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Mr. Hobby Aqueous H300-H400 Series US Availability?


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Hi All,

 

I don't know if it's a result of COVID or if there are other factors involved, but it seems to have become impossible to find any of the Gunze Mr. Hobby Aqueous paints in any of the colors that are in the series 300 or 400 in the US.  I'm talking about colors like H303 Aqueous Semi Gloss FS34102 Green, H416 Aqueous RLM66 Black Gray, basically any of the colors numbered above H94.  It does not seem nearly as difficult to find the 'C' series (lacquer) Mr. Color paints, but the aqueous versions are impossible.  Places like Spraygunner have most of the colors at H94 and below (numerically), but not above that number.  It used to be hard to find any of these colors anywhere available in a US business, but I used to be able to purchase these colors on Ebay, from Taiwan or similar locations for about $3.30 with free shipping, without much difficulty.  Ideally, I'd love to find someone here in the US who has these paints, but I'd even be happy to find them on Ebay again for around that price.  I have found some sellers on Ebay, but now their prices have risen to about $5.00 US, plus tax, even.  I am running out of certain colors I use frequently in this range.  I LOVE these paints, and prefer them to most of the other brands of paints I have, even if they have similar colors.  Does anyone have any ideas for me???

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Thank you, sir.  They do appear to have several colors in the range I'm looking for, but a bunch are not in stock.  I've asked others who carry Gunze products about getting the full range of paints and have been told that it was difficult to get them.  I will ask them, though.  Thanks again.

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Not sure If I'm missing anything here, but I just made a large order of Mr. Color paint from Spraygunner.com - good service quick and well packed. I have also ordered the Aqueous line as well. From what i can see they carry over 850 products from Mr Hobby.

 

HTH

 

AFM

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1 hour ago, AlienFrogModeller said:

Not sure If I'm missing anything here, but I just made a large order of Mr. Color paint from Spraygunner.com - good service quick and well packed. I have also ordered the Aqueous line as well. From what i can see they carry over 850 products from Mr Hobby.

 

You are definitely missing something here.  Did you see any Mr. Hobby Aqueous paints that are in the 300 or 400 series per OP from Spraygunner.com?  For example, do you see either H-308 Light Ghost Gray or H-307 Dark Ghost Gray?  We are not talking about Mr. Color lacquer line here.

 

gunze_ghost_grays.jpg

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2 hours ago, RichardL said:

 

You are definitely missing something here.  Did you see any Mr. Hobby Aqueous paints that are in the 300 or 400 series per OP from Spraygunner.com?  For example, do you see either H-308 Light Ghost Gray or H-307 Dark Ghost Gray?  We are not talking about Mr. Color lacquer line here.

 

gunze_ghost_grays.jpg

 

Richard,

 

You are exactly right!  It's the higher numbered aqueous paints that seem to be like gold.  Back in July, I wrote to Spraygunner about this range of aqueous paints.   Here was their response:

Unfortunately we won't have those colors available in the states for another year due GSI Creos only running a small test sample in our market.
I just wrote to SprueBrothers also about these paints, but I don't have much confidence that they will have any better luck at being able to supply them than Spraygunner.
Edited by Curt B
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3 hours ago, RichardL said:

 

You are definitely missing something here.  Did you see any Mr. Hobby Aqueous paints that are in the 300 or 400 series per OP from Spraygunner.com?  For example, do you see either H-308 Light Ghost Gray or H-307 Dark Ghost Gray?  We are not talking about Mr. Color lacquer line here.

 

gunze_ghost_grays.jpg

Interesting response sir.

 

Take care

 

 

Curt B,

I reread and seen what you're looking for, my apologies for not quite comprehending your full intent and need. I do too love these paints and have a number of spare bottles in my personal stock. Glad I stocked up when I did.

AFM

Edited by AlienFrogModeller
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1 hour ago, AlienFrogModeller said:

Interesting response sir.

 

Take care

 

 

Curt B,

I reread and seen what you're looking for, my apologies for not quite comprehending your full intent and need. I do too love these paints and have a number of spare bottles in my personal stock. Glad I stocked up when I did.

AFM

 No apologies needed, believe me!  I was thinking about how I might have worded my initial post so it was more clear.  It is a shame that once exposed, so to speak, to a particular product, whatever that product may be, and then not being able to get more of that product.  I wonder how well the Gunze/Mr. Hobby company has been informed by their distributors about how much their Aqueous line is appreciated by modelers in the US.  My guess is that they probably haven't been told, at least sufficiently to get them moving in the direction of getting their entire range of colors over to the US market.  I have no idea how difficult it may be for a foreign manufacturer to sell a product like  hobby paints to the US.  I'm utterly ignorant of the costs involved, including taxes, tariffs, fees, etc., that are placed on things like hobby products, especially those that are deemed hazardous.  Perhaps it is not profitable enough to sell those paints here, but oddly, it appears not to be the chemical composition that's a problem, because the other Aqueous colors are sold here.  I can't imagine why different colors would be more difficult to import than the ones that are easily found here,

