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[fullboat]

Hi, I have recently spent the  equivalent of a small mortgage on a stack of humbrol paints only to find that the colours vary between tins. What I thought would be identical colours because the tins have the same number are ( and I'm severely colour blind ) several shades apart . I'm wondering if this is a common problem to this brand.
Boy am I annoyed............  >:(

[cos918]

hi  there yes i had the same problem. So now if i have a big job to paint i mix both tins in to i big jar.

john

[Philipsparker]

I don't think the Chinese quality control between batches is what it could be. As has been said, mix several tins into one jar if you need a lot - or if the colour is available buy the bigger pots. It's still better than Revel paint though.

I suppose you get what you pay for. It's cheaper to manufacture in China, which keeps the costs down for us, but the people at the plant simply don't care as much about the results. Several manufacturers have had this problem, the Chinese don't have the same culture of hobbies that we do and getting them to understand why this nonessential stuff matters is harder. It is coming though.

Has anyone got recommendations for other paint brands ? I've used Precision Paints on model railway items successfully but find they are thinner so you need more coats for coverage.

Phil

[Stan]

Hi Guys

Just bought 3 tins of Humbrol 98  same problem  two tins totally differant shade to the third.

[fullboat]

I'm glad ,for want of a better phrase, that I'm not the only one to have this problem. As was pointed out best to mix tins together for the larger jobs .
Anyway we live and learn

Thanks for the moral support guys

[Colin Bishop]

This isn't good news, I hope something is being done about it. Next thing, we'll discover there is lead in the paint to make it cheaper. The Chinese don't play by our rules as all the recent toy and other product recalls rather alarmingly demonstrate.

And i've just bought a new Iomega external hard disk for my precious backups  - made in China.  :-\

[red181]

how about this then, a BIG rc helicopter "upgrade" company, very well know if you are into that sort of thing, recently had problems with main rotor blades, they where snapping at the root, where it connects to the head on the helicopter. I had a set, luckily didnt use them. The type of helicopter they are used on I am told has rotor tip speeds in excess of 100mph, then the blades fly off. THey replaced without question new designed blades, but the old ones are STILL for sale through vendors on ebay etc, how bad is that >:(
China can certainly make the goods cheap, but quality control is another thing. I am desperate for a esc that can handle 16cells, and the chioce is very limited, but I refuse to buy from china via ebay for this reason, and I always try when possible to support uk model shops, pity virtually everything to do with opur hobby electronics is from the land of the rising sun :(

[andygh]

Sorry to be pedantic but the land of the rising sun is Japan 

[andyn]

It's not a problem, no paint ever mixed will be the same twice. On ww2 aircraft there are several different shades of the same color

[Colin Bishop]

So how do car bodyshops manage then?

[Philipsparker]

Car body shops hand mix paint. I once had the orange paint mixed for my Beetle and the guy had a book with over 500 shades of orange in. Each page had ten very slightly different shades each with a hole in on the colour. The page was placed on the car and compared to see what the perfect match was. From this they got the recipe for the colour. The spray will often be blended into the existing paint with T-cut or similar. Normal people can't tell but pro's can look at a car and spot it.

Modern paint is a lot more consistant than old paints. Often the stuff was mixed locally based on a swatch but different people saw different colours and so they were slight differences in shade.

I suspect that the only way to get Humbrol of a consistant shade is to buy all the tins as soon as the model shop gets them in. That way you get them from the same batch. Use paint that has sat on the shelf for a while with new paint and you get different shades. If you can't do that, mix it all in a big jar as someone else suggested.

Phil

[andyn]

There you go 

If you get in contact with Bill Warder (D203) he could get it sprayed for you, for a cost of around £500 i think he said.


Andy