Thinners and Varnish
Nothing in this range is a colour: it is what you add to paint, and what you put over it. Enamel thinners take Humbrol enamel down to a working consistency; pigment fixer and varnish then stop the finished surface moving, in gloss, satin or matt.
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Enamel thinners do more than thin paint
Humbrol enamel leaves the tinlet thicker than a brush can lay down evenly, and a model paint thinner is what corrects that; the same bottle of Humbrol thinners gets enamel back out of your modelling brushes before it sets hard. Buy them alongside the enamel model paint, not after the first ruined brush. Pigment fixer is the outlier: not a thinner, but a light coat that holds weathering powders down once you are happy with them.
Which modelling varnish finish suits the subject?
Most of the Airfix range is military, and matt does most of the work there: nothing gives away a tank model faster than a shine the real thing never had. The 1:43 car kits are the exception, where gloss is half the point. Satin sits between them, for subjects kept in service rather than on show. Plastic model varnishes go on after everything else, weathering included, which is why they sit at the far end of modelling supplies from the colour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you thin acrylic paint with enamel thinners?
No. Enamel thinners are made for oil-based paint; Humbrol acrylic paint is water-based and thins with water, which is why acrylic suits a kitchen table. Put enamel thinners into acrylic and you get a curdled mess rather than a thinner paint. Match the thinner to the paint type and neither will surprise you.
What is Humbrol Clearfix for?
Decals. Clearfix is a fixer in the decal sense of the word: it beds a marking down onto painted plastic so it sits flat rather than standing proud. It is not a glue and not a filler, whatever the name suggests, and for joints, seams and gaps you want plastic model adhesive and filler. It is ranged with the thinners because it behaves like one.
How much difference does model varnish make?
Two kinds of difference. The obvious one is toughness: a finished model gets picked up, dusted and moved, and a sealed surface takes that better than bare paint and decals do. The less obvious one is shine. Colours from different tinlets, and decals over the top of them, dry to different sheens, and one pass of Humbrol varnish pulls the lot into a single surface. Gloss shows that most, matt least.