Imperial or Metric tins or jars of paint

Discussion in 'Modelling' started by CL1, Nov 14, 2009.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Looks like us Brits stick with imperial and now we are the only ones left to use 14ml tins of model paint

    "The model was cleaned and primed with Tamiya fine grey primer in preparation for the silver finish of Eddie Coventry's aircraft. I wanted to use the included Humbrol acrylic paint (really I did!) but I could not find a thinning medium that worked to my satisfaction. Defeated by this 14ml tin of paint (why the Brits refuse to use jars like the rest of the world is beyond me), I went with Alclad paint instead. To show a bit of contrast, the fabric covered control surfaces were painted were with Model Master metalizer, and Humbrol #19 bright red enamel was used on the spinner and canopy frames. "
     
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Weren't Humbrol French for most of the time those tins have been made?

    I hate those little tins, one of the main reasons I avoid enamels.
    Impressed with Vallejo's 'eye-dropper' containers at the mo, but the old flip-top plastic pots Citadel Paint used to come in were my favourites.
     
  3. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    yes i believe they were

    i thought trying to get the lid off was all part of the modelling fun
    then finding it was set solid and dried out
     
  4. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    yes i believe they were

    i thought trying to get the lid off was all part of the modelling fun
    then finding it was set solid and dried out


    Here was me thinking that this only happend to me:)

    Regards
    Tom
     
  5. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Adam, you're a spoilt brat! In my time Humbrol (Humber Oil Co.) supplied a lump of pigment, two stones to grind it, and a flask of goat spleen oil to mix in :D
     
  6. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I was a fan of Humbrol Acrylics.
    They don't do them anymore.
     
  7. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    I'm the opposite, can't get on with acrylics AT ALL. Instead I vastly prefer enamels, and have a few tricks to keep them lovely and well-mixed...

    Best of all is...once you FIRST open them - pop in an old M6 nut! Works just like the internal agitator in a tin of spray paint when you shake it any time after that!
     
  8. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Would a 1/4" do, guv?

    :D
     
  9. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    A Sharp Intake Of Breath....
     
  10. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I've just painted my (full size) census number and formation signs using Humbrol enamel and I like those little tins. They give a reassuring 'proper paint' feel to the whole thing and a splash on the rim tells me that I'm being too hasty and should take my time.

    The drop of yellow that I used (along with a small amount of 196 light grey) to tint the white to something approaching the old signwriter's white must be at least 20 years old and performed perfectly.

    The containers that I used to dread were the old Airfix glass bottles with a screw top. They really could jam closed.
     
  11. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Would a 1/4" do, guv?

    :D

    BSW or BSF? I like the pre-war versions which had a dimension across the flats the same as a current 5/16" (or is it 3/8"). The war time dimensions were reduced to save materials, so I'm told. But I do get confused. I'm drinking a 500ml bottle of beer and it says on the label "Where progress is measured in pints".
     
  12. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    BSW or BSF? I like the pre-war versions which had a dimension across the flats the same as a current 5/16" (or is it 3/8"). The war time dimensions were reduced to save materials, so I'm told. But I do get confused. I'm drinking a 500ml bottle of beer and it says on the label "Where progress is measured in pints".

    I've heard the story about reducing dimensions as well but I have to say that I've never seen any evidence for it.

    My experience of pre-war fittings is mostly BSC (cycle) and Whitworth and certainly motorcycle manufacturers used many 'special' fasteners with plenty of reduced hexagon heads where access was restricted or for aesthetic reasons.

    I think that there was a lot less standardisation in the 1930s. Nevertheless, it seems to me self-evident that a nut with a 55° thread angle will be better at mixing pigment than a 60° thread so Whitworth has to be preferred to metric .:)
     
  13. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    I think that there was a lot less standardisation in the 1930s.


    Ooooooh yes...especially when SO much construction was done with adjustables!

    And doubly so when motorcycle companies like Abingdon King Dick (no sniggering in the back there!) ALSO made said adjustables!

