discussion Old Humbrol M colours

[papa 695]

Hi all I've just got an old Airfix bullfinch kit and need help sorting the colours
View attachment 312913View attachment 312914
I hope someone can help.

 

[peterairfix]

Luckily I have an old airfix catalogue.
M6- Matt black humbrol number 33
M10-matt white humbrol 34
M13-light aircraft grey no humbrol equivalent
M18- light Brunswick green humbrol equivalent gloss 3 with Matt coat
M19 signal red humbrol satin 174 with Matt coat.
M23 golden brown nearest equivalent probably would be humbrol 94 brown yellow.
I hope this helps.
On old airfix colours m denotes Matt and g would denote gloss.

 

[papa 695]

Thanks Peter, that will do just fine.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Ian
IPMS give M13 as Humbrol 64, M18 as Humbrol 76, M19 as Humbrol 60, and M23 as Humbrol 26.
Cheers
Tim

 

[papa 695]

Thanks Tim

 

[Guest]

Great … I thought I’d solve the contradictions by looking in my ancient Humbrol colour chip chart (with real paint chips) that has conversion tables for other brands on the back, as well as for Humbrol’s own old numbering system. However, it doesn’t include plain M-numbers If you wanted to know MC-numbers, sure, it has that covered, but not these for some odd reason.

 

[Guest]

Is this any help
https://www.humbrol.com/uk-en/media/Humbrol_Paint_Chart.pdf
Pete.

 

[papa 695]

Is this any help
https://www.humbrol.com/uk-en/media/Humbrol_Paint_Chart.pdf
Pete.

Thanks for the chart Pete, but the numbers are not on it the only one there is M23 duck egg Blue.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Remember the M numbers given by Ian are Airfix paint codes, not humbrol paint codes! They pre-date Humbrol by quite a few years. Humbrol didn't use the M and G prefixes in this way. They just use numbers within specific paint specific series...You need an Airfix chart to make sense of the colours, not a Humbrol chart, and need to look at Airfix to Humbrol conversion charts.
Cheers
Tim

 

[Guest]

Ah, that makes more sense. Unfortunately my Humbrol paint chip/conversion chart doesn’t include Airfix numbers.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hi all
Try this....
http://www.vintage-airfix.com/airfix-to-humbrol-paint-list-a-2.html
Funny about M23 though, I’m sure that used to be called matt Earth when I were a nipper.....
Cheers
Tim

 

[papa 695]

Hi all
Try this....
http://www.vintage-airfix.com/airfix-to-humbrol-paint-list-a-2.html
Funny about M23 though, I’m sure that used to be called matt Earth when I were a nipper.....
Cheers
Tim

Thanks Tim that's great.

 

[SimonT]

I remember M23 as being a sort of rusty orange brown

I still have a few unopened boxes of Airfix paints in the stash - 12 tinlets to a box I think

Ian - since it clearly states that you need to mix your own colours from the suggested ones it is probably best to just pick your own colours that more accurately match the actual bird colours. The illustration looks pretty close to the real thing

 

[papa 695]

Thanks Simon, I just wanted the colour they suggested so I could get close too them. with all the help I've got ( thanks all ) I've now got the paints i needed on order from John in the shop.