Humbrol Acrylics.... any good ??

Hi lads,

Just got hold of a few plastic tubs of Humbrol acrylics ! are these sort of paints any good ? eg'... working the paint/covering well/drying times/drying too fast while your putting it on, etc etc.

Does the H35 clear gloss acrylic 'YELLOW' at all over time or does it stay nice and clear ?

Can you get clear matt ?

What do you use to thin this sort of paint ?

ian.

Hi Ian. As you probably know, I'm not particularly a fan of acrylic paints, probably as I've been used to Humbrol enamels for over 46 years! However, I have had occasssion to use Tamiya and Humbrol acrylics, albeit in small doses. The Humbrol product seemed OK and, if anything, worked better than the Tamiya when brushed. The big disadvantage I see is the small volume they are supplied in. As far as airbrushing is concerned, I have only used tamiya acrylic and found them 'different', but easy to spray. The problem was, the paint dries VERY quickly, clogging the airbrush and, if brush painted, I was unable to use the paint itself to obtain variouis effects I can achieve with enamels. I'm still undecided, as acrylics do have some merits, but i don't think enough to sway me from enamels, even though the formulation of the latter has changed quite a lot over recent years.
Humbrol do a clear matt acrylic varnish, which I use, not sure about gloss yellowing. But, if you want acrylic gloss varnish, buy Johnsons Klear -- 250ml for £2.60 approx, as opposed to £1.25 for 12ml acrylic, Humbrol or Tamiya!!!
You can also add matt acrylic varnish to Klear, and use it as a thinner. Not sure if Humbrol do a thinner for their acrylic, but Tamiya do, and it's VERY expensive for what you get! Water, preferably but not essential, distilled, works fine.

Or use Isopropyl Alcohol 90% as a thinner for acrylics. I've used water too, but have found it to be a bit hit or miss in consistency and drying... especially if you are working in a cool or humid area.

I like the acrylics for cleanup alone. But enamels establish the benchmark in my opinion. With acrylics, cleaning your model before hand becomes a MUST. Also, I have found that a primer is necessary before acrylic painting in large areas, especially if you mask. Without primer, I have suffered from the tape pulling up the basecoat.

And finally, I am REALLY leery about using ANY acrylic paints for bare metal airplanes. I have enough of a hard time with enamels pulling up during masking. I can't imagine how difficult that would prove to be with acrylics.

While this sounds really negative, they have their spots in the modeler's tool box. Like Airframes, having been an enamel guy since the early 70's, I won't give my acrylics up. You will just have to experiment in their use.

Like house paint, the water based paint technology has really improved.