Humbrol enamel range - 51 colours deleted

[Rob de Bie]

Here's a list of continued and discontinued Humbrol enamel, as distributed by the Dutch importer to shops:

 

Continued:

 

1 Grey Primer Matt
2 Emerald Gloss
3 Brunswick Green Gloss
5 Dark Ad Grey Gloss
7 Light Buff Gloss
9 Tan Gloss
10 Service Brown Gloss
11 Silver Metallic
12 Copper Metallic
14 French Blue Gloss
15 Midnight Blue Gloss
16 Gold Metallic
18 Orange Gloss
19 Bright Red Gloss
20 Crimson Gloss
21 Black Gloss
22 White Gloss
24 Trainer Yellow Matt
25 Blue Matt
26 Khaki Matt
27 Sea Grey Matt
28 Camouflage Grey Matt
29 Dark Earth Matt
30 Dark Green Matt
31 Slate Grey Matt
32 Dark Grey Matt
33 Black Matt
34 White Matt
35 Gloss Varnish Gloss
38 Lime Gloss
41 Ivory Gloss
46 Matt Orange Matt
47 Sea Blue Gloss
48 Mediterranean Blue Gloss
49 Matt Varnish
52 Baltic Blue Metallic
53 Gunmetal Metallic
54 Brass Metallic
56 Aluminium Metallic
60 Scarlett Matt
61 Flesh Matt
62 Leather Matt
63 Sand Matt
64 Light Grey Matt
65 Aircraft Blue Matt
66 Olive Drab Matt
67 Tank Grey Matt
69 Yellow Gloss
70 Brick Red Matt
73 Wine Matt
76 Uniform Green Matt
77 Navy Blue Matt
78 Cockpit Green Matt
80 Grass Green Matt
82 Orange Lining Matt
85 Coal Black Satin
86 Light Olive Matt
93 Desert Yellow Matt
94 Brown Yellow Matt
98 Chocolate Matt
99 Lemon Matt
101 Mid Green Matt
103 Cream Matt
110 Natural Wood Matt
113 Rust Matt
121 Pale Stone Matt
127 US Ghost Grey Satin
130 White Satin
131 Mid Green Satin
147 Light Grey Matt
153 Insignia Red Matt
154 Insignia Yellow Matt
155 Olive Drab Matt
160 German Cam Red Brown Matt
164 Dark Sea Grey Satin
174 Signal Red Satin
186 Brown Matt
191 Chrome Silver Metallic
200 Pink Gloss
201 Black Metallic
220 Italian Red Gloss
222 Moonlight Blue Metallic
27001 Aluminium Metalcote
27002 Polished Aluminium Metalcote
27003 Polished Steel Metalcote
27004 Gunmetal Metalcote

 

Discontinued:

 

71 Oak
72 Khaki drill
74 Linnen
81 Pale yellow
83 Ochre
84 Mid Stone
87 Steel grey
89 Middle Blue
90 Beige Green
91 Black green
100 Red Brown
102 Army green
109 WWI blue
111 Field grey
116 US dark green
117 US light green
119 light earth
123 extra dark sea grey
126 US medium grey
128 US compas grey
129 US gull grey
132 Red
133 Brown
135 Varnish
140 Gull grey
144 intermediate blue
145 medium grey
149 dark green
156 Dark camoflage grey
159 Khaki drab
163 dark green
165 medium sea grey
166 light aircraft grey
173 track colour
195 Darl green
196 Light grey
224 Dark slate grey
226 Interiour green
234 darl flesh
238 Arrow red
239 British racing green
240 RLM 02 Grau
241 RLM70 zwarts grau
242 RLM72 grun
244 RLM73 grun
245 RLM74 grau grun
246 RLM75 grau violet
247 RLM76 lightblau
248 RLM78 himmel blau
249 RLM79 sandgelb
253 RLM83 Dunkel grun

 

Rob

[Ngantek]

It feels to me like some relatively 'core' colours are on the discontinued list, with some niche looking ones remaining. I guess the decision must be informed by sales, so perhaps a good range of generic colours is the planned approach, rather than appealing to modellers looking for specific historical colour matches? Little bit of a head scratcher for me if I'm honest.

 

 

 

 

[John Laidlaw]

Crikey. They're discontinuing a slew of RAF/FAA colours, yet keeping 30 for Dark Green? What a shame.

[JamesP]

18 minutes ago, John Laidlaw said:

Crikey. They're discontinuing a slew of RAF/FAA colours, yet keeping 30 for Dark Green? What a shame.

Didn't they 'fix' Hu 30 a few years ago so that it's correct now?

