An amazing Humbrol Authentics experience - but lead pigment?

[Rob de Bie]

Last week I painted a small resin model with a fresh tin of Humbrol 18 Orange. As is pretty standard with modern Humbrol, it is fairly translucent, and I had to apply many coats (in one session) to get good coverage. But afterwards I noted that I can still see the resin colour peeping through.

I have a small collection of Humbrol Authentic paints, that I got as a gift. Some of them lack a sticker on the lid, and instead they have been painted with the paint inside the tin. That makes it difficult to identify them properly, so I have no qualms using them.

It seemed like an interesting experiment to base-coat a similar resin model with an orange Authentic colour, and then overpaint it later with modern Humbrol 18.

The airbrushing experience of the orange Authentic colour was nothing less than amazing: the paint covered in one sweep with my airbrush! This was something I had never seen or experienced before.

I was so baffled by the experience that I asked a house-painter about it. His main point was that the pigment in this old paint was likely a lead-based one, and that modern orange pigments were much less opaque. When I asked why the manufacturer wouldn't add more pigment to compensate, he said you can only go to a certain level before the paint properties (drying time, scratch resistance, glossiness, etc) start to suffer. Makes sense to me. So that would explain the differences in covering power of these old and modern paints.

The 'but' part came to mind later: can I safely sand this model? Or is it likely that I will create lead-laden sanding dust? I will sand it wet of course.

Rob

[Lancer512]

Unless you are not sanding that color for 8 hours, 7 days a week, you are pretty much safe.

I personally consider such concerns to be over saftey-conscious. Sanding resin is much more dangerous.

 

Just a thought: The old 1970s Revell enamels, which were probably also lead-based were labeled NON TOXIC. Today, manufactures have to write warnings on the labels because the law requires them to do so. And us modelers go crazy about these warning.

 

[Rob de Bie]

On 8/21/2017 at 6:21 PM, Lancer512 said:

Unless you are not sanding that color for 8 hours, 7 days a week, you are pretty much safe.

I personally consider such concerns to be over saftey-conscious. Sanding resin is much more dangerous.

 

Just a thought: The old 1970s Revell enamels, which were probably also lead-based were labeled NON TOXIC. Today, manufactures have to write warnings on the labels because the law requires them to do so. And us modelers go crazy about these warning.

 

You're right that the quantities are really small compared to professionals working with it day in day out. So I guess I'm safe :-)

 

Rob

Edited August 27, 2017 by Rob de Bie