impressed with all of them.

 

Trevor

[Mr T]

The Humbrol acrylic squeeze bottles aren't bad, I've used a couple and thought they were   I went completely acrylic when my children were young, not only for their sakes but for mine. I use a number of different brands, airbrushing large areas and brush painting for the rest. I generally find that acrylics don't cover as well as enamels, but I have learnt to live with it. 

[sinnerboy]

I gave up with them 4-5 years ago, like trying to paint with opaque marmalade.

[jackroadkill]

My biggest issue with Humbrol has been their RLM colours; really bad.  I make do with them when I can't get suitable Colourcoats paints or when brush painting.  It seems that the Humbrols need to be ego-massaged sufficiently before they'll play ball, unfortunately.  One of the things I find they're particularly sensitive to is the type of thinner you use; white spirit will do them no favours at all. I use CC's napth-based thinners.

 

If you want to continue with enamels, Colourcoats are an excellent choice, but they can be difficult to get at times as the business of preparing the paint is done in the owners' "spare" time when not in their day jobs. You can pm the owner on here (username jamie@sovereign hobbies) to discuss, as he's very helpful and knowledgeable.

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

PS - sorry if I've come across like a total fanboy with this post!

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

I brush paint and mainly use Humbrol and have also used Colourcoats,  I have to say I still enjoy using them.

Chris

[stevehnz]

When Humbrol first came out with their blue tin UK production paint it was very thick & gloopy, but did thin OK, later tins I've had have been quite nice to use, don't settle out & stir up well.

Steve.

[janneman36]

5 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Colourcoats.  Xtracolor.  Precision Paints (to use up old stock).  And lots of old stock Humbrol.  My main use for Humbrol is a first coat/undercoat that is then ideally rubbed down before putting the CC paint on the top.  That way it used up the less-satisfactory paint that does cover well. 

 

People have been saying that Humbrol paint is useless for well over ten years now.  I admit having bought few of them in recent years, but those I did buy were fine.  Memory says that I wasn't impressed with the last new release of Luftwaffe colours, but that was long ago now and around the time that people started complaining.

 

As a brush painter, I find most of the acrylic paints dedicated to airbrushing, thin and fairly useless.  Regardless of their colour inaccuracies.  Frankly, if you want to brush paint, buy Colourcoats.  In all fairness, most Extracolor is fine and I haven't tried Phoenix Precision Paints, but their previous offerings were excellent.

 

PS I have briefly used Gunze Mr. Hobby lacquer acrylics, and was most impressed.  I am about to Try Hataka Orange.

If I read this correct you are a brushpainter and you want to try the Hataka orange line ..this is their airbrush range lacquer.

For brushpainting they have the blue line.

https://www.hataka-hobby.com/en_US/n/list

 

Anyway Humbrol to me is only fine for airbrush usage.

 

At the moment I use whatever suits me colorwise and most of it is Acrylics in waterbase form or lacquer.

I am most impressed by MRP but I still have to make use of the Hataka orange line

 

cheers, Jan

[davecov]

I find that the current formula Humbrol enamels work beautifully with an airbrush as do the ColourCoats and XtraColour enamels. However, none of them are as good (for me) when it comes to paint brushing with them. My very old stock of Marfleet Humbrol enamels are the reverse - great for brush painting but not so good for airbrush use.

Dave

[Graham Boak]

16 minutes ago, janneman36 said:

If I read this correct you are a brushpainter and you want to try the Hataka orange line ..this is their airbrush range lacquer.

For brushpainting they have the blue line.

https://www.hataka-hobby.com/en_US/n/list

 

 

Thanks for this, but I am very hesitant about water-based acrylics when brush painting.  I have had success with the acrylic lacquers.  To be fair, I did like the water-base acrylics that Airfix provide in their starter sets, but only for detail work and have yet to apply any over large surfaces.

 

if any other brush painter has had experience with the blue line, could they chip in with comments?

[dogsbody]

This is my small collection of Humbrol paint pots, all from Airfix Starter kits. 

The few I have tried are all !

 

 

 

 

Chris

[jackroadkill]

1 minute ago, dogsbody said:

The few I have tried are all !

Agreed; I don't know what is actually in those wee pots but it's comedy-level bad.  I painted my Christmas Blitzenbuild 2020 with them and they were beyond shocking.

[Graham Boak]

I used the set in the Do.17/Defiant twin kit, for interiors and details.  They were dense in pigment and covered well - no complaints at all.  Obviously I used Colourcoats for the external camouflage (or in the case of  the Dornier, will use.).

[nheather]

9 hours ago, dogsbody said:

This is my small collection of Humbrol paint pots, all from Airfix Starter kits. 

The few I have tried are all !

 

I have stayed well away from Humbrol acrylics because of those starter pots.  The ones I have had have been truly horrible, poor coverage and flow, gritty and sometimes sparkly. As a result I have stayed away from Humbrol acrylics preferring not to spend money to find out if their retail paint is the same as their starter set rubbish.

 

I grew up as a kid in the 70s using Humbrol enamels and my memory is that they were great - I have never found any acrylic that can live up to my memories of those.  I have now switched to acrylics though, for my health, for the environment and because they are easier to get hold of.

 

I continue to hear great things about ColourCoats and could be convinced to convert were they not so difficult to get hold of, what with shipping limitations, few distributors and too many ‘sold outs’ at the manufacturer - expensive too, the paint itself and the shipping making it impractical to buy the one or two colours that you need at the time.

 

Many of us don’t have a local model shop, our only in-store option being HobbyCraft and they no longer stock Humbrol, nor do you see their racks in toy shops any more.  I would not be surprised to see Humbrol paints dying out - if you are Mail ordering there are better options and they are disappearing from the high street and bricks and mortar shops.

 

To the OP - buying paints in the UK isn’t what you imagine.  Many of us don’t have a convenient hobby shop so rely on mail order.  Buying enamel paints by mail order is expensive because Royal Mail won’t carry them, so other parcel options have to be used which makes it expensive to buy paints as you need them - if you want to go with enamel and keep the cost down you need to plan for the future and buy in bulk.  Realistically the only enamels I can buy are Revell, from HobbyCraft.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

[Seahawk]

Re your title: correct!

[Paul Thompson]

Modern Humbrol, enamel not good, with no consistency in what you get, probably due to getting stock the shop has had from different batches. iven the option I paintbrush rather than airbrush, but if a pot is no good it's usually equally bad for both in my experience - oily looking carrierliquid that stacks that way when stirred, as the pigment refuses to lend in, resulting in no covering power and sometimes a refusal to dry at all. The acryics I find very good, and generally I don't like acrylics except MR Kit (which I can't get any more here) and Citadel. Not the starter set stuff, that seems different although I gice it a try if I end up with any and sometimes it's okay for small detail work.

 

These days for enamels I use Xtracolour, White Ensign Colourcoats, and a thankfully still large stock of Humbrol Authentics. The latter, although my stock is knocking on 50 years old and needs industrial stirring, brush paints flawlessly.

 

Paul.