Testors drops some of the old lines of paint

[sumterIII]

From John at WEM

 

"Speaking of paint, this from Testors today: "Weve made the decision to exit the following businesses within the Testor® Brand family - Pactra®,
Floquil®, Polyscale®, and ColorArtz®. This will enable the Testor Corporation to return to our foundation of success providing premium, innovative product that inspires creativity. We will continue to accept orders and ship product for a limited time based on available quantities. "

 

 

[Ron Bell]

Or, it could be they are dropping the acrylic brands they purchased that compete with their own acrylics. Sounds better their way, I suppose. As to Pactra, those little bottles probably don't generate the profit to justify them and, again, they compete with Testers Model Master. Too bad. My earliest memories of putting paint on a model involves paint from those little bottles. The good news in all this is that they did not announce stopping production of Model Master oil based enamels. They are one of the few oil based paints left and I just don't like the water based stuff.

[sumterIII]

I'm not a fan of acrylics, even though some that are sold as such are not. (TAM) I too am glad MM is still enamel and hope they continue to be. I think one problem along with WEM and others is the export problem. I read where some of the WEM paints were confiscated by customs causing problems with supplies at one USA dealer.

 

[ghodges]

This is Testor's killing off their competition, pure and simple. As a MM user, it barely affects me, but I do hate to see the Floquil Railroad Colors go.....that is one of the GREAT paints out there, as long as you needed the color they had, or you were willing to mix to match!

 

GIL

[Ron Bell]

I loved Floquil too. They use to have a line of military colors, but that went away over 10 years ago it seems. Now it's an acrylic, not the old laquer. Just more competition for the Testers acrylics.

[ipmsusa2]

Very few IPMS members build model railroads, but consider the effect that dropping Floquil will have on them. Considering how large the model railroad hobby/industry is and how much they rely on Floquil for exact color matching, you have to wonder what was involved in the decision besides economics...if economics was the primary reason in the first place. Keep in mind that absolutely nothing is availabe to replace dozens of the railroad colors.

 

If that ain't enough, many of us who do weathering of any kind are more than a little fond of Dust, Grime, Mud and Concrete. While these are supposed to be available in their CreateFX line of paints, there's no way of knowing at this time if the formula will be the same. You'll also have to find a source for that line of paint.

 

Finally, on a very personal level, I'm currently working on a two-part softskin diorama article that will include a cover photo for a magazine I write for. The weathering colors...particularly Dust...will be an integral part of the article. While I have a bottle of Dust on hand, now I'm left with the problem of what do I tell the readers. By the time the article appears, they may not be able to find the stuff and I will have no clue what to recommend.

 

Richard

[Mark Deliduka]

I am especially upset at this as I finally was able to get some Floquill Oily Black to replace my Polly S Oily Black. Now they are going to dicontinue THAT!

 

 

 

 

 

I'd better stop now before I type something that will get me banned.....

[sumterIII]

You may want to order as much as you can while you can while supplies last.

[Guest PetrolGator]

Frustrating. ModelMaster has STARTED carrying some of the PolyScale USN colors, but, ugh.