This is an FYI post (spoiler alert), not a 'rush to buy' post

As most regulars here know, the '170 Brown Bess' by Humbrol was a vital part of the colonial marine color scheme. It was used for everything from the Pulse Rifle shrouds, to motion trackers, to hand welders, to belt tools. Its unique properties often look 'olive drab' in a low light, cool color setting. (which filmed with a blue filter, virtually all of "Aliens" appears this way). But it was the beloved "Brown Bess". Original Humbrol brown bess has LONG been discontinued. It was replaced by "Super enamel" Humbrol brown bess (of the same color code 170, but lighter and different in appearence). The reformulation was NOT the same. This is nearly a moot point because even the reformulated "Super Enamel" version was also discontinued. It is by all accounts a dead color!!! So we search for its equal...

Until now, sort of...
I introduce to you...a brand called "All Clad" and what they deem "British Brown Bess". Because they literally call it "brown bess", I felt it needed its own thread/review. This UK company is known for their 'airbrush ready' paint colors, typically famous for their chrome an metallic themes. It appears they also do military colors. Case in point: ALCE062-British Brown Bess.

Now without further adieu, it is 'ok'. It is NOT original brown bess. From other comps I have seen, I feel like this is more akin to the reformulated Brown Bess "super enamel". It looks good, but there is no doubt: This is NOT Alien Brown Bess. It is just OK...

Original formula brown bess on the right in all cases
Here is "cool color" bathroom lighting.


Here is "flash" on warm lighting



Here is low light basement lighting (no flash). Looks darn close here, but then most color comps look close in this light.


All in all, it looks better than many of the 'store bought' colors on the market today (as documented in the spray can thread), but nothing seems to replicate the original.

I bought some when you said you got it. As a group I think it helps a lot if we can use colors that are easily made and applied.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

I have been using alclad British brown bess on all my aliens props apart from my belt tool which i hand painted with humbrol 170. It is a very close match, well close enough for me to use anyhow and im in the UK so readily available!

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Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Has anything closer been found in the states?

I have not. Fortunately international shipping is becoming more and more common so foreign purchases are not a big deal any more. Just stay up on the order as sometimes customs loses things.

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

these look interesting. apparently brown bess is "brown grey, RAL 7013"




http://soldiersystems.net/2015/04/06/mi ... rban-grey/


https://www.airsoft-milsim-news.com/uf- ... le-colour/

heres two other possibilities.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vallejo-Model- ... 0373.m3226


https://www.ebay.com/itm/KHS-SCALE75-SC ... nav=SEARCH

May want to note the 'Vallejo brown-gray' listed on ebay/amazon states RAL7050 (not the 7013 the target 'brown-gray' claims) on the package. The 'brown gray' designation alone
may not quite suit our needs, but I am still curious to see the effect.

I've seen the RAL7013 listed a few times before. I wish it could come in something more practical than a powder-coat.

I cannot figure out why brown bess is so unattainable. Ive become interested after seeing all the posts about it. is it possible that a new color code is needed due to aging paint? sort of like how the humbrol greens look like they have an almost turquoise tint on some screen used armor?

And for those who have a true original humbrol can, does it look accurate against screen used stuff?

When painting my schotti armor i found that my humbrol 110 (light tan/sand colored) looked like two different colors depending on each can. mixing a lot vs mixing a little. I also think TE thins his paints. Look how they self level and have minimal brush strokes, that makes a distinguishing difference.

Age can be a component. The issue is that when they did the film they used what they could obtain and had on hand. The 80s was a bit of an odd creature as there was a lot of innovation and products changed drastically during the time period. The problem is that humbrol changed formulations making our iconic paint color hard to get. The fact they changed hands so many times pretty much doomed efforts to see any more of that formulation being made.

From Wikipedia:
Humbrol was founded in Kingston upon Hull as the Humber Oil Company in 1919. During the 1950s and 60s, Gerald Barton turned Humber Oil Company into Humbrol which developed a range of model paints and other modelmaking paraphernalia. In 1976, Humbrol became part of the Hobby Products Group of the international Borden, Inc. group. Five years later, Borden also acquired the French kit manufacturer Heller.

