"A public "thank you" to Deadhead - Humbrol authentic colours" Topic

Necro Thread!

For me – GWR Coach Chocolate and the Loco Green – unfortunately the true railway is 200 miles away – up here is LNER

On my deathbed I want a tin of Humbrol paint wafted under my nostrils, to bring back memories of lazy youthful sunny days shut firmly indoors hunched over my painting desk with radio three in the background and a view of Scunthorpe slag works in the distance…

I, too, used Humbrol, more than 35 years ago. Wonderful memories, and the colors have held true over years of usage.

Now I use the water based acrylics and are happy with them, but there was something special about those little tins …

Nostlagia, it is not what it used to be.

Funny, the one bottle I never bought was the British Uniform Red as I simply could not believe the shade shown….brick red. Brown/orange, nothing like the defenders of Rourke's Drift in the film. Of course now I know, but, to be honest, I still paint mine in a much prettier brighter red.

Those WWI paints from Humbrol! Forgot them. Clear doped linen on an Eindekker. RFC green on a Camel or SE5A. Trying to paint the German lozenge pre printed fabric. One lozenge at a Time……

Good Lord! My alter ego of Jefthing has surfaced and I completely forgot about this thread!

I still have the tin of Airfix M11. And I will follow Calculon's lead and have a tin of Humbrol gloss wafted under my hooter. And then buried with said tin of M11.

I remember my Nana rang the local radio 'agony aunt' phone in show, because she'd heard of solvent abuse and thought that my huge Authenticolour collection indicated I was an addict! Little did she know, I was addicted, but to the subject, not the solvent. Still am really, 46 years later. Anyone remember the Authenticards? I bought mine from Beatties, and the illustrations of Hinchliffes led me to the much missed Nottingham Model Soldier Shop. My pocket money only stretched to one figure a week (a fortnight for cavalry) and I'd spend all week painting it. Happy days.

Humbrol authenticards!

Weird cross-over with the Hinchcliffe painting guides!

I'm still using Humbrol, addicted since around 1975 when I got my first Hinchliffe figures from a wonderful small shop near Blackpool Tower. A British 9 pdr gun and five crew, along with a few tins of enamel and a 0 brush – which is still in use! And yes, I still have some Humbrol authenticards. Happy times.

I also still use Humbrol paints almost exclusively. Been trying to use acrylics over the last week and just don't get along with them at all.

You have my respect…then

You still use those enamels………..?

They cannot be mixed, they take days to dry, you are to be up there with Humbrol 1970s…………

I remember those enamels…

I've NEVER been without a tin of G10. I expect it will be the one wafted under my nose…

deadhead – They can't be mixed? I mix them all the time. No problems!

All painted with enamels.

"A place where shops and/or small businesses trade from"

"Trade from" is like selling products, conducting business or is it bartering?

I have you all beat. I actually started out with Testors paints in the little glass bottles. I used them to paint car and airplane models and just migrated them over to figures. Then I discovered Humbrol and I had dozens of the those tin cans.

I also used Testors' model master line of paints at the same time. They were all kind of a pain when it came to taking off those lids and keeping them on so the paint wouldn't dry. Great memories, but I was more than ready to switch to acrylics.

"The Humbrol British scarlet that I always thought was too orange…"

That's exactly what I thought. I had to mix it with red.

I still hanker after the little glass Airfix bottles of paint, like truncated obelisks. The Airfix tinlets annoyed me because they were a different height to Humbrols so they didn't stack.

I had a big exam to sit when I was 13, to get a scholarship to a very good nearby school. It was founded in 1561 or something, and was eyewateringly fee-paying (it's about £20.00 GBPk a year these days). But then, if you did well in their exam you got in for nothing.
So for about a year before that exam I had no life as evenings, weekends and school holidays were spent on tutoring and homework. During that time my hobbies were banned as dissipations of concentration. So I saved up and spent pocket money on my first ever stash of kits and figures and paint (normally I was tearing at them before I got them home).

The kit stash was a 1/72 Catalina, Lancaster, and Hercules with Bloodhound missile. The figure stash was the Airfix Gun Emplacement and Coastal Defence assault sets. The paints were Airfix tinlets. I collected all the ones the box sides said I needed and as I wasn't allowed to use them I opened them up and sniffed them instead.

I had one of these dogs

(for doing well at school aged 7. Yeah, I know) and he used to stare at me doing this with much the same expression. You could see him thinking, WTAF are you doing?

