New Humbrol Clears

[flakmonkey]

I'll be sending Humbrol a letter of complaint.

I think I'd be pouring the remainder of the bottle through their letter box.

[iggie]

Thanks Iggie - I might try it. Do you need to thin it?

No need to thin for brushing, not tried airbrushing yet but it's water based so shouldn't be an issue if needed.

[Stupot]

Hi Stuart,

Sorry to see it has not gone very well. I think I will stick to the "cotes" range for now.

By the way, I also have some of the galleria matt varnish which is pretty good but I personally find it a little too runny for brush application and it takes quite a while to dry (but of course that could all be down to my er brush skills ) . I do however use it from time to time particularly when I want a properly flat finish which it seems very good at. If I apply it carefully it looks quite good.

Thanks and all the best with your next build

[TeeELL]

Stuart,
Hope I am not going to appear too dumb by suggesting this: Klear is formulated with ammonia and Windowlene will remove it. If the Humbrol version is also formulated in the same way then Windowlene might also work to remove it. That said, I see you have applied other 'stuff' subsequently so my suggestion might be of no consequence.

Please note, I am offering this suggestion based upon things I have read elsewhere, I have never used Klear or Clear or, therefor, had cause to remove it. Nevertheless, your trial and results of using this product have been filed away - thank you.

[Stuart]

Hi Stuart,

Sorry to see it has not gone very well. I think I will stick to the "cotes" range for now.

By the way, I also have some of the galleria matt varnish which is pretty good but I personally find it a little too runny for brush application and it takes quite a while to dry (but of course that could all be down to my er brush skills ) . I do however use it from time to time particularly when I want a properly flat finish which it seems very good at. If I apply it carefully it looks quite good.

Thanks and all the best with your next build

Thanks! And thanks for the tips - I've ordered some so we'll see how it goes!

[Stuart]

Stuart,
Hope I am not going to appear too dumb by suggesting this: Klear is formulated with ammonia and Windowlene will remove it. If the Humbrol version is also formulated in the same way then Windowlene might also work to remove it. That said, I see you have applied other 'stuff' subsequently so my suggestion might be of no consequence.

Please note, I am offering this suggestion based upon things I have read elsewhere, I have never used Klear or Clear or, therefor, had cause to remove it. Nevertheless, your trial and results of using this product have been filed away - thank you.

No such thing as a dumb suggestion or questions around here That's a interesting idea - Next time I have some I'll give it a go.

Glad to have been of help!

[Stuart]

Just to complete the matt coat saga - I soaked the model in washing up water and attacked it with the washing up brush... this wasn't planned, I was doing the washing up when I looked at it on the kitchen table and it just sort of happened

Having removed the worst of the matting agent I then hit it with a coat of Humbrol Clear Gloss - which finally got rid of 99.9% of that blooming white!

I then hit it with a coat of the W&N Galleria matt as suggested above - good tip iggie and Stu - great stuff!

Here it is on it's base...

[iggie]

Glad the W&N matt worked for you Stuart. That dio is looking good!

[TeeELL]

Heck, after all that it will be the most heavily armoured 1:72 Vickers tank in the world - impervious to the most powerful of air rifle pellets!!!

[Kevan Bailey]

Just noticed this thread; I've had the same problems with matt varnish, leading to all kinds of disasters at the final hurdle. The only products which have never given me problems are Humbrol spray matt, and Plasticote matt, which actually comes out as a vaguely satin finish.

One disaster involved a Trumpeter Swordfish sprayed in Tamiya clear matt, horrible white marks on the wings. In desperation I brush-painted it with Kleer, then polished it with a calico rag. Don't ask me how, but it worked.

[AndrewR]

Vallejo acrylic varnishes are pretty reliable. Occasionally you can get the frosting, usually down to a thick coat of the stuff. But you can wipe it off immediately if that happens.

[Chuck E]

I have just bought some of the Clear Matt. It goes on very well and gives a very good matt finish using a brush. The problem is still the white patches. I used it on a Spitfire IXc and it whitened in the ridges. I tried mixing it 50-50 with the standard Clear, but it only removed a little of the bloom.

The best that I have used so far is ordinary Klear with 25% Tamiya Flat Base. It goes on very well, dries quickly and has a good matt finish. I use a flat brush for this. Maybe if Humbrol used a grey base instead of a bright white one, the effect would go away.

I must say that I quite like the effect if used in a winter scene. The Frosting on the Vickers Tank looked really nice after a single coat. I may use this in the future.

[Cherrytree270]

So then...

This is the results of my battle with the new matt clear...



Nice eh?

So asides from a very good way to do winter camo whitewash - would I recommend it? I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Suffice to say - I'll be testing the satin on scrap plastic before I go near another model with it, and I'll be sending Humbrol a letter of complaint.

Cheers

Stuart

Is this the W&M matt finish? It looks really good! I'm loving the winter setting!

[Stuart]

So then...

This is the results of my battle with the new matt clear...



Nice eh?

So asides from a very good way to do winter camo whitewash - would I recommend it? I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Suffice to say - I'll be testing the satin on scrap plastic before I go near another model with it, and I'll be sending Humbrol a letter of complaint.

Cheers

Stuart

Is this the W&M matt finish? It looks really good! I'm loving the winter setting!

Alas no that's actually the very bad Humbrol Clear Matt. It's not supposed to be white - it's supposed to be green However I agree with you, as a winter finish it does look really good and I've kept the bottle for future winter camo use.

The white stuff on the base is Acrylic filler paste that artists use to add depth/Volume to Acrylic paint and wound make a good winter base - It now looks like this...






I removed the white with a scrubbing brush and soapy water. I then gave it a coat of gloss which recovered it.

I then gave it two coats of the W&N Matt varnish before weathering. It seems really good stuff - I need to use it a bit more and will use it on my P-40 wip to see what happens.

Cheers

Stuart

[Zee28]

Very disappointing Stuart (although your tank turned out cracking mate!), looks like there's no easy win with matt and satin coatings. Shame. It would have been very useful for brush painters. Oh well.

I'll stick with heavily thinned Humbrol 'Cotes' via the airbrush (not sure what they brush like to be honest), but not everybody seems to get on with that either!

Thank for taking the time with all the consumer tests and info Stu, nice one, all this sort of info is so useful to know and is one of the things that makes this forum so useful for us 'regular' modellers who use stuff like this.

Did I mention, nice tank!

Zee28