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Scale Model Shop

Old Humrol Enamel numbers?

M

Modler bob

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I was looking through some very old Humbrol Enamel paint I still have from years ago.
I opened a few (eventually) and I have one tin that looks matt green, number 108. So looked at the PDF colour chart I got online, and it's not there :flushed:
I googled the number etc etc...No luck.
I did want cockpit green, and I thought this might do.
Sorry about the drivel :smiling3: ...
My reason for posting is....What colour is Humbrol No 108, anyone?
 
Just called WW1 Green according to my (old) Humbrol reference chart mate - your guess is as good as mlne!
Steve
 
Well Andrew beat me to it, and his link came up when I posted mine LOL….
I think it’s for WW1 aircraft. The purple certainly is. it’s made for German WW1 aircraft wings.
 
I might as well quickly photograph the 1980s Humbrol paint chart I have had for a long time and post it here:

View attachment 460747View attachment 460748View attachment 460749View attachment 460750View attachment 460751View attachment 460752View attachment 460753View attachment 460754View attachment 460755View attachment 460756View attachment 460757

These are actual paint chips, not printed approximations, which is why it cost me 5 guilders sometime in the 1980s instead of being free at every model shop, like the printed version was :)

Warning: Do not use this as an accurate colour reference! The pages were photographed in the shade in late afternoon, bright sunlight, which has distorted them compared to the actual colours of the paint chips — as you can tell by the background being pale bluish rather than the white the paper actually is.
 
Thread owner
Thanks guys.
Interesting, the PDF chart I have starts from number 1 obviously then goes straight to 23 (duck egg blue)
There are a few more missing from this chart.
I wondered if it has anything to do with the ban on old humbrol and waiting to the new stock, I was informed it would be this September :astonished:
 
Neil Merryweather said:
Blimey there are some anoraks on this forum, and thank God for that! :nerd: :tears-of-joy:
Click to expand...
Not an anorak Neil, but I do have a very retentive memory for totally inconsequential trivia :tongue-out3: .
Authenticolour was, in my opinion, the best range of paint that Humbrol ever produced. Brushed superbly, dried quickly, and covered well. Compared to the modern stuff it was head, shoulders, and a very tall hat above it.
 
Tim Marlow said:
Not an anorak Neil, but I do have a very retentive memory for totally inconsequential trivia :tongue-out3: .
Authenticolour was, in my opinion, the best range of paint that Humbrol ever produced. Brushed superbly, dried quickly, and covered well. Compared to the modern stuff it was head, shoulders, and a very tall hat above it.
Click to expand...
Oh I absolutely agree. And it smelled so good,too!
 
When I came back to the hobby I discovered that my mum had kept my old modelling box in the loft where it sat for 20 years.

In it were three three 'authentic' tinlets....HX1 Dark Green, HM04 Panzer Grey and HM06 Field Grey and they were still nearly perfect!
 
Tim Marlow said:
Authenticolour was, in my opinion, the best range of paint that Humbrol ever produced. Brushed superbly, dried quickly, and covered well. Compared to the modern stuff it was head, shoulders, and a very tall hat above it.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I never was in a position to use that range when it was around originally, when I started painting models the only paint I could buy was numbered Humbrol but I did sometimes see references to Humbrol paints with letter-number codes instead, and remember wondering what that was.

Years ago (probably something like ten by now), I bought a couple of dozen old tins, all with those number-letter codes and some dating back to the 1960s (according to this page), and occasionally use them when I think enamels will work best for what I’m trying to achieve. If this paint were still available, I would buy it without hesitation over any more recent enamels I’ve ever used.
 
I had quite a few of the Humbrol Authentics in the Seventies. They were excellent although I never got used to their smell - unlike the experience of @Neil Merryweather !

In 2006, when Hornby took over Airfix, I asked them about the possible re-introduction of the Humbrol Authentics range. Their marketing manager at the time said (I have added the emphasis:
To initiate this will be a huge undertaking as we would need to re-number everything (we can't have a separate range) and look at what we do with all our stands out in the trade.
Click to expand...
A year later, Airfix asked me to canvass my ATF members as to whether the Humbrol Colour System Binder should be re-introduced but the overwhelming response of members was that the Authentics range should be brought back and possibly extended.

Sadly, nothing ever happened.

Dave
 
They were always slightly dearer than the standard range, but seemed to have a more user friendly formulation as well.
Strange comment from Humbrol about the display racks Dave. Authenticolour paint was always found in it’s own rack in the shops. They never mixed them in with the standard numbers back in the day so why would they want to now? They could even go to just selling them in boxed sets like they used to.

As an aside, I still have quite a few, which haven’t been opened in years, but I know they would be perfectly usable if I did Andrew. Last one I used was French blue. Used as a thin stain over rust on exhaust pipes it can give a great heat bluing effect.

I too liked the smell of them Neil, far better than the acrid stench of standard Humbrols.

Interesting comment on the web page Jakko linked to is the way the accuracy of Authenticolours drifted over time. That sort of issue was probably very common in paint manufacturers and user mixed paint shops in the pre-computerised era (up until the late eighties). It is one of the reasons I never buy into the absolute colour accuracy of analog era equipment.
 
I have a Humbrol Authentics pack of RAF camo colours - 9/6d written on the box! Some of the tinlets seem to have leaked a bit, but hey're all still liquid, except the Dark Earth, which rattles when shaken. :disappointed2:
Pete
 
Who else has seen that about (some?) Humbrol paints are made in the same factory that makes Hannants' "Extracolour" enamel paints....

I used to have a heap of those Authentic way back when.... Might even have a tin or two...Hmm.
 
Modler bob said:
I was looking through some very old Humbrol Enamel paint I still have from years ago.
I opened a few (eventually) and I have one tin that looks matt green, number 108. So looked at the PDF colour chart I got online, and it's not there :flushed:
I googled the number etc etc...No luck.
I did want cockpit green, and I thought this might do.
Sorry about the drivel :smiling3: ...
My reason for posting is....What colour is Humbrol No 108, anyone?
Click to expand...
same as the rest WW1 Green it looks about the same as Vallejo model air 71- 015 Dark Green
 
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