[Troy Smith]

5 minutes ago, JamesP said:

Didn't they 'fix' Hu 30 a few years ago so that it's correct now?

Not if the stuff in the little starter pots is the same.   Thing is, it's been the wrong colour for 50 years,  and there are plenty of people who think it's the 'right' colour,  there was a depressing anecdote from @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies  about being a model show, and a modeller passing on the right colour as he wanted the blue green colour that 30 is that was  one 'he was used too'

 

I'll over to @John  as to if it was 'fixed'? 

[John Laidlaw]

18 minutes ago, JamesP said:

Didn't they 'fix' Hu 30 a few years ago so that it's correct now?

Not if the one I bought a couple of years ago when I returned to enamels is anything to go by, no. Supplies of British-made enamels here in the States is patchy at best these days, though, so it could have been old stock.

[Ngantek]

I wonder... is it a numbers game of 'we'll continue just the top 100 best selling' or a more deliberate one? Perhaps one where they've decided since they've fallen out of favour with a lot of 'serious' modellers, to play to a wider, less specialised consumer base, taking advantage of their wide availability (at least in the UK), and offering more generic colours?

 

At the very least, removing so many RAF/FAA colours seems a bit at odds with Airfix's strategy. 

[lasermonkey]

If you look at the current enamel paint charts, as shown on the Humbrol website, those “discontinued” colours are still on there. I suspect that the missing colours are just those that haven’t been produced yet, after the reformulation palaver. Until such time as Humbrol officially states they are discontinuing colours, I don’t believe it. 

[Rob de Bie]

7 minutes ago, lasermonkey said:

If you look at the current enamel paint charts, as shown on the Humbrol website, those “discontinued” colours are still on there. I suspect that the missing colours are just those that haven’t been produced yet, after the reformulation palaver. Until such time as Humbrol officially states they are discontinuing colours, I don’t believe it. 

 

Good point. This list was sent out by the Dutch importer. It could be they decided to reduce the range. But honestly I do not think that's the case.

Rob

 

[John]

I can't see Humbrol not having at least one Sky-type colour in their enamel range. 

John 

[rod mcq]

1 hour ago, lasermonkey said:

If you look at the current enamel paint charts, as shown on the Humbrol website, those “discontinued” colours are still on there. I suspect that the missing colours are just those that haven’t been produced yet, after the reformulation palaver. Until such time as Humbrol officially states they are discontinuing colours, I don’t believe it. 

 

I work in the model trade and the lists of enamels are accurate. Humbrol have reduced the enamel range to the 86 colours listed above. At the same time virtually all the discontinued colours have been added to the Arcylic paint range which now has 150+ colours although several have yet to be released.

There are a couple of other discontinued enemal not listed above  - metallic Green Mist and metallic Sunset Red spring to mind.

Most of the discontinued enamels are poor sellers and I think it is a purely commercial decision.

[lasermonkey]

Again, once confirmed by Humbrol themselves, I’ll believe it. At that point, they will also have lost me as a customer. I hate acrylics. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by lasermonkey

[jackroadkill]

I'm glad to see the dire RLM colours on the chop list.

[stevehnz]

2 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

I'm glad to see the dire RLM colours on the chop list.

Was it the colours or the paint you didn't like. The colours were generally accepted as accurate against respected standards afaik but the paints did take a bit if work from experience with them.

Steve.

[jackroadkill]

4 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Was it the colours or the paint you didn't like. The colours were generally accepted as accurate against respected standards afaik but the paints did take a bit if work from experience with them.

Steve.

 

The colours were pretty good, that's true, but whatever the substrate was, it was a disaster.  I couldn't get it to work no matter what I did.

[RidgeRunner]

There’s no mention of US SEA Tan but I see 116 and 117 are on the chop list! How is that? They are the closest enamels to accurate colours that I’ve found! Oddly, 28 US SEA Gray is shown as continued. 

 

Martin

[Casey]

8 hours ago, John Laidlaw said:

Didn't they 'fix' Hu 30 a few years ago so that it's correct now?

No. They did not. It is still too green and too blue.

 

 

 

[John Laidlaw]

14 minutes ago, Casey said:

No. They did not. It is still too green and too blue.

That's how my tin looks. It's closer to an RAAF Foliage Green than the RAF Dark Green, but too light and saturated.

[JamesP]

13 hours ago, Casey said:

No. They did not. It is still too green and too blue.

 

 

 

It has it's uses though, I seen Hu30 as suggested as great match for 70/80's British AFV like the Chieftain by service men.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

37 minutes ago, JamesP said:

 

It has it's uses though, I seen Hu30 as suggested as great match for 70/80's British AFV like the Chieftain by service men.