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11 hours ago, Curt B said:

 No apologies needed, believe me!  I was thinking about how I might have worded my initial post so it was more clear.  It is a shame that once exposed, so to speak, to a particular product, whatever that product may be, and then not being able to get more of that product.  I wonder how well the Gunze/Mr. Hobby company has been informed by their distributors about how much their Aqueous line is appreciated by modelers in the US.  My guess is that they probably haven't been told, at least sufficiently to get them moving in the direction of getting their entire range of colors over to the US market.  I have no idea how difficult it may be for a foreign manufacturer to sell a product like  hobby paints to the US.  I'm utterly ignorant of the costs involved, including taxes, tariffs, fees, etc., that are placed on things like hobby products, especially those that are deemed hazardous.  Perhaps it is not profitable enough to sell those paints here, but oddly, it appears not to be the chemical composition that's a problem, because the other Aqueous colors are sold here.  I can't imagine why different colors would be more difficult to import than the ones that are easily found here,

Morning Sir,

I used to import quite a few years back, and it can be very difficult to get such products. You're correct with the financial and other import factors when getting products to a out of original manufacture market. However in this case the distributer may not be able to get this product due to the manufacture rate and the min level of product required to serve the home market. Once the company  has determined the rate of production vs the demand in various markets to enable a sound steady profitable margin. I can only imagine with COVID affecting Manufacture, Quality Control, Distribution, and variable market demand, the parent company would be reluctant to increase production when they can't get their product to the market. This maybe an exaggerated generic look at things but, it would be my guess it is a plausible aspect of their business plan.

 

I too am a big fan and finding myself moving to a more "local" brand to eliminate the need for such an eclectic product that has been in my inventory since I have started this hobby many years ago. But with repeated use I am finding alternate brands are very good, but this introduces cost (financial and space) I was not expecting. However this is the situation you and I (and I suspect may others as well) face, this is eerily the same type scenario wrt sparse product as the old school enamel users of Humbrol/Testors/Floquil etc, have faced in recent months (years) and their slow methodical disappearing acts. 

 

I feel your pain...if you're stuck and need a specific color, let me know, I'll check my inventory to see if I have a spare to share with you.

 

Cheers


AFM

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Hi Frog,

Thank you so much for your lengthy and detailed post!  You are most kind to offer assistance. It is one of the things I love about forums like this...the willingness of many folks to want to help.  At the moment, though, I’m okay.  One day, if I get REALLY stuck, you may hear from me 😊.  If it ever came to that, I’d certainly try to mix other brand colors to come close to the color I couldn’t get in Mr. Hobby paint.   As it happens, I happen to have an obscene amount of paint colors from far too many manufacturers, rather than just having limited myself to 2 or 3 main ones, though I do have the most colors in Mr. Color (lacquer), Tamiya and Mission Model paints.  

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1 minute ago, AlienFrogModeller said:

Curt B,

Maybe we will get luck and have the product in country when we get to the last few shakes of the color we need!


Cheers

 

AFM

Indeed!  Let’s hope so!

 

Ideally, I’d like to have the acrylic and the lacquer versions of all the Mr. Color paints. I LOVE their lacquer paints, but don’t like the smell and the significant extra airbrush cleanup that comes along with that paint.   Same goes for MRP paint, love the ‘out of the bottle’ ability for airbrush use, but the same cleanup and smell issues exist with MRP as well. Nothing competes with lacquer paint for extremely thin paint layers, complete coverage, almost instant dry time, no airbrush tip dry, and more, but I am beginning to think maybe the trade-off is worth it.  

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54 minutes ago, Curt B said:

Indeed!  Let’s hope so!

 

Ideally, I’d like to have the acrylic and the lacquer versions of all the Mr. Color paints. I LOVE their lacquer paints, but don’t like the smell and the significant extra airbrush cleanup that comes along with that paint.   Same goes for MRP paint, love the ‘out of the bottle’ ability for airbrush use, but the same cleanup and smell issues exist with MRP as well. Nothing competes with lacquer paint for extremely thin paint layers, complete coverage, almost instant dry time, no airbrush tip dry, and more, but I am beginning to think maybe the trade-off is worth it.  

Agreed, I can thin the H line to 85% and still has great opacity. Nice thin layers gets the effect and control like nothing else I've used. I think part of the process is thinning and using Mr Leveler, I use this in Tamiya and Gunze lines, it settles incredibly well on the surface using the Mr Surface primer as the first step.

