a friend of mine sent me a little box with 9 bottle of unopened paint called Pactra 'Namel., The are small bottles, with a price of 10 cents printed right on the caps. She said she could trace them as far back as 1956…They are still liquid after all these year, and i LOVE the price.
I have some bottles of Pactra and Testors that I purchased ca. 1979-80, and they were still usable a few years ago (may not be anymore). The prices were 30 and 35 cents. The store I got them at, appropriately called “The Model Shop,” was a model-building kid’s dream (they got a lot of my small discretionary income), but they had a nasty habit of upping the price on merchandise they already had in stock when the manufacturer effected a price increase. Thus, some of the 35-cent bottles of paint started out as 30-cent bottles. [}:)]
I wonder if I wanted to make a point here, before I started reminiscing…Ah, yes, paint will keep a very long time under the right conditions.
I think people my age started model building using Pactra and Testors paint. If I remember once opened they dried out pretty fast. Some of the colors took forever to dry. Ah!!! Those were the good old days. But, my grandchildren think I was born in days before electricity because I have an old watch which doesn’t use a battery.[:)]
I too remember “Pactra”. I used alot of Testor’s and later Humbrol paints for my models “back in the day”; i’m almost 40! Anyway, i still have some left overs from over ten years ago and they work just fine. I stored them upside-down and only needed to thin them out a little, and vigorously shake to use them.
Pactra enamels were among the first I ever used as a kid, and I was still using them until about ten years ago. The only reason I stopped is because I used them all up!
I still have a bunch of old Testors paints that my Dad used as a kid in the 50’s. Some real wild colors too, mostly car colors and hence tons of metallic blues, greens, reds… Ruby Red is the coolest of the bunch. They are still liquid but I’m afraid to open them! I merely keep them around for sentimental value more than anything. My Dad is gone 1 year this April and having all this stuff around, silly or not, helps me cope a bit.
Anyhoo, in conclusion, I shall finish by ending! [:p]
Fade to Black…
I have some old Pactra, Testors, and Official Military Flats (remember those?) they’e still usable. Got a bottle or two of Imrie-Risley military miniature enamels somewhere. Don’t know if they’re any good anymore, but I still use the first three. I put a piece of coat hanger with a 90 degree small bend at the end in a poweer screwdriver to mix the paint-works quickly and well and mixes evenly.
I remember those bottles of Pactra 'namel from when I began modeling in 1972 (see my post under “What Was Your First Model?”). Just a couple of months ago, I went to a model railroad club meeting (I don’t build trains but they’re fun to watch) and I saw a bunch of the old square bottles of Pactra 'namel. They were still liquid and had a price of 15 and 19 cents; that dates them to the early '70’s!
Substitute Thinner.
I bought an old collection of planes and paint many years ago. Most of the bottles of pactra namel must be over 50 years old and it is still mostly usable. I’ve used up the Pactra Thinner. What would be the best substitute thinner that would work on Pactra paint?
Loved them and miss them. They had the BEST Dark Olive Drab around! And my favorite shade of Khaki (a warm yellowed hue) and Flesh in their Military Flats line. I still have a few left in my paint inventory that I use occasionally.
I still have a few bottles of Pactra paints for plastic models as well as a few jars and cans of their “DOPE” for stick and tissue models. I also have some of Revell’s paints from the late 50s or early sixties as well as some of Monogram’s paints. Testors is currently owned by RPM, a coatings and chemical company. I think Humbrel also has a new owner, but the paints are still available. Laquers and enamels are going to be a thing of the past sooner than later. Some states only allow water based paints to be used or strictly regulate the sale and use of paints other than water based paints. All of this politically correct BS is simply because some folks think that they are to important to die.
Wow, those bottles were almost as old as this thread…
For clean up with the enamel paints I’ve always used lacquer thinner. For thinning the paint itself, there isn’t much you can do if the paint begins to get too thick. If you want to thin it for airbrushing, I use acetone.
I still have a few bottles of the old Pactra paints from when I was modeling as a kid. Some are still usable. I’ve been tossing the thickening ones as I find them.
My father was doing model railroading in the 1950s and one brand of paint he used was 410M. They went out of business in the 60s, but he found that if they started to dry out, just adding some solvent (I forget what now) would revive them back like they were new.
I read somewhere that Pactra was a brand name of Testors.
Bill
I used Pactra 'Namels, both in the little square bottles embossed with their logo, and the later water-based colors in larger, round jars. I still have a couple of the water-based paints that I use for my toy soldiers. They had a royal blue that is perfect for Prussian tunics, and a green that was spot-on for Jaeger. And the bottles lasted forever (almost), I never had any of them dry out, like Tamiya acrylics tend to do. It was only when I used up a bottle of the Jaeger green that I went looking for them in a hobby shop, to be informed that Testor had bought out Pactra and discontinued the line.
I also have a square bottle of matte “Suntan”, which is still good some 30 years after I bought it.
I have a couple of Testor’s enamels in the little bottles, too, that are almost as old-Copper, and Green. Other colors in that line turn to paste almost as soon as they’re opened–Black and White, for example, and the browns. Must have to do with the pigments used.
I still have some of the tools I got as a member of the Revell Master Modelers Club, too, and my membership cards:.
Oh the Revell club… good memories[;)]
That “suntan” color was the perfect color for US olive green WWII Field Jackets… Wanna sell it?[:P]
Oh, yeah, Practa 'Namel (and Testor’s, which I still use) were the only model paints I could get in the 60s and early 70’s (at the local drugstore, no less)… Loved 'em and miss 'em…
Ya, but 'till they get older 'n you, it don’t matter…
Responding to threads that are over 8 years old…
I would never never do that!
(Oops! I just did!)
[:D][;)]
No dumber than responding to threads with 229 or more posts
Indeed, but that’s a race you cannot win.
I never liked them, thought they were too thin. But it’s funny, when you are young whatever the LHS has is the best, no question. Kinda like Fanta versus Canada Dry.
I do think they made a great series of candy colored, sorry Kandie Kolored spray bombs, back when a ten year old could buy one.