Scale Model Shop

**BarryW** · 10 March 2023, 09:11

The MRP lacquers I buy are all 30ml bottles for about £5. One reason I like them is because they are in 30ml bottles!

I can see the sense in varnishes and primers coming in even larger bottles as well.

**Guest** · 10 March 2023, 09:42

It depends a lot on what you use them for, I would say. If you only build ships of a specific navy, then the 125 ml tins will be a good buy — but if all you need a certain colour for is painting the odd face and hands of a 1:35 scale tank crewman, even 10 ml will last you forever. For myself, I like Tamiya’s 23 ml bottles and prefer buying them over the 10 ml ones, mainly because you pay about 50% extra for the actual paint in the smaller bottle, but 125 ml … no, thanks.

**Ian M** · 10 March 2023, 11:17

It is not just Navy paints Jakko, they also do Armour and Aircraft colours.
How many 1/35 scale tanks could you paint with a 14ml tin of Humbrol? Just curious.

**stona** · 10 March 2023, 12:30

Originally posted by Ian M

Have they lost the plot.
I was in the one shop in DK where I can order these from and got half the order and told the ret is out of stock. Fair enough.
Today I learned that the size of the pots are changing. 14ml standard size tin lets for model paint are out. New stock will be in either 30ml or 125ml tins. at around £5 and £13 respectively.
So looks like I am going to find another solution. A pity as they are good paint but the supersized pots and prices.... the paint will out last me.
A 1/200 ships hull takes max three 14ml tinlets if you can only buy the colour in 125ml ... that's what three? Four? hulls worth.
Personally I think they are making a big mistake. I can see lots of customers saying bugger that and finding another solution. Like me.

I buy Colourcoats direct from Sovereign Hobbies and for the moment at least the traditional 14ml tinlets are available. Maybe it's something to do with shipping them across the North Sea? I couldn't see anything on the website advising of a change in sizes.

Like you, I wouldn't want larger quantities. I suppose 30ml would be just about okay, but a 14ml tinlet each of Medium Sea Grey, Ocean Grey and Dark Green will typically be enough for three 1/32 scale aircraft! Yes, it's only 14ml, but that is before thinning and at three quid a tin it's not bad value for money. Sovereign's shipping has got quite expensive which might justify buying the larger 30ml tinlets less frequently. I've no idea who would need a whopping 125ml, maybe someone painting a large R/C model or their shed?

I would say that many popular colours have been showing as sold out. I first noticed this several months ago when I was looking to make an order and the situation doesn't look much better today. For example, both Sky and Ocean Grey are showing as sold out.

**Tim Marlow** · 10 March 2023, 14:50

Seems a strange move. Unless you work in Boatman’s scale they are completely over the top.
I remember Cherry paints railway enamels coming in similar sizes back in the day. The only LSWR coach salmon on the market at the time was made by them, and only in a 125ml tin. I still have it thirty years later. I made quite a lot of 4mm coaching stock when I was still railway modelling, and I think the tin is still about 90% full…Good for colour consistency across models, but not a lot else. Humbrol used to make large tins of the basic colours as well. I had both matt black and matt white in that size because they are very common colours on railway stock…..totally false economy, they were both unusable before I got a third of the way down the tin……and I used to use white as an undercoat on anything bright, so it wasn’t as if it was used infrequently.

**Guest** · 10 March 2023, 18:10

Originally posted by Ian M

It is not just Navy paints Jakko, they also do Armour and Aircraft colours.

I know, I was aiming for examples where one or the other might be useful but not both.

Originally posted by Ian M

How many 1/35 scale tanks could you paint with a 14ml tin of Humbrol? Just curious.

Probably one, maybe two? That’s one reason why I prefer the 23 ml Tamiya bottles: it’s easily enough for a couple of 1:35 scale vehicles, while with a 10 ml bottle I often find it running low enough after one that I wouldn’t want to paint a second without buying more. Maybe that’s the idea behind them …

**Ian M** · 10 March 2023, 19:20

Originally posted by stona

would say that many popular colours have been showing as sold out. I first noticed this several months ago when I was looking to make an order and the situation doesn't look much better today. For example, both Sky and Ocean Grey are showing as sold out.

They say the 14ml tins are hard to find at a fair price and quality so they where looking for an alternative . A questionnaire put tins as the preferred choice.
The sold out bit is I reckon a mix of out of paint and out of tins. The word is that once the 14ml. tins run out the bigger ones will replace them.

**Ian M** · 10 March 2023, 19:31

Found the full blog.
2023 Update folks! Read about the upcoming changes to our range and business!