 

It shouldn't be, as BS381C-285 NATO Green (on Chieftains) is almost identical to BS381C-241 Dark Green (standardised RAF Dark Green). If anything it's a sniff more yellow, not more blue.

 

[sapperastro]

Not sure if this has been already laid to rest, but after searching through the Humbrol website, I found this

 

https://d63oxfkn1m8sf.cloudfront.net/7616/6980/5182/Humbrol_-_Shade_Chart_28-11-22_Online_Version_Web.pdf

 

As you can see, the enamel line has been gutted. Totally useless now for many applications, including the RAF/FAA of all things.

 

For enamel enjoyers like myself, this leaves it all up to Colourcoats (and in Oz a possible 6 month to 1 year turn around for out of stock paints). I could go for "close enough" by using remaining Humbrol, Revell and Tamiya enamel, but this doesn't really cut it. No Xtracolour in Oz unfortunately.

 

I have some reserves, but these will eventually be used up.

 

Another thing that really gets my goat, is the total lack of good enamels for certain areas now. Humbrol 75 was my go to for RAAF Foliage Green, with 149 being too light, and the Colourcoats variant also being too light to my eye. Both of my SCC15 easy equivalents, Humbrol 159 mixed with some black, or Humbrol 253, gone. And a couple of my preferred shades for French WW2 aircraft are also gone. I am sure there are others that I haven't thought of.

 

The hope is that they will continue to add to the numbers over time the same way they have done with the Acrylics once they got a new mixture. Not holding my breath with the state of enamel paints these days, as it wasn't long ago Model Master enamels were discontinued.

 

By the way, has anyone actually tried the new enamel formula they they were supposed to put out after the chemical change restrictions? Is there any way of identifying it? Is it any different?

Edited May 28, 2023 by sapperastro

[Casey]

If the new Enamels are as bad as new Acrylics... then it might not be supper happy experience. Safety and regulations around world are making it a tricky business especially if you have line of acrylics that can be sold almost everywhere for similar price.

 

Might be difficult to justify it as a good business case for a large company, that is.

 

[sapperastro]

On 5/28/2023 at 1:39 PM, Casey said:

If the new Enamels are as bad as new Acrylics... then it might not be supper happy experience.

 

What are the new acrylic paints like? I tried a couple of the type in the 18ml pots, and found them to be ok, but virtually impossible to get more. Prior to that, the stuff in the screw and flip top pots were terrible, though I didn't mind the variant they had in the 80's and 90's. Still have a few of them left from those days, and they still paint fine.

 

None of the new dropper bottle stuff is available in Australia.

Edited May 29, 2023 by sapperastro

[Casey]

1 hour ago, sapperastro said:

None of the new dropper bottle stuff is available in Australia.

The ones I had were having random viscosity - varying from tar to skim milk (mostly tar). I tried to remove the tops of the bottles to add a mixing ball but they introduced a weird cone shape which made this exercise extra hard. The mixing stones did not help much anyway with the tar-like paints anyway.

 

The other issue I had was random colors - I have couple of bottles of same label colors that differ way too much. Another constant issue was not too finely ground pigments - my airbrush was constantly clogged and I had to fight to get this paint sprayed out.

 

I had a small fight to even prepare samples of them all and once I did that - I've published spectrophotometer data on this site and put the paints into a dustiest corner of my basement to be never used. It felt like the substance from those 5ml paint pots Airfix is adding to starter sets.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Casey

[sapperastro]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

The ones I had were having random viscosity - varying from tar to skim milk (mostly tar). I tried to remove the tops of the bottles to add a mixing ball but they introduced a weird cone shape which made this exercise extra hard. The mixing stones did not help much anyway with the tar-like paints anyway.

 

The other issue I had was random colors - I have couple of bottles of same label colors that differ way too much. Another constant issue was not too finely ground pigments - my airbrush was constantly clogged and I had to fight to get this paint sprayed out.

 

I had a small fight to even prepare samples of them all and once I did that - I've published spectrophotometer data on this site and put the paints into a dustiest corner of my basement to be never used. It felt like the substance from those 5ml paint pots Airfix is adding to starter sets.

 

Did you try the variant that was in the 18ml pots? They were from the same manufacturer as the Cote D'Arms and P3 paint, and weren't too bad. Nothing to set the night on fire, but usable. I have also seen a video where Humbrol has already put out a "gen II" of their acrylic paint in the dropper bottles, so I wonder if this is, yet another, attempt to get past a failed launch. They seem to have had a lot of those since the brand was re-animated under Hornby.

 

 

Putting super thick paint in a dropper bottle is insanity. I would just remove it and put it into one of my many empty tamiya or model master jars.

Edited May 29, 2023 by sapperastro