The Airfix model company joined the group in 1986, transferring its kit production to the Heller factory in Trun, Orne, France. In 1994, the group was acquired by an Irish investment company, Allen & McGuire, and the business was restructured under the Humbrol name. Heller was sold off in 2005 but continued to manufacture kits for Humbrol.

On 31 August 2006, following the collapse of Heller SA, Humbrol went into administration. It was announced on 10 November 2006 that Hornby Railways would acquire certain assets of Humbrol, comprising Airfix, Humbrol paints and model accessories and the Young Scientist brand for £2.6 million.

Humbrol is possibly best known for the enamel paints manufactured for use with plastic model kits. The archetypal container was a 14 ml tin with the lid coloured to illustrate the paint colour and an embossed reference number. Humbrol did, however, sell 50 and 120ml tins and spray cans in some colours. The 50ml enamel paint tins and spray paints are still available. The tins are called "Humbrol DIY".

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

awesome joker, well put.
ive found a few webpages that talk about "grey-brown" and its superior abilities to change color in differnet lighting conditions. I think that was a deciding factor in the choice to ise that color in Aliens.
It sure was effective in the film. today i got dollar general "premium brown" and walmart "camouflage deep forest green". i alternated misting coats back n forth for many coats.

the result was almost a flip-flop color. but im satisfied with it. just seems too dark and I cant seem to get a photo that represents what my eyes see. ha

Hey all, so, I'm getting more into airbrushing and wanting to make props and aliens stuff is on the list.

I'm wondering, is it worth keeping an eye out to try and find og humbrol brown bess? I'm guessing the first version is going to be near impossible to find, but maybe for the "new" super enamel, I could keep an eye out for estate sales, or stuff like that where someone might have a bunch of different airbrush paints or a collection of humbrols.

Probably unlikely since I'm in Canada, but idk. What would the actual value of a tin of proper humbrol brown bess be anyhow? I figure I'd probably have to buy an entire collection, so is it worth buying a bunch of useless to me paints too? I guess they would work for random projects potentially, or to test with.

It's also super cool how different this stuff looks based on lighting.

The problem with estate sales is storage. If the paint was stored out of spec for any period of time it is bad and that is the more likely issue, any found paint would be bad...

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

[quote="knoxvilles_joker"][/quote]

Hmm, damn, that's a good point.

Not sure what the sort of spec range is, guessing temperature mainly.

Still super new to airbrushing, so not even sure how paints can go bad, I kind of figured if it was dried out some you could add thinner to bring it back, but maybe its not that simple, at least for enamel, laquer is probably like that I'm guessing.

Would there be any obvious signs actually inspecting the paint or would it just like, not dry/cure properly after you applied it?

Hi XOIIO

Always nice to see new ppl on the forums.
If you wouldn't mind posting in the intro thread (although there's no real pressure to ) - http://forum.alienslegacy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5853

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Cpl Aron "septic" Williams
A10/TQ0.0.82146E1

I'm no chemical expert, but I am pretty sure if you shake the bottle/can/tin and hear it sloshing, it is probably fine. I found some original brown bess some years back and it was VERY separated in the tin. The bottom of the tin was almost solid and the top almost all the clear fluid, but after s great effort re-mixing, it returned to a very usable state. As long as it isn't completely solid you can probably save it.

That said...maybe I am just getting soft in my old age, but I don't really think we need to be hard core in finding that elusive original anymore. There is enough evidence that the prop makers mixed up/had someone produce large volumes of paint for the numerous props rather than use original little tins. If the original guys mixed up something that was close to brown bess, then why should we beat ourselves up being held to a higher standard? I say look at the alternatives and experimental combos that others have used and go with what looks good to you. And remember....even your very best color matching effort may be dismissed by half the community because "it looks OD on screen!" Darn olive drabbers...

This is also true. I mentioned the poor storage in case it can not be made to work or refuses to re-mix.

Sadly, as the original prop makers die off we are losing bastions of knowledge. So we need to be increasing our efforts to ensure we preserve and curate the needed bases of knowledge so we can hvave more accurate replicas...

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The impossible takes a while longer and goes over budget too...

Just bought an airsoft pulse. I have one can of 170 left that is still "sloshing" around. I think I am going to take the shrouds off and spray them with the best rattle can color I can find and then sparingly hand paint them.
Anyone have a good spray can color that is kinda close?

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No, they are not going to see this coming...