    Somewhere in my tool box I've got a genuine King Dick! :D

    (try saying THAT at the sunday dinner table! :lol:)
     
  14. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    im off to get my ZEUS metric/imperial convertor book

    a bible in its time
     
  15. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Nothing like a wee bit of thread hijacking :D
     
  16. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    I've heard the story about reducing dimensions as well but I have to say that I've never seen any evidence for it.

    I used to have some of these old stock, found quite a few many years ago when, briefly, I was an 'assistant storekeeper'. Most likely it was to reduce manufacturer's costs rather than directly save materials - they ain't big.


    it seems to me self-evident that a nut with a 55° thread angle will be better at mixing pigment than a 60° thread so Whitworth has to be preferred to metric .:)
    I have to agree, in fact it can be mathematically proven that 55° is better at mixing paint. UNC would not do also (60°) - they never look right to me. The only place I see American threads now is on the mounting points of hard discs.
    Curiously, Hitler's preferred cipher machine The SZ42, used to communicate with his Generals Lorenz Cipher Machine - Tony Sale was built with American threads - the parent compant of Lorenz was American. (and some of the components in the Colossus machine used to break it were made in Austria).
    Za, I'm trying hard to keep to WW2 topics here!
     
  17. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Curiously, Hitler's preferred cipher machine The SZ42, used to communicate with his Generals Lorenz Cipher Machine - Tony Sale was built with American threads - the parent compant of Lorenz was American


    I've come across this a lot recently, just by chance. Actually, Lorenz WAS owned by ITT...except ITT wasn't an "American" company ;) It has that reputation, as it's founders TECHNICALLY were American...but it was more of a mid-20th century multinational. Sosthenes Behn was born in St. Thomas, Danish West Indies. His ancestry was Danish/German on his paternal side, and French on his maternal side. He ONLY became a citizen of the U.S. as a result of the U.S. BUYING the Danish West Indies as the U.S. Virgin Islands :lol:

    The Behn brothers risked their luck almost entirely abroad, their "American corporation" status only being as a result of owning the MacKay companies' Postal Telegraph and Cable Corporation (which eventually became part of Western Union)...FROM 1928 TO 1930! Once they divested themselves of these in 1930, they seem to have had NO actual business interests in the U.S. again until after the war! As for the company itself, it had been HUGE in European electonics and communications for some considerable time before the war, nearly two decades; its affiliates and owned companies in Europe were quite independent of American control.

    Interestingly....one OTHER company that Lorenz owned was - FOCKE-WULF!
     
  18. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Most likely it was to reduce manufacturer's costs rather than directly save materials - they ain't big.

    Not necessarily! ;)

    Obviously - SOME were for "special applications" - like those nuts in tight places holding a cylinder barrel flange to a crankcase...

    But a lot of it seems to ALSO have been down to how period maufacturers "finished" their bikes. By no means all fasteners or small parts were painted - a lot were simply chemically-blacked, "Parkerised". Some were big enough to have their own plants for dipping, some would just be buying in bulk from outside suppliers.

    And oldfashioned cold-blacking lasts longest where there are no sharp 90-degress edges to wear the coating quickly down to bare metal, hence a lot of boltheads being slimmed-down or radiused.

    Recently I've rediscovered the same trick using permanent black markers on trail bikes and some road bikes!!! Some brands are a wonderful match for that Japanese satin finish on bikes that no paint can QUITE replicate! :lol: And "edge busting" with a sanding block or a little file can make the marker-ink finish last some time!!!:mellow:
     
  19. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    I've heard the story about reducing dimensions as well but I have to say that I've never seen any evidence for it.


    Can't find any nuts, but a clue here. A spanner from a set I purchased in 1971 (made in Sheffield, Hooray). The distance across the flats is about 0.52 inches, or 13.2mm which is the AF dimension of the most recent 5/16" nut. So for a late 1/4" nut you need a 3/16" spanner.

    http://www.********.co.uk/WW2talk/spanner.jpg
     
  20. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Somewhere in my tool box I've got a genuine King Dick!
    (try saying THAT at the sunday dinner table! :lol:)

    I'd never consider starting a plumbing job without my King Dick. Reaches places that other tools can't get to!

    http://www.********.co.uk/WW2talk/kingdick.jpg
     

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