I miss the paints and the dog. The Airfix 1/72 Hercules, meh. After a few years the wings always fall off.

The Coastal Defence fort was a blast – it fired little plastic shells and scales out at 13.5-inch calibre – but it never occurred to me to paint it.

Don't leave us hanging – did you get in?

Yes I did and they had this thing called a Wargaming Society.

Apparently, if you want to fight battles with toy soldiers, you aren't just limited to flicking marbles, matchsticks and elastic bands at them. You can organise them into units, make playing rules and decide stuff by rolling dice.

Who knew?

It seemed like a good idea that could catch on one day.

I had some of the glass bottles too. I quite liked the later Airfix paints and tended to use them more as they were stocked locally. Humbrol had thicker pigment, though, and covered the multi-coloured Airfix kits without undercoat; even the black ones. Can't do that now.

The last time I saw Airfix paints for sale was in a beachfront shop in Woolacombe in 1984!

@ Jeffers

Yep, I reckon they were withdrawn in the late 70s. There could still have been some 5-year-old stock around in 1984. The bottles disappeared I think in about 1970.

That's right, they stopped abruptly when Airfix went out of business. I might take my working tin of M11 to Antiques Roadshow one day…

I never saw the bottles for sale anywhere, but my dad used them. I had my first box of Airfix figures in 1970 (I was 4) but I wasn't allowed to paint stuff until later. The last time I saw a bottle used was a dark blue colour my dad mixed up for my RAF ground crew in about 1975 (also worked for French foot artillery…).

I'm not sure how practical they were, but I do remember them being very tactile!

What nostalgia? I hated oil based paints (Humbrol and Testor) and the day I found out about water based paints and could put away my Varsol was a day of cheering. Never looked back.

I have a couple of tins of Airfix enamel, M3 and M11, still perfectly usable. I used some M11 earlier this year. I never thought Airfix paints were quite as good as Humbrol, but these two have stood the test of time.

Thanks for the reminder – I remember the thrill of spending a little extra as a child to get the exact right napoleonic humbrol paint – I even remember requesting 3 very specific tins for xmas.

I treasured this tins!

Arrived here after searching for the best acrylic brass paint to use for Austrian Napoleonic artillery barrels.
I remember the Airfix paint in bottles. I used 'Oxford Blue' in the 1970's on some Bavarians converted from Waterloo French Infantry head swapped with Waterloo British Artillery.
Very happy days.

I still have my M11 AND a tin of Humbrol Copper with a Woolworths 14p price tag on.

Although I agree wholeheartedly with Marcus!

I still use Humbrol ~ and Revel ~ enamels exclusively for my Napoleonic figures.

Even with all the faffing about with white spirits, etc, and the endless stirring required to make sure that the matt paints really do dry matt, I still prefer them to acrylics.

For wargaming purposes, in my view, enamels are so much more hard wearing, and I've found it easier to mix enamels to make different tones and shades, than with acrylics.

Each to his own, of course. If I was going to paint a model for a display cabinet, then I'd probably use acrylics, but for wargames models, it has to be enamels for me.

@ Tassie

My mega discovery back then was finding out that spraying with Humbrol 49 turned gloss colours matt.

I simply could not believe when I opened those tins before sending them to Mark at Work. OK, some had never ever been opened, but I was expecting a chunk of solid pigment…

No, they did show resilience after decades in several attics. Lately I am more amused chasing US Olive Drab. A jar of Tamiya vs a dropper bottle of Vallejo. They are meant to be the same when applied to an M4A2……I know which looks right to me (even if I did miss Paris in August 1944)

I still use my French Artillery green.

@Mike the Analyst
I nearly took a punt at this on Ebay last week (three tins of French Artillery Green included):

auction

AIUI French Artillery Green was made from yellow ochre plus black, as was British Army khaki 100 years later, which became olive drab.

So could you paint a Sherman in Humbrol MC21 or is it, as I suspect, a bit too green?

No French blue sadly, otherwise I would have been tempted

@4th Cuirassier
One part black to 80 parts yellow ochre. I have the French field instructions somewhere for manufacturing the paint and pigment. It is probably in Foy or Gassendi.

I graduated from painting 54mm Timpo (badly) to the Minifigs 25mm S range (remarkably well) with Humbrol – and never looked back.
As someone mentioned, the paint is so robust. 45 years on I just ought to touch up elbows on my first few Spanish (pseudo heavy) cavalry regts.

