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Is Model Master paint getting scarce?


ipmsusa2

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Hi all,

 

I don't know if this is a sign of things to come, but I was in my local Hobby Lobby in pursuit of Model Master colors I was running low on. In particular, FS36440 Light Gull Grey. Hobby Lobby has always carried pretty much the full line of Model Master...until now. All I found were two partial rows of MM paint, including a dozen or so FS colors and the rest basic colors. What did they have more of? the little 1/4 oz Testors paint bottles and Acryl acrylics.

 

Out of curiosity, I also checked the Testors website. While I haven't checked the listed colors against my own stock, it seems that they don't have as many colors as they did. One thing that did stick out like a sore thumb is that RLM Grau in the WW-II German list is nowhere to be seen.

 

Anyone else have observations regarding Model Master? We've already lost Floquil and PolyScale and now I'm wondering if MM is going to vanish with a whimper and not a bang.

 

 

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All I can speak for is locally, where things are pretty much the status quo. There are no more Model Master paints than before, and it seems no less either.

 

Not restocking MM paints may be more of a sign of how your local shop is doing more than how Testors/Model Master is doing. I know my local shops are throwing their support (and money) at everything RC, and letting the plastic models and their supplies slowly wain.

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Hey Gil,

 

What you say is quite possible where the RC shops are concerned. I know the nearest RC shop to me carries a moderate line of plastic kits along with a full rack of Tamiya and Acryl. They also have the 1/4 oz bottles of Testors...in fact, more than I can find anywhere else...but zero MM paint. Even they can't explain their reason for that. However, Hobby Lobby doesn't deal with RC and they carry a large line of plastics, which makes the reduction in MM colors rather curious for them.

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I noticed at our lhs that the MM and Testor's displays have been tweeked a bit. Labeling is changed as have the color samples and other details. Same paints, but the display has been "updated". Might this have someihing to do with Testors dropping the competing paint lines and restructuring what's left?

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Could be. Still, the thing that worries me is why did RLM 02 disappear from the MM listing on the Testors website. That's a standard color that isn't easily mixed. True, the same color is available in Acryl, but then so are most of the other

FS colors in MM. Does this portend the elimination of all enamel paints?

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Enamel may well be going out. Shipping is getting to be a real pain. WEM can no longer ship paint outside UK through the UK Postal system. The private shippers can still get it through customs but that may end too. Like it or not the water based paint may soon be the only game in town.

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Yeah and I hate to think of it coming to that. The younger modelers (man, I hate to use that phrase) have probably never used or even seen anything but water based paint. They don't understand that some visual effects are totally

impossible to attain with water based paints. Bottom line...this is what the EPA has wrought!

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Less to do with EPA more to do with hazard of fire on flights. WEM said if they shipped by sea they could still do it, but shipping by air on passenger aircraft was the problem. They could ship by FedEx or UPS but the cost would be higher. We had a heck of a time getting paint and glue over to Afghanistan because of the shipping hazard.

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Art, I understand the fire risk on airliners. What I was refering to when I mentioned the EPA was the way paint chemistry has changed, resulting from their campaign against Volatle Organic Compounds. Not only does it have a shorter shelf life, it's performance characteristics have changed radically in many cases. One of the more prominent examples is Krylon changing from a totally reliable acrylic lacquer to an oil-based enamel that is more than a little squirrelly. Then there's Deft, who makes a fabulous lacquer clear coat that's the best thing going when it comes to creating a natural finish on wood bases. They still make the stuff, but it's illegal for them to ship it into California.

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Man, what ever happened to being careful? Back in the day people understood the dangers and took precautions and had some awesome looking stuff! Has everyone gotten so stupidly lazy or lazily stupid that we have to have the Government protect us from ourselves? How idiotic is that?

 

I have a hard enough time making my models look good enough to put on contest tables. I hate having to switch to some thing I don't like to use since it is harder to get as good a finish with it as it is using my enamels. I want the freedom to use what I want, without the stupid Government telling me I can't because I might hurt myself! Geez! I thought when I grew up I'd be treated like an adult, not a child!

 

 

Okay, I'm done. I'm going to go get more coffee and head out to my hobby room to see if I can get anything done.

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Out of curiosity, I checked the online site for Hobby Lobby. When I did a serch for MM paint, here's what I found:

 

MM in spray cans: 50 different colors, almost all of them geared to high gloss automotive colors. This includes a few FS colors that are flat.

MM Enamels in 1/2 oz bottles: 14. That's it.

MM Acryl in 1/2 oz bottles: 48 including Acryl Thinner and Dried Paint Solvent.

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  • 1 month later...

Could also be a marketing thing as MM / Testors / Lines are now owned by the paint giant Rust-O-leum corp. Instead of product being driven by a corporate structure entirely devoted to modelers (Testors) it is now a very small part of the corporate entity. The Rust-o-leum family has many different brands they own now such as Zinzer and others that I'm sure have a huge, huge percentage of the corporate sales in comparison with the teeny bottles of model paints.

Because of the large volums of coatings they produce, it is easier for manufacturing methods and materials throughout the entire product line to meet all the new EPA standards for VOC's.

I also do leather craft work and the finishes and coatings available for that craft have changed or disappeard completely as well, for the same reasons, especially the lacquers.

It's a new world out there, completely out of our control.

 

EJ

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Could also be a marketing thing as MM / Testors / Lines are now owned by the paint giant Rust-O-leum corp. Instead of product being driven by a corporate structure entirely devoted to modelers (Testors) it is now a very small part of the corporate entity. The Rust-o-leum family has many different brands they own now such as Zinzer and others that I'm sure have a huge, huge percentage of the corporate sales in comparison with the teeny bottles of model paints.

Because of the large volums of coatings they produce, it is easier for manufacturing methods and materials throughout the entire product line to meet all the new EPA standards for VOC's.

I also do leather craft work and the finishes and coatings available for that craft have changed or disappeard completely as well, for the same reasons, especially the lacquers.

It's a new world out there, completely out of our control.

 

EJ

I think its more accurate that Testors and Rustoleum are both owned by RPM (a holding company specializing in companies that make paints, glues and other coatings). But that has been true for years (according to wikipedia, Testors was bought by RPM in 1984 and Rustoleum in 1994). I can imagine RPM is trying to unify products across the company lines (RPM owned the bondo brand for a while, and sold Bondo glazing putty as "Model Master Red Putty" - same stuff, same tube, different label, higher price), but I've heard from allegedly "knowledgeable sources" that Testors cutting the various paint lines is because they can't buy the raw materials anymore due to tighter environmental regulations.

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