Humbrol Clear Acrylic Varnish Review

As one roots around the interwebs, one finds such fascinating things as Weblogs (Blogs) and Video logs (Vlogs). Well, last week I was idly watching “Last Man Standing” as Mike Baxter was filming one of his Vlogs when it hit me – the Product Log, or as I’ve decided to call it, the Plog. I’m really hoping that this is something new and exciting that I’ve come up with and not another incident of exposing my highly retentive mind to the original work of others. So the subject of my first Plog is a new product I picked up from the Last Cavalry stand back at the AMPS Nationals in April, Humbrol’s clear acrylic gloss varnish. I can see all you tank guys out there counting on your fingers, yes that was seven months ago and I’m just now getting around to writing a review. There’s a logical reason. I’m lazy. Actually, I’ve been engaged in another of my siege builds, where I decree that the 20 some odd projects I’m working on must get finished before I start another. Yeah, I’m one of those builders whose bench looks like a Ford assembly line. I like to think I’m getting in touch with my inner production engineer, but lately the only thing I’ve been getting in touch with is my inner ADD modeler, “Oh look, a tank!” And off we go on another build. But I digress. So there I was, knee deep in tanks waiting for decals. My gloss coat of choice for many years has been Future. I have a large bottle that’s close to 10 years old and only about half full these days. As you know, Future is a thing of the past and I’ve been idly thinking about a replacement for my dwindling supply of Future for some time. I had heard some good things about a new Humbrol acrylic gloss varnish and I thought I would give that a shot before I tracked down that new Johnson and Johnson formulation that was supposed to be all that and a bag of chips. After giving Humbrol a try, I have no plans to go back to the Future. I’m sold on Humbrol clear gloss varnish.

My model building style is a bit eccentric. Since I build in my basement, I prefer to paint with acrylics. I have a paint booth that exhausts outside, but why tempt fate? After living nearly seven years in Europe and drinking German beer, I need to protect the few functional brain cells I have left. I can airbrush Future with no issues, but I prefer to brush paint it. I actually find it relaxing, and it’s self-leveling, so no brush marks. I did not think a standard acrylic paint would ever have the same properties. I was wrong. Turns out the Humbrol gloss varnish is way cool. It actually sprays a little better and is easier to clean up than Future, but that’s not what I really like about it. This stuff brushes a treat. I decided to use two 1/72 Churchill’s I was working on as my crash test dummies. I used a medium sized round brush and did the turrets first. Absolutely perfect I did the hulls, mostly trying working in one direction with the brush. This self-levels and dries to a beautiful even gloss finish. Sometimes I would have to use two coats of Future over the decal sites. Not so with Humbrol, one coat is all I’ve needed. I decided I’d get a little bolder. I pulled out my 1/32 T-108 Self-propelled 155mm gun. This is Revell repop of the Renwal 8 inch Howitzer. Turns out that it’s actually the T-108 prototype out of the box and that’s how I decided to build it. Anyway, it’s huge, so I thought it would be a real test for the Humbrol Clear. Once again, I used my bog standard medium round brush and it took me way less time to paint than it would have to load up the airbrush, paint it and clean it up afterwards. The finish was perfect. No brush marks and a high gloss. The decal went on all my models without any evidence of silvering, with the possible exception of my 1/72 Masterbox Mark I tank. I built it as a training machine at Bovington Camp and used some Emhar decals for the side numbers. Their decals can be a bit tricky, and getting them to settle over a Mark I, which is actually just 10,000 rivets marching in close formation is tough, but two coats of Micro Sol got them to settle down without silvering. A significant accomplishment, no? So far, I’m loving this stuff. I do have one small complaint. I love the smell of Future in the morning, it smells like…flowers. Sort of a fruity, sweet smell. Humbrol Clear varnish, not so much. It has something of the bouquet of decades old cigar smoke in a heavily carpeted room. It reminded me of the back room of an old VFW Post in New Jersey I used to hang out at, but that’s a story for another day. So other than the mild cigar smell, it’s become my gloss varnish of choice. It’s available from Last Cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com.