Reading the posts on this thread reminded me of the small soft rubber phials of glue Airfix put in their model kits back in the 1960's. Also paint? if I recall correctly. They were similsr to Haribo 'Coke' bottles, but did not taste as nice. Purple and Orange Facing along with Brown Bess are other colours I remember from the Humbrol Authentic range.

'Purple'
Would that be 'Polish Crimson'?

There was a great purple in the range, Roman maybe

@ Allan F

MC26 was "Royal Purple" – Humbrol 68, "Purple Gloss", today. Polish Crimson was MC10, which today is Humbrol 20, apparently.

I've still got a tin of "Polish Crimson", jealously stored until I get around to this Regiment of Garde Cavalry and a couple of larger figures for a collection. It's unopened. I shake it periodically. Yesterday it still splashed.

'Purple'
Would that be 'Polish Crimson'?

Could well have been – I thought it was Purple Facings but it was 1978 when I last had a tin! so my memory could be playing tricks on me.

-(Quote 'B.B')- "𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘈𝘪𝘳𝘧𝘪𝘹 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 1960'𝘴.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘴𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘰 '𝘊𝘰𝘬𝘦' 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴",

@ "british bulldog" = I've just read your post & triggered a memory…

You're 100% correct about the older/early/mid-1960's kits ('Higher Series only tho' !), containing those rustic-brown "rubberised" soft phials of glue.

I was an avid builder of AIRFIX kits, particularly those of the 'Type.3' aka "Red-Stripe" era, which equates from 1965-1972 **
** (Although some 'Type.3' Red-Stripes lingered-on, in shops, stock-wise, into 1973 & maybe even into early '74)

I bought a whole stash of the 'OLD' AIRFIX B.24-J LIBERATOR, in the older 'Type.3' boxes (1965-1972)

These can be easy-identified by the dull-grey 'undercast' over which they're flying.
It's clearly over a German city, as a lone Me.109 is "rising" to meet the formation.

They also bear the 'Circle-'D' of the 392nd Bomb-Group, based at Wendling (Beeston), in Norfolk.

This is in contrast to the 1974/1975 boxing, showing completely different artwork, of a 'shark-mouthed' Pacific-Theatre (P.T.O), B.24, which has a 'Skull/Crossbones motif on the rudder assembly.

It was THE former 'Type.3' Red-Stripe 'Series.5' Wendling B.24 kits that contained the strange & nowadays mythic phials of glue.
I seem to recall buying an older C.47 (same boxing) w/it too

But as for the much older 'series.5' B.24 Liberators, I bought at least TWO of them 'back in the day' (1971 & 1972), whilst again, I bought a whole batch of FIVE in the 1990's, where again, each contained the strange rubberised Brown-squidge.
I remembered it as being crap in the day (& it was), plus it had hardly any glue in it, even when 100% sealed**
** (Certainly NEVER anywhere near enough to complete even half the B.24 assembly)
Willow-Run, eat yer heart out…
(My '7' against & versus their 18,000+)

Hi Hornchurch

I'm actually building a red stripe Airfix Dornier 217 at the moment. It's lockdown, it's something to do.

The decals are wrecked. I'm going to try printing my own using my home printer and an A4 sheet of decal paper. If that works, I'm going to start producing 1/32 eye decals so I don't have to paint the blasted things ever again.

I've started hanging these things from the ceiling of my home office. I've got a Spitfire V I have built to go with the Dornier.

Then it's back to figures and tanks.

-
Hi 4th Cuirassier – I enjoyed reading your post.

