Problem with the new humbrol paints

[paul haring]

At this moment I'm having trouble with the new Humbrol colours.
Saturday I bought a tinlet desert yellow. The old Humbrols are really easy to apply, but this one doesn't. It stays transparent although it should end matt and opaque. Also the paint is thick and sticky and you can't thin it properly. Is this a problem with all the new Humbrols. I'm told that they are manufactured in China nowadays.
I really need Humbrol to paint my uniforms. It has ( had) an absolutely matt finish.

[Bluefalchion]

I never had much luck with Humbrol enamel. I switched to Vallejo acrylics a few years back and I have never regreted it once. No fumes, no thinner, easy cleanup. There are plenty of colors and if they don't have the right one you can mix them with ease.

[despertaferro]

I've been using enamels all my life and you're totally right.

Lately, the Humbrol paintings are fluid just a few weeks after you open the can. Then, the content deteriorate very quickly, turning into an emulsified mass impossible to use. I'm throwing away colours just used a couple of times and with the 90% of its content unusable for painting. If they do not solve the problem, I'll switch to acrylics.

[Marvin]

I never had much luck with Humbrol enamel. I switched to Vallejo acrylics a few years back and I have never regreted it once. No fumes, no thinner, easy cleanup. There are plenty of colors and if they don't have the right one you can mix them with ease.

Exactly the same for me too. Hard to take that first step in abandoning the Humbrol tinlet collection but now I can't believe it took me so long to switch to Vallejo acrylics.

[Beano Boy]

Paul,I have returned to Humbrol and Revell enamel paints,because I paint in a toy soldier style! I am mixing,and thinning down the paints and have had no problem as yet. There`s no great need to apply varnish to protect ones work.

I have used the Make and colour enamel you have referred to,which i bought a few days ago,and without any problem. Perhaps that is one tin in a bad batch? Which probably means thousands of them are still out there. BB

[Graeme]

I'm a bit of a matt enamel dinosaur and I have noticed several problems when replacing some of my Humbrol paints.

One problem is the extreme thickness of some of the paints as you mentioned. I bought some Humbrol Enamel Thinners and a glass eye dropper from the chemist (a plastic dropper might be melted by the thinners) and this does a pretty good job of thinning the paint or retrieving those that have partially dried out. It doesn't affect the matt finish.

http://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/paints-accessories/enamel-thinners-125ml-bottle.html

Another problem is that some of the colours in new tins just don't match the old ones. I've had to mix white paint into a couple of cans that were just way too dark.

Humbrol used to have excellent metallic paints. When you used their silver it gave a result that looked like a sheet of polished silver. And dry brushing this with gunmetal gave a very pleasing result on armour. When I had to replace my silver paint I bought four or five cans trying to find one that matched the old stuff. Some looked like metallic grey, some looked like not so metallic grey and some looked like glaziers putty. Eventually I bought a tin of Revell silver.
When replacing my brass paint, which previously was very good, I got a can filled mostly with a putrid green solvent and very little metallic pigment. It doesn't work well at all but I might have just got a bad batch.

As for your transparent yellow paint. it might, as BB says, be just a bad batch with too little pigment, like my brass paint above.
If the matt paint is also drying shiny it's a mixing problem, the solids are not fully mixed with the solvent. I have a rule for Humbrol enamels, stir with a cocktail stick until the solid lump of pigment picked up from the bottom of the can has disappeared from the stick. continue stirring for a ridiculously long time that an obsessive compulsive would find excessive. Then continue stirring for half as long again. If you're lucky you'll have enough time left to paint something.

If it's just the way this colour paint is, and I believe that in any kind of paint yellow pigments are just more transparent than other colours, then I can only suggest a white matte primer or gesso to combat the transparency.

I like the look of matt enamels, and Humbrol have a great range of colours, They even have a paint specifically for painting Brown Bess musket stocks! But it would be good if they could manage their quality control so that we got the same product each time we buy.

[Beano Boy]

They are mixing Rubbing Down Alchohol, into the paint mixture,better know as Methylated Spirits! I just thinned two tin of white enamel paint down using thinners. It looked like Fresh Cream when I opened the tins. From these two tins I ended up with another tin full of thinned down ready to use paint. I painted a few figures that can be seen above,and the paint dried in less than 20 minutes,which is very fast for enamel paints. BB

[paul haring]

What is rubbed down alcohol. I've never heard about it. Can you buy it in a DIYcenter?

[Bluefalchion]

We call it rubbing alcohol in the States. It usually is Isopropyl alcohol, but it can be based on other types of ethanol based alcohols. BB can tell you the specific type if he can read the tiny type on the label. Or you switch to acrylics and thin your paint down to good old fashioned H2O.