I sell Hornby Hobbies Limited products, this section of the website being their Humbrol range of paints. Although I have only been accredited as a dealer in 2019 I have been using Humbrol products since 1962 for my various Airfix, Monogram, Revell, AMT, MPC, Tamiya, Jo-Han, Aurora, Lindberg, Impact and other kits, models and toys on plastics, fibreglass, wood and metal. In comparison with some other shops I would not expect to hold large stocks but would hope to provide a simple order and delivery service at an attractive price.

My interest in Hornby (or Tri-ang, as I still think of them) goes back to the 1960s and the same is true for Airfix and Humbrol. Now owned by Hornby Hobbies the Humbrol brand is one of the older names connected with model making. Established in 1919 as the Humber Oil Company it became truly famous in the 1950s when the range of small 50cc and hallmark 14cc tinlets of enamel paints arrived. For marine and aero modellers various varnishes, dopes, solvents and adhesives were also produced later joined by brushes, spray-cans, spray guns and other tools. Although Airfix and indeed Revell and other model paints were often available Humbrol ruled the UK market. Their range of colours expanded greatly in the 1970s with sub-ranges specifically for railway and military colour schemes, no longer would modellers have to apply a difficult recipe to arrive at Afrika Corps sand or the railway version of Brunswick Green or Crimson Lake. The other aspect of the Humbrol tinlets is that they were far easier to reopen than the screw-on tops of the other brands. It is hard to think of any british plastic kit builder who did not have a selection of Humbrol tins ready for their next Airfix kit.

In 1976 Humbrol was taken over by Borden Incorporated and five years later it also took over the french Heller kit firm. In another five years Borden also had Airfix and the Airfix moulds and production moved to the Heller factory. In 1994 these three model brands changed ownership again with Humbrol as the main name. Heller was sold off in 2005, continuing to make Airfix kits under contract, but Heller collapsed just a year later whereupon Hornby took over both Humbrol and Airfix.

Please understand that although I am using the images from the Hornby image bank any representation of a colour (whether RGB as for a video screen or CMYK as for a printer) may not show the true shade of a paint (which can also vary depending upon how it is stirred and applied). Humbrol does have a specially produced colour sheet which tries to be as accurate as possible but for most purposes I would imagine that recommendations from modelling magazines and kit instructions will give ideas as to what colours to use.

I order on a roughly fortnightly basis. If the items are in stock at the warehouse it will probably take a week to reach me and another week in the post before it is due to be delivered to you. It must therefore be understood that there could be a four week delay before delivery. In some instance it might be quicker but you should not rely on that. If this delay is not acceptable then please do not place an order.

I am trading under the Micro Entrepreneur regime, I pay the equivalent of TVA/VAT sales tax up-front when I buy goods and I can not exempt this for any purchasers who might be TVA/VAT registered.

Due to my location in the countryside of France's Massif Centrale I am not expecting passing trade but that is not to say that I do not like meeting other model making and railway enthusiasts or possible potential customers. If you would like to meet up then please do not set off in blind hope, contact me to arrange a rendez-vous first.

French is not my natural language, and for the limited range of words that I do understand my speed of translation is slow. If you are able to speak english I will be able to answer your queries more quickly. If you want to contact me please use email. If you speak french (or another language) then please either use a translation facility (such as Google translate) or at least understand that I will be trying to use such a system on your text so please avoid abbreviations, slang or idioms that are likely to provide problems for a silicon based translation.

I am happy to post within metropolitan France and also the "western" EC countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Republic of Ireland) plus the Channel Isles. When using the site please select between the "France" or "other country" shipping option (if you should make a mistake on this then you can zero out the shopping basket and start again).This is not to say that I may not consider posting to other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or Japan who generally have a reliable delivery system and if you happen to live in one of those and would like to buy anything then please contact me and I will see what can be arranged for shipping.

A further comment on postage costs: I am initially having to guess at the likely cost of posting single items. I would agree that adding in a duplicate item ought not to double the cost however I am having to make a choice within the options of the Paypal shopping cart and have defaulted to the method where there is no postage discount for multiple items (which worked for my previous web shops where multiple item purchases were not that common). If you are buying lots of compact and lightweight items then I can either offer to refund the excess postage or, if you prefer to pay the correct amount in the first instance, send me an email with your items and I can then make a specific invoice for that bundle.

My individual product line pages are intended to show the items that are available in the warehouse now or slated for production and open for pre-order. Please understand that I use the predicted production dates as provided by the factory or importer and these may be subject to delay.