The Little World

Well, in for a penny, in for a Pound…I decided that the Special Hobby Avro Anson MkI was the test bed for the Humbrol system. Other people may know it as the Angst-on but I make my own discoveries…

After painting up the interior and locking it into the fuselage, I covered over the windows with masking tape. This meant I didn’t have to look at it as I painted and that was fine. The Anson has a lot of glass but fortunately most of it is straight line frames and flat panels. The tape was Tamiya and a no-name brand that the Hobbytech shop stocks. To be fair, it does as well as the Tamiya. Two side windows had to be occluded with UHU Yellow and glazed later.

There was a fair deal of filling and sanding with the Anson…so much that I despaired of it in the end and wondered if there was any point in going on. But I persisted and eventually it could all go under a grey undercoat. The colour coats were standard Humbrol yellow with additional red to cut the Lemon down to Trainer Yellow. I know that Humbrol makes Trainer Yellow as a standard flat colour, but I wanted to see if doing gloss colour would make the later decalling better – I’d suffered silvering with decals on a recent build.

Gloss yellow is tough over anything. but I persisted, top and bottom for three solid coats. Given the extended hardening time that Humbrol enamels take over acrylics, this stretched the build out so long that I started and finished two other kits in the meantime. This is not a comedy routine – the extra time spend with the paint susceptible to dust and damage led to the adoption of the curing box. But I do consider it a seriously hamper to my enjoyment in building. As well, while I could see that the gloss was successful at the end of the last curing cycle, it was massively glossy and pointed out all the filling and sanding areas.

At least it did make the decalling easier – it was actually one of the most successful episodes. The decals are standard roundels and fin flash as well as a side number – I do not put more on my models, but it was done in an hour. No silvering.

Final coat brought the job home – the Satin Cote from Humbrol. It has flattened everything to a consistent reflectance and the decals look painted on. A lot of the apprehensions I felt when it was in the gloss spraying has gone away.

The cleaning up of the airbrush or paintbrushes was simplicity itself – the standard turps cleaned the lot up,

Final analysis of the Humbrol enamel system?

1. Good colour range.
2. Logical thinning and cleanup regime.
3. Hard final surface, good reflectance.
4. Cheap enough.
5. Sprays well at 1:1.
6. Takes an uncomfortably long time to be safely dry.