Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color...lacquer Line

[simonr]

I wonder, why it's so difficult to get this fine line of paints here in the states, since the Tamiya lacquers(I wonder also why they not sell them in small jars)can be obtained almost in any hobby store and even by air mail. I consider the Tamiyas a good one because for its covering, fast drying time, easy to polishing quality, and availability, but, Gunzes at least to me, its superior not just only for having almost the same features or maybe better in some of them, but, for the triple or almost cuadruple amount of colors, different lines(even a special car color line), price, the greatness of get them in small 10ml jars, and that most of the plastic models we buy from Japan, comes with the Gunze color numbers as a standard to follow.

I got two days ago one of those emails that I almost always just do a fast reading from greatmodels.com telling that tey will look for other distributors to get some of the most asked products from Gunze like the Mr. Surfacer 1000, 500, 1200, white surfacer, etc, but, also the great news of all, that they even could get the '"enamel" line aswell. I know that in the past this guys sold them, I even got some of the last jars at 75 cents in their retail shop in Salt Lake City when I attended my first GSL back in 2005.

As far as I know, in Japan they are really cheap at around 120Y. That's in our dollar change around $1 and with just one 10ml jar(the same size of Tamiya acrylics) I can paint all the coats I need in a car in 1/24 without any problem. I know I can get them through some stores like Rainbow 10 and 1999 in Japan just to name a few, but, today shipping charges make it's final price to go up to high, maybe, through a LHS would be better.

Guys, I would like read another thoughs from you to see if there is another way to get them.

Simón P. Rivera Torres

[jbwelda]

well maybe you just said it, but i think it comes down to having distribution in the USA or not. tamiya as you know has a headquarters here (or did...i think maybe they shut that down recently?) so they are more or less "local". i dont think gunze has distributorship here so they must just rely on buyers to find them to distribute on a small scale here for them. also are there not some pretty extreme restrictions on how you can ship paint internationally, due to the "toxic" nature and the explosive nature of spray bombs, oops, cans?

but im with you, any company that calls its products "mr." has my business. its a stroke of crazy genius that i think only the asians could come up with. mr surfacer in particular cracks me up every time i hear it. hey mister, wheres MRS surfacer?

and if theres a mr and a mrs, there has to be a whole mess of kids...what do you suppose you call them? junior surfacers?

[Zoom Zoom]

Stevens International (distributor) recently sent a note to dealers that they were dropping the entire line of Gunze paints because there's something in them that makes them illegal in the US.

Don't think we'll be seeing Gunze/Mr Hobby paints much in the US unless Gunze adjusts the formulas. Tamiya's sprays were banned in the UK until they change a formula. The UK won't be seeing Tamiya sprays again until next year.

I fear that over-regulation will one day make painting our models impossible.

[Ariel]

I was speaking to a local distributer which is Stevens International.

They informed me that the problem with Gunze is the same problem

that Tamiya had a fue years ago with the labeling on the bottles.

For the amount of business that they do in the US it may not be

in there interest to relabel the product. This is what I was told I when looking for the liquid putty in the Gunze /Mr. Hobby line. How true this is i don't know.

But Stevens is a pretty large distributor and they have been correct in the past. So ordering over seas maybe your only option for now.

[Aaronw]

Over on the Fine Scale Modeler boards this has been talked about. Gunze will be dropping their direct sales to the US & Canada. Details were not given as to why now but they said sales in the US & Canada were not strong enough for them to continue exporting to those countries and they recommended using Japanese mail order companies for those who wished to continue using the paints.

The comments referring to the issues Tamiya had sound reasonable though.

Tamiya paints are available in the small 10ml bottles, those are the only Tamiya paints my LHS stocks.