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I find the Humbrol brushes in the Airfix starter kits are reasonable enough for the price, though they are typically only a size 2, and if you want to cover larger areas, obviously you would need larger sizes or a flat You can, of course, pay a lot of money for top class brushes, but this supplier has good quality brushes at reasonable prices Although described as seconds, I have hardly found any faults www.abcbrushes.co.uk

For years I used enamel paint as that's all there was When I recently returned to model making I thought I'd try acrylics, but I'm not impressed - or rather I am impressed, but for the wrong reasons I have tried Tamiya, AK, Mr Color, Meng, and Vallejo Model Color acrylics, and they were all dreadful for brush painting The only acrylic that worked was Humbrol, and that needed thinning I will stay with enamels, but it looks like my Grandsons will be using Humbrol in the dropper bottles Though I think I will try a dropper bottle myself, to see what it's like, and is still more or less the same as the stuff in the plastic tubs

I would like to introduce my Grandsons to kit making, including painting them I see that Humbrol have replaced the pots of acrylic paint with dropper bottles Can this be used for brush painting? Is the paint the same?

I, too, have returned to model making after many years of inactivity I have a large collection of old enamels; Humbrol, including Authentics, and others Most of them were well sealed and could be used as usual; it was obvious that a few had dried up and had to be replaced Some of them benefitted from being thinned slightly with thinners or white spirit Some Humbrol paints always did have a lot of pigment/sediment and this had settled to be rather thick & hard, so it needed a lot of stirring, though it was OK once that had been done I bought a battery operated stirrer and this made life much easier, but it needs a bit of care & practice in use I broke up the pigment with a steel rod first, then did the more thorough mixing with the stirrer I got the stirrer from Trumpeter but I think the same thing is available from other suppliers

I use mostly enamel paints; this is a method I've been using for years You will need two old jam jars or similar, white spirit, and some clean rag or kitchen towel Put some white spirit into each jar to a depth of about 2"/50mm Wipe off most of the paint from your brush and wash it in jar #1 Wipe the brush then wash it in jar #2 Wipe the white spirit off the brush, tidy up the bristles, and you're done Put the lids on and keep the jars for the next time When jar #1 becomes too dirty use jar #2 as your jar #1, and make up a new jar #2 And so on Put the dirty jar #1 away somewhere; when you get another dirty jar pour it into that till the jar's nearly full. Leave it for a few weeks till the pigments have settled out, and you can re - use the white spirit a few times You can follow the same procedure with water for acrylic paint, but there's no need to re - use the water! Now and again, or if the brushes get too stiff & dirty clean them with Masters Brush Cleaning Soap. Find it on Google or Amazon - it's excellent There are several YouTube videos about it But make sure you get the brush cleaning soap in the plastic tub and not the hand washing soap, which looks, surprisingly enough, like an ordinary bar of soap

Can all acrylic paint be mixed, please? That is, can different makes of acrylic paint be mixed with each other? I was brought up with enamel paints, as they were the only ones available Since then I've tried a few acrylic paints, but I don't like them; probably because I only brush paint, and most acrylic paints are not really suitable for that This means I have 15 or 20 bottles & jars of various acrylic paints -- Humbrol, both bought and the smaller pots supplied with some Airfix kits; Vallejo; Mr Color; AK; Tamiya; & Meng I'd like to use them up on general craft work and I thought I might be able to mix them to get a bigger volume of paint for larger areas Some of them have hardly any smell, so presumably they are water - based, and some smell of solvent Perhaps I could mix the water - based and the solvent - based with each other?

It depends on how hard they are - if they're just a bit thick you could thin them with white spirit or enamel thinners, but it could be hard work as the paints had quite a lot of sediment/pigment even when they were new. If they are very thick they will need not so much stirring as first breaking up with a steel rod or a small screwdriver, followed by a thorough and prolonged stirring & mixing If they are very hard then I'm afraid there's nothing much you can do except to throw them out If you want to re-use a few tins for your own mixtures you can scrape out the sediment and clean them out with paint stripper then white spirit I don't know the technical explanation, but as the solvent evaporates the paint will become thicker, but eventually there will be a point of no return where you can't recover them, and you just have to admit defeat If you do manage to recover a few I would try them on scrap before using them for any proper modelling However, if the tins are well sealed and don't dry up the paint has a very long shelf life A break of many years due to work & family means that I'm a returnee, and some of my paints are in good condition even though they've been stored since the 1980s, possibly longer

My old desk lamp has fallen apart, I've had it for years, so mow I need a new one Put simply, what I'm looking for is something like an Anglepoise lamp, but cheaper Has anyone got any suggestions or recommendations please?

