Yes another update and very soon after the last one !!!!
I have news to share about Humbrol paints.
One of my blog followers, Joe at FISH TALES blog, mentioned in passing that he had heard that Humbrol may be stopping production of enamel paints. Interesting as Joe is American and had heard about this but I had not here in the UK, home to Humbrol !!!! Now I have been using these paints for over 50 years and although I have often considered moving to acrylics, being over three quarters of the way through building my armies, now is probably not the time to change.
Although I keep a good stock of paints at all times I knew I would not have sufficient to finish my fourth army so I decided to investigate.
It seems that due to a new government regulation, one of the components in all enamel paints has been banned. For reasons difficult to establish this resulted in Humbrol suddenly taking a lot of paint off the market. Again for reasons difficult to determine, Humbrol chose not to make this matter public resulting in a lot of rumours and a shortage of paints in shops.
In the YOUTUBE video I saw it was clear the audience thought this change has been poorly managed by Humbrol. The fact remains that their enamel paints will however remain on sale for the foreseeable future. That said they have taken this opportunity to seriously reduce the range from about 200 to only 80 colours again with little public notice.
Typically over half the colours going out of production are colours I use a lot. I have already placed a large order with an on line supplier for sufficient paints to hopefully see me out !!!! I will also be visiting my local model shop to hoover up what ever he has left too.
Overall I am left with the impression that Humbrol have mismanaged this situation and are now making it worse by dramatically reducing the range. If you use Humbrol I suggest you check out the new range and buy up quickly any of the soon to be discontinued colours you may need while you still can.
Sometimes I think these smaller specialist British companies almost want to go out of business by the way they operate !!!!
On a happier note I have this week started to build a batch of 25 field kitchen trailers and have prepared the screws to paint up a new infantry battalion. Hopefully I will find the time and inclination to work on these diligently over the coming few weeks.
Over the years I've seen paints and resins come off the market due to the toxicity of some of the components. One of the worst that was still on sale some 2 years ago was Tamiya spray primer (IIRC) which ticked pretty much all of the boxes for organ damage etc. Often the Government set a time limit when products must be withdrawn from sale, which is probably the case here. How much warning they had is hard to know, but given that they are still selling some paints, it does seem a bit strange...
ReplyDeleteHi Steve....Yes a very strange situation. I cant help thinking Humbrol dropped off and had a last minute panic. Regards.
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