2023 Update

https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/blogs/news/2023-update

2023 is bringing new and exciting changes to Sovereign Hobbies and we are excited to introduce the first few changes! Ship Decals As you may have already seen, Jamie has created new decal sets for Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy warships from the late Victorian era to around about the 1960s(ish) era - essentially those using Roman Numerals at 1 foot increments. These are already on sale and are available in 1/200, 1/350, 1/400, 1/600 and 1/700 scale with markings in suitable depth ranges for the majority of applicable ship models available. These have been immensely popular so far and we look forward to seeing them put into action. Thinners We were offering our thinners in 125ml, 250ml and 500ml sizes. Unfortunately, due to leakage, we are no longer offering 500ml for posting as we have been unable to find a suitable way of providing these sizes securely without the posties getting wet. These will be available at any in-person events we attend. Thinners are still available in 125ml and 250ml sizes for posting. New Colourcoats Stock Another change which has been in the making for the last year is our tin sizing. Sourcing 14ml tins has become increasingly difficult over the last 5 years. Our original tins are now only available in very large batch sizes which we can neither store or finance. We swapped to a European supplier which was much more accessible until Brexit / COVID-19 pushed costs to us up substantially. Whilst these were great tins for us in terms of numbers of defects and achieving a good seal (the older tins made in China may have seemed good to the customer but the reject rate was astonishing with many malformed lids, rust inside new tins and brand new tin lids failing to seal once filled!), we acknowledge they were less popular with you, the customer, and we had some complaints about the European lids being more pliable and some customers found them difficult to open without bending thus reducing their longevity. After extensive research, surveys and lengthy product testing we have come to the decision that all newly manufactured paint will be supplied in 30ml tins. The benefits of these being manufactured in the UK reducing border delays and belated VAT invoices, available in batch sizes our small business can manage and having stronger lids makes them a clear winner. Won't larger tin sizes waste paint? Our initial concerns over paint skinning or prematurely curing due to a larger surface area in half used tins led us to extensive testing. We can confirm that even with minimal amounts of paint left in the tin, as long as the lids are securely put on, the paint will remain in good condition for future use. As always, our recommendations for cleaning around the tin edge before closing the lid remains valid. Skinning occurs when the anti-skinning agent is allowed to evaporate off, so as well as keeping the lids on, we advise that users take what they plan to thin and return the lid. Even brush painters should be thinning paint, so please do avoid sitting at your table for hours with lids off, and that's regardless of who's paint you're using or what size of container it is. Further benefits of the new tin sizes are a reduced cost per ml. As a substantial fraction of the cost of our paint is the tin cost, this means you're getting better value for money in the larger tin sizes as our new tin size cost is similar to the old 14ml tin. Furthermore, our 30ml tins are less susceptible to being knocked over due to the wider base. But what about decanting I hear you say!? As always, we never recommend pouring from the tinlets as this increases waste, creates messy tins meaning your lid won't seal back properly unless cleaned well and leaves drips over the labels hiding the colour names. Pipettes are recommended to decant your paint cleanly, whether this is disposable pipettes or reusable glass pipettes, which is up to you. We use a combination of both through modelling and our factory processes. These are readily available online in various sizing, we like to use 5ml plastic pipettes for modelling and larger 10ml glass pipettes in the factory which are easily cleaned with a quick squeeze of thinners. Does the entire range come in the 30ml? No, only new stock produced from 2023 will be available in 30ml tins. All existing stock is in 14ml or 125ml tins. We have pre-sprayed colours coming in 14ml stock which will be released in the next month but all stock after this will only be available in 30ml or 125ml (or larger sizes for custom colours from 1 to 5 litres). Trade Shows We have no plans to attend trade shows this year. We would usually attend Scot Nat’s in Perth and love seeing everyone there but unfortunately it clashes this year with our own personal hobby - we shall be off to Orkney learning to make sails for our dinghy. So, whilst we will be sad to miss Scot Nat’s this year as it has always been our favourite show, we will be doing something ship related! If small dinghy boats are your thing - feel free to follow us on our journey building our 16ft sailing dinghy, Melitele - Facebook, Instagram YouTube There are many more exciting changes this year so keep an eye on our social media and blog posts to hear about them first! Happy modelling!

**stona** · 11 March 2023, 08:40

Thanks Ian.
I'm not going to give up on Colourcoats. Even if I do spray them less often I still need a decent paint that I can brush and most of their colours fit the bill. 30ml I can deal with.

**Ian M** · 11 March 2023, 11:19

I also will try to continue with them as long as they are max 30ml which by the way are the same height as the old tins so still fit the drawers.
As I mentioned only one shop in DK sell them and even then its pot luck if the ones you need are in stock. Which is a pain with the very long restock times.

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