Xtracolor!?

[zuludog]

As a returnee I have been testing all my paints, making my own colour charts of the actual tins I have.


They are all enamel, mostly Humbrol, inc Authentics, but include Precision, Modelcolor, and Gloy. Thus I can see if any have dried up or otherwise become unusable during their long storage. Some of them are quite old, but are still OK, with very few failures.


I have several duplicated colours, and some of the tins have never been opened.


I see that during my absence Humbrol Authentics have been discontinued and combined with their standard range; no problem as I have found some conversion charts on the Net


OK, that's the background, now for the point of this thread. I have three tins of Xtracolor enamels, and they're dreadful.


Surfing revealed that Xtracolor X3 RAF Medium Sea Grey = Authentics HX4 Sea Grey Medium.


It's close, but the Xtracolor is definitely darker than Humbrol. I'm painting on white card; Xtracolor needed 3 coats to cover, Humbrol 2


Supposedly Xtracolor X1 RAF Dark Green = Humbrol HX1 Dark Green. Well, It most definitely is not.


The Humbrol is green, and seems a good match to photographs & illustrations I've seen, and as far as I can remember, to the genuine articles I've seen at airshows


Xtracolor is browny - green, almost khaki, and again needed more coats than Humbrol


Xtracolor X201 RLM 02 Grau. I don't have any other manufacturer's paint for colour comparison, but the paint itself is awful, like old washing up water. Needed 4 coats for coverage, and took ages to dry.


So, I think the best thing to do is to consign Xtracolour to the furthest reaches of the cupboard. I'm not keen on acrylics, but when my current stock of enamels runs out, and I can't find replacements in Humbrol's current range, I might just have to.


Has anyone else noticed this; or any other comments?

 

[Dave W]

Are you brush painting the Xtracolour enamels?.Ive been airbrushing with them for years and find them to be very good.

 

[zuludog]

Yes, I'm brush painting. I had an airbrush, but that was sold off during my 'holiday'. I'm not so bothered about producing top class exhibition standard finishes now, just something fairly good for my own interest, so I'll stay with brush painting.


However, I have bought several new, good quality sable and sable/synthetic mix brushes, and I used them on the above trials.

 

[dubster72]

Like Dave I airbrush Xtracolor & find them excellent paints - better than Humbrol IMHO

 

[stona]

I think that several enamel paints are really designed for airbrushing. I'd include Xtracolor, Modelmaster and the recently deceased/hopefully to be revived WEM Colourcoats in that category. I only brush paint detail, so for me it is not such a problem. some of the Xtracolor colours are very accurate, some not so, but you could say that for any manufacturer.


I've had some truly awful Humbrol paints of late, some metallic (11, 56 (both of which were just a horrible grey gunk) and whatever the brass one is) that went in the bin. I understand that quality control has improved, it needed to.


I used Xtracolor on my recent Spitfire float plane (for the EDSG and DSG upper colours) because their version fell nicely between the various the colour references I have, as does the model between two of those references here


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I wouldn't want to brush paint Xtracolor.


Cheers


Steve