Humbrol Clear

[Brigand]

I bought a bottle of Humbrol Clear a while ago and noticed at the bottom of the bottle there was a white buildup with clear liquid above that, the two clearly separated. Assuming the bottle had been stood a while I shook it up and painted it onto my kit - with disastrous results. It left a brown scum over most of the aircraft and dried with no shine at all, in fact it was as if I was just painting dirty water over it. Thinking I had a dodgy batch I bought another bottle from a different place some weeks later and again saw the white stuff at the bottom of the bottle, but rather than shaking it up this time I painted the clear liquid on and this time I got the correct results.

My question is, what is the white substance in the bottle? A friend swears his bottle doesn't have the white stuff in, and if I shake it up it can take a good two days to fully settle back to the bottom. Is it supposed to be there or have I got two dodgy batches?

[Brigand]

Here's a picture, I gave the bottle a good shake two days ago and its slowly settling, and it'll settle further as my other bottle is at a lower level.



It is Satin Clear. Shaking it then painting that onto the kit gave horrendous results as noted above, the only way to get good results, the ones the Humbrol video on YouTube state, is to dip into the clear stuff and paint that on.

[Brigand]

If I mix it up, as I would a paint and brush it onto a kit, although initially looks satin / glossy its almost as if it