Also made me wistful AND a li'l jealous at the same time.
Ya see,
On the very last day BEFORE we broke-up for the '6-Weeks' school holiday (1974), I had a strong, strong, MASSIVE hankering to buy the very last-remaining 'series.3' AIRFIX DORNIER Do.217 in the old 'Red-Stripe' box, which remained in stock…
(It was in the MASSIVE stock section of Allens, in Chadwell-Heath, where I lived, back then).
We kept meeting these Girls (by chance), as each night we'd cross-paths (different directions), each of us walking home from school (45mins).
Instead of my ol' mate Barry King calling them (nightly), "A Pair of Slags" – Because it was the 'dawn' of six-weeks away from Colditz, we were BOTH in a "Euphoric Mood" (indeed !)
So THIS time, Barry runs-up & says "Girls, I could kiss ya, as I'm SO happy that schools-out for the summer"
They blushed, he kissed & hugged them (both), whilst I stayed more 'grounded' (more calm, reserved), watching BOTH former 'war-ing factions' make peace (Result !)
So, now….
Every time I see that 'mono-chromatic R.L.M Dornier' (Artwork/Box) it reminds me of 1974.
BTW ; Yeah, I actually DID go on to snag that last-one, at Allens, my "Mecca", as they carried a HUGE stock of the entire AIRFIX range.
Fast forward to when I had kids of my own & I'm now/then buying ONLY 1/48th exotica, plus stuff like Revell/Monogram's 1/48th Dornier Do.217-E.5 (x 2 of), plus the rarer Monogram 'Pro-Modeller' version.
I wish to God that I had some 1/72 'decal spares' that I could send ya, but sadly, I haven't.
Haven't built a 1/72 Dornier since 1974…. and….
98% of the (many) decal-sheets that I DO have, are all in the 1/48th scale, which I kinda "upgraded to" when Tamiya FINALLY pulled their fingers-out with the release of their 1994 fighter a/c range…
(Fw.190-D.9/Spitfire Vb/P.51-B Mustang/Dewoitine D.520, etc)
Might actually be wise to pick-up a cheap 'Montex' mask in 1/72 for your Dornier, using them takes-away the need for 'Glossing' (Gloss surfaces for the decals), so as to avoid "silvering".
Painted-on Insignia & code-letters usually look GREAT after a 'Montex' or 'Eduard' mask-set has been used.
BTW ; I'll bet those glass-canopies on your 'Red-Stripe' look a bit vague ?
(Laughs, coz they were molded at Haldane Place, London SW.18, back in the '70's)
If the (empty) box is any good (condition-wise) & you've no-further use for it, I'll have it off of ya & gladly pay for postage & packing, provided it's here in the UK ?
Nostalgia freak here, as I DO collect 'Red-Stripe' only, as it was my-era.
I managed to snag a 'series.2' Ki-46 AIRFIX Mitsubishi-Dinah & Aichi-Val recently.
BTW ; Let us know "if" ya succeed with printing-off those new decals ?

@ Hornchurch

So an update on this – the home made decals were a very partial success.

I ordered five A4 sheets each of clear and white decal paper. I scanned in the ropey old Dornier decals and then used GIMP to correct them into a coloured markings sheet and a white markings sheet. After test-printing them a few times, I worked out the settings to use so they'd come out the same size as the originals.

On the clear sheet I printed out the black crosses and lettering – everything except the white, basically. These decals looked better than the originals because RH+EJ in real life had the number 36 in tiny letters in the middle of the fuselage crosses.

On the white sheet I printed just the white parts: the crosses basically. I scored the edges of the cross with a scalpel.

The ones printed on clear decal film came out pretty well. The ones on white were a disaster – they were like little squares of the skin off boiled milk. Both black and white decals also folded back on themselves at the drop of a hat and once they had done so could not be unfolded.

I couldn't use Klear to seal them down (it dissolves the printer ink) so I was finding that they stuck much better to my fingers than to the model even hours later, i.e. they never really dried.

In the end I was only able to use my home made underwing crosses. I used ME110 decals everywhere else, with a spurious code.

I think another time, the white will have to be masked and painted. Maybe the clear decal film is more robust, or something.

If you want the box, the unused decals and the instructions, they're all yours…

BTW – a while ago, over on the Airfix Tribute Forum, they concluded that the Airfix B24 probably had the most working features of any Airfix kit:

- ailerons and tailplanes
- 2 x rudders
- retractable main gear
- retractable nose gear
- 4 x spinning propellers
- retractable, rotating ball turret
- rotating nose, mid-upper, and tail turret
- swivelling guns on all turrets
- bomb doors

I remember it well.

I love how this jumps up every now and again to remind me how generous I was when I was Jefthing… 😆

Just reread my old post and I mention the Mirage V I had just painted. 5 years later, I've got it for sale on eBay!

I love that this has been running for almost 5 years now and how the topic has transformed. That is how a good group conversation evolves and it shows how good we all are at making this forum such a success.

I bet the paint still works after 5 more years too.

Sadly not. I opened my M11 a couple of weeks ago to do a colour comparison and it had finally dried out after 36 years.