The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Thanks for the advice and encouragement Rob. Much appreciated.
I have a 90mm Napoleonic figure that I will use as a test bed for the oils. I'll post up my progress when I make a start.

PTB11 wrote:Its just that I prefer enamels for figure painting, especially flesh, as they can be blended, as opposed to the layering technique used with acrylics.

I use acrylics for figures; I blend with a brush dipped in meths. The alcohol softens the paints and allows them to be blended

59North wrote: I'm excited about a company known as 'True North Precision Paints', which is coming out with an extensive line of bottled enamels.

Thanks for that!

I'll add Colorcoats enamels found at:

https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/;

Competition cannot be a bad thing in our case?!

I don't get it anymore.
Due to all the frustration being expressed here and elsewhere about the new, I decided to do some double checking. The newest Humbrols I'd used were (in retrospect) those with the medium blue wraps and coloured lids, the type introduced when production returned to the UK. I'd always considered these considerably better than their Chinese predecessors, but a bit on the thick side and no match for the quality from before the move to China.
So, I paid a visit to the LHS today, and picked up some paints more or less at random, but making sure I got the paper stickered lids and labels that are neither full height nor full circumference of the tins. As near as I can tell, they're every bit as good as anything produced after about 1985 (still no match for the grey bar or authentics, but let's not go to extremes).
Did I just get lucky with the tins I got? Or am I completely missing the problem?

fredk wrote:I find H enamels need some thinners added. Stirred well, then left for a few hours and then stirred again before use. Then they are useable. The newer formulated H are the ones with the paper label on the lids...

The old tins are still out there, with their problems

fredk wrote:The old tins are still out there, with their problems

Yup, I can usually find three or four different generations of paint in the stands at the LHS. At the very least Chinese, previous UK, and current UK production. Chinese is junk, inconsistent physical characteristics, and unpredictable colours. Previous UK is very thick and tricky, but at least the colours seemed to be good again. Current UK seems the best we've had in years, if not decades, based on my extremely limited test.
A full recall of all the lower quality previous generations would have been nice, but frankly, I'd rather work around the issues than bankrupt Humbrol with a recall. I'm just happy they seem to be improving, and that I won't have to re-learn what colours to use from a different range.

As far as my figure painting goes I have only ever used oils. I ran into an oil painting site many years ago and in one of their tutorials was Flesh Colour Mixes. I am unable to remember where but I wrote the mix details down. I still have them if anyone wants them.

Dai

DH-Drover wrote:As far as my figure painting goes I have only ever used oils. I ran into an oil painting site many years ago and in one of their tutorials was Flesh Colour Mixes. I am unable to remember where but I wrote the mix details down. I still have them if anyone wants them.

Dai

Hi Dai,

I'd very much appreciate if you could post up the colour mixes.

thanks