Price: £4.99 (March 2013)
Review by Geoff Coughlin
Our thanks to Humbrol for providing our review samples. Get these useful paints here now at Humbrol
Initial assessment…
Humbrol have released 4 new acrylic paint spray cans to their paint range. These colours are as follows:
Military shades:
German Red/Brown 160 Matt; Ocean Grey 106 Matt
Generic colours:
Purple 68 Gloss; Lime Green Gloss 38
Dave C has already done a field test review of the following colours and you can see that review here: Olive Drab 155 Matt; Dark Green 163 Satin; Beige Green 90 Matt; Mid Sea Grey 165 Satin; Red Arrows Red 238 Gloss; British Racing Green 239 Gloss. I’ve included Dave’s comments from his review below (although I urge you to check out his full review as there are additional photos there).
There’s not a lot I would add save to say that other colours are emerging all the time and getting added to the growing Humbrol range. Neil Pepper used Humbrol’s Desert Tan No.237 in his Airfix 1:48 Supacat Jackal build (currently in Build Now and soon to go to Finished Now) and is impressed with the coverage and colour.
Back to Dave C…
You either love or hate “rattle cans” but I must admit I quite like them especially when you are painting larger models. I was keen to try out these new colours to see how they performed. After a good shake (you`ll hear the ball bearings inside mixing the paint) I sprayed a selection of the colours onto to some scrap paper and plastic from a distance of 20-30cm as directed on the side of the can. The colours (I tried out a selection of gloss, matt and satin examples) give nice consistent colour coverage. Just be careful not to spray for too long as you will get a pooling effect, better to spray several light coats and build up the colour. If you stick to this method you will get an excellent overall finish. I also decanted the paint into a jar and sprayed it with my airbrush, again the coverage is excellent and this method allows you more control over where you spray. All the colours dry quickly as you would expect from acrylics and they are reasonably `house friendly; in the fact that they don`t smell like traditional rattle cans that you would get from Halfords (say). That said I would still recommend spraying in a well-ventilated environment just to be on the safe side. I was particularly impressed with the gloss colours. The Red Arrows Red looks perfect and would be ideal for spraying a big 1:32 Revell Hawk and the British Racing Green gives a really nice deep gloss finish, I have an Airfix 1:12th scale 1930 Bentley that this will be ideal for.
To sum up…
Overall these paints are a great addition to the Humbrol range and cover some very useful colours. They will be ideal for those modellers that don`t have an airbrush but want a spray gun finish or those of you that are painting a large model. That said they could also be used on smaller models with more complex paint schemes, you`ll just have get good at masking and be careful of any overspray. I`ve got to highly recommend these paints and look forward to Humbrol expanding their range further. Dave C.
OK that’s it for this review and hopefully with all this info you have enough to go out and try these acrylic spray cans – they can certainly speed up the model process!
Geoff C.