 

Cheers

 

AFM

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Way back when (late 80s) I began using the Gunze H series paints since a local store in the Dallas area ( I lived once upon a time) stocked them. Don’t remember what I thinned them with although it was probably either Diosol or enamel thinners since the majority of my paints at that time were either Floquil or Xtracolour.  Anyway, one time I used a masking solution on a model that had an initial coat of one of those Gunze colors, and at least half the paint came off too when I removed the masking. I put those paints aside as no good. Quite a while (years) later I realized that the problem wasn’t the paint as much as it was my failure to prepare the surface first, such as a basic washing to remove sanding debris and/or fingerprints etc. 😛

 

Probably 12-15 years later I needed a paint for RAF Dark Earth and discovered I had it in one of Gunze bottles set aside years before. This time, used properly, it worked just fine. Unfortunately that turned out to be about the same time Gunze stopped exporting all the H series to the US 😳

 

 Since I now have a nice spray booth vented outdoors, I’ve switched back from water based acrylics to acrylic lacquers. A couple of years ago I fell in love with MRP and bought lots before I discovered that, at least for me, it was impossible to do minor touch-ups or to paint small parts with a brush. Now I pretty much use Mr Color and the Hataka Orange line paints. Between Spraygunner and Sprue Bros I am able to get most of the Mr Color and Hataka colors I want.

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3 hours ago, Chuck1945 said:

Don’t remember what I thinned them with although it was probably either Diosol or enamel thinners

 

Thinning Gunze Aqueous with enamel thinners could be part of your problem since water and oil don't mix.  I burnished a strip of 10mm wide Tamiya masking tape onto Gunze H331, thinned with Gunze Aqueous thinner and sprayed over a bare and smooth plastic spoon.  The tape was then yanked straight up hard and fast after half an hour, and none of the paint came off.  So yes, if you use it properly and thin it properly, then it will work great.

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3 hours ago, RichardL said:

 

... if you use it properly and thin it properly, then it will work great.

I honestly don’t have any idea what I used 30+ years ago thinning the Gunze paints.
 

These days when I use the Mr Hobby aqueous paints I thin with Tamiya X-20A, works fine. While not a chemist I suspect chemically there isn’t much difference between the Tamiya and Gunze aqueous paints. 

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22 hours ago, AlienFrogModeller said:

Curt B,

Maybe we will get luck and have the product in country when we get to the last few shakes of the color we need!


Cheers

 

AFM

Indeed!  Let’s hope so!

 

Ideally, I’d like to have the acrylic and the lacquer versions of all the Mr. Color paints. I LOVE their lacquer paints, but don’t like the smell and the significant extra airbrush cleanup that comes along with that paint.   Same goes for MRP paint, love the ‘out of the bottle’ ability for airbrush use, but the same cleanup and smell issues exist with MRP as well. Nothing competes with lacquer paint for extremely thin paint layers, complete coverage, almost instant dry time, no airbrush tip dry, and more, but I am beginning to think maybe the trade-off is worth it.  

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7 hours ago, RichardL said:

Yes, you can certainly use Tamiya X-20A to thin Mr. Hobby aqueous paints.  In fact, I think X-20A does a slightly better job based on my observation.  

As I have written here before, I am a firm believer in using a paint manufacturer’s proprietary thinner. I have plenty of the Gunze aqueous thinner, so that’s what I use. If the Tamia X-20A works as well, good to know.  Of course, as many folks have noted, using Mr. Color Leveling thinner in just about any paint, Tamiya as well, is almost like magic. That’s why I have quite a stockpile of that stuff.   And I don’t know many folks who don’t love MRP, though it most certainly is not paint brush friendly.  But, if I could get the entire line of Mr. Hobby Aqueous paints, I’d probably use those 90% of the time.   It is nice to have options/choices.  I use Mission Models and AK Real Colors as well, when the colors are appropriate (I prefer not to mix in order to get the colors I need, but I do if/when I don’t have any other options)  and they work fine also, again, using their proprietary thinners. 

Edited by Curt B
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It seems like there is an issue getting the H300 and up paints even from sites overseas. My go to site for Gunze paints is Sealmodel.com (in Hong Kong) and they are even out of the majority of these paints in this range:

 

http://www.sealmodel.com/products.php?category_id=157&pn_pr=3

 

I wonder if there is a manufacturing issue?

 

 

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On 11/28/2020 at 12:46 PM, RichardL said:

A downside to ordering from 1001 Hobbies is their outrageous shipping charge for a couple bottles of paint.  Screw that crap.

 

I've asked Sprue Brothers to carry the complete line of Mr. Hobby Aqueous.

Ive tried to order one time from them. My order sat in limbo for ever and 3/4 of a day

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I have to believe that the main problem in getting these particular paint colors is a manufacturing issue, especially since oversees distributors don't have these colors, either.  If I had only known, I'd have gotten multiple jars of the most used colors from the folks in China, where I could get any/all of the Aqueous colors for $3.34, including shipping.  Even that was a bit pricey, but better that than not being able to get them at all.  I guess we wait and see if they become available again, some day.

Edited by Curt B
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