IHOBBY show report out. Final Piece, Tools and Paints

[Exotics_Builder]

Not a lot of new tools were shown or announced. Most notable were:

• A new cutting mat from Excel where both sides are usable and stamped with a grid. Excel also add a new set of fine tip tweezers.
  
• Xuron was promoting their new PE cutter that they introduced last year. I just got one about two months and it is far more versatile than the original version.
  
• Tool Tron showed some ergo handled cutters and an interesting rotating storage set with 4 stacked clusters that rotate. Retail is about $19. Looks useful for holding select parts.
  
• Alpha Abrasives is expanding their line with micro polishing sheets and pads, including sets with foam blocks with a soft and harder side to control polishing. They are also offering 6x6 inch micro fine sanding sheets up to 12,000 grit.
  
• Ram continues to expand their scale lighting options, particularly for cars. Now that LED’s are prevalent options continue to abound
  
  On the paint and accessory side:
  • Grex had nothing new since their pistol grip air brush was announced a couple of years ago. The rep indicated they plan to have some new product at next year’s show but could not say anything at this point.
    
  • Badger has more lines of aqueous paint coming out. They also are selling sets for beginners which include air brush, compressor, hoses, paints, etc. They have several new compressors (some quite silent) and have a new chrome airbrush. They also displayed their Universal 360 set which includes the airbrush, hose and some bottles. The Universal 360 is a model that a gravity fed that can also be rotated to accept bottles. Very versatile. Finally badger was showing their battery powered paint stirrer. It has been around for years, but is very good at mixing paints in the jar and easy to clean
    
  • Testor’s has new color ranges coming out, including some new automotive colors in their synthetic lacquer range. I couldn’t get any info from the representative I talked to and the marketing information she gave me wasn’t useful either. She did say these would be released in February.
    
  • Finally, a company called E-Z-Mix had some paint accessories of note. Most interesting was a syringe with a micro brush on top. You remove the micro brush, load the paint, reattach the brush and apply color to the brush through the syringe. There also was a clear plastic canister with a closing lid like a paint can to hold mixed colors. Finally, there was displayed small micron filters to transfer paint and strain it.
    

  

  

  

  This way to the album:

[charlie8575]

That syringe brush sounds useful. I'll be interesting to see what Testors has in store for the new car colors, too.

Charlie Larkin

[Aaronw]

Any word from Testors about the fate of Pollyscale and Floquil paints? I'm hoping at the very least they will be wrapped into the Acryl line even if not continued as their own line.

[charlie8575]

Any word from Testors about the fate of Pollyscale and Floquil paints? I'm hoping at the very least they will be wrapped into the Acryl line even if not continued as their own line.

If Floquil or Polly-S get cut, they'll be hearing about it in spades from model railroaders.

Perhaps I should go grab a few bottles of colors I might need to be on the safe side, though.

Charlie Larkin

[Aaronw]

If Floquil or Polly-S get cut, they'll be hearing about it in spades from model railroaders.

Perhaps I should go grab a few bottles of colors I might need to be on the safe side, though.

Charlie Larkin

That has been the rumor the past year though. First Testors was just going to drop them, then the last I heard they were reconsidering. Floquil sounded safe for now, but not sure about Polly Scale. There are a lot more colors for the WW1, interwar and WW2 period aircraft under Polly Scale than Acryl so I'm hoping they don't go away.