If you are painting small parts on the sprue you may find that cleaning them up by removing moulding lines and other minor faults is tricky; it might be easier to remove them and hold them in a clamp - or both on the sprue and in a clamp, depending on how tricky it is, or whether the parts fall off or not! Search t'Net for modelling clamps and mini vices, there are all sorts of things available Try jeweller's suppliers as well There is a combination of clips & a magnifying glass known as a helping hand or a third hand which might be useful Or possibly a fisherman's fly tying vice? You can get reverse action tweezers, which are sprung to be closed, and you open them by squeezing Or the humble clothes peg; feel free to modify the jaws to suit yoiurself As mentioned, glue will not stick to paint, so you must remove it from the appropriate areas with a scalpel blade or a needle file Speaking of which, you can get handles for needle files which make them easier to hold Likewise, you can get scalpels and modelling knives with fatter handles, just keep Surfing t'Net When I've painted small parts I lay them on a sheet of glass For wheels & propellors I fit them onto a cocktail stick, and then into a lump of plasticine

Usually on the instruction sheet and/or the back of the box You then need to look through the range of paints offered by the makers - Humbrol, Vallejo, etc - to find the colours used on that particular model For example if your interests are mainly WW2 RAF you will soon build up a collection of the most commonly used paint colours such as Dark Green, Dark Earth, Medium Sea Grey, and so on

Try the secndhand kit dealers Besides kits they sell other model related items like books, magazines, and tools when someone has given up modelling I have used Kingkit, but there are others Search the ads in modelling magazines and Google for secondhand or discontinued plastic kits

It's years since I used Maskol As far as I can remember it can be removed with water while it's wet and also if it has dried, though you need to 'work' the bristles However the best brush cleaner i've found for any kind of paint is Masters Brush Cleaner & Preserver It will remove paint from down in the roots, and generally improve, clean, and condition the bristles Check that you get the brush cleaning soap, which comes in a small cream coloured plastic tub, and not the hand cleaner, which is a bar of soap Search YouTube to see how to use it

I have sold kits & books to this dealer in the past and found them reasonable enough to deal with www.kingkit.co.uk

www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk stock a range of IJN colours

A very common method of making plastic components, including construction kits, is injection moulding This means that two or more parts of a steel mould are clamped together, and molten plasic is injected into the mould When the plasic has cooled and solidified the halves of the mould are separated and the plasic part falls out. Often the insides of the mould are sprayed with a fine silicon oil to help the plastic part fall out Residues of this oil might still remain on the moulded components, which would prevent the paint or glue adhering properly, so to be thorough we wash the components in warm soapy water I brush paint with enamels which are much less affected by release oil, so I don't usually bother with this When you've assenbled a plastic kit the surface might be different colours of plastic, sanded areas, filler, and so on. Priming means applying an undercoat to the model so as to provide an even, neutral colour and texture for the top coats of paint It also shows up any minor scratches, uneveness and other minor faults that you might not have noticed Usually this is some kind of pale - to - medium grey Painting is a subject in itself! For brush painting the usual choice is enamel paint which is based on a solvent such as white spirit or Humbrol acrylic which is based on water You use the appropriate sovent to clean the brushes, and sometimes to thin the paint slightly, which makes it flow a bit easier For airbrushing you can still use these, but most people use an acrylic paint specifically intended for airbrushing, such as Mr Colour, Vallejo, or several others - but be warned, most of these give poor results if you try brush painting with them The little pots supplied with Airfix kits contain exactly the same paint as the larger tubs of Humbrol acrylic, and the numbers printed on those little pots show you what they are So you could, if you wish, pour those little pots into the tubs If you are happy with the little pots I suspect you are brush painting, so you could carry on with Humbrol acrylics, or try enamels You can mix enamel and acrylic in the sense that when they are dry you can paint enamel on top of acrylic, or acrylic on top of enamel when they're dry; but what you cannot do of course is to mix them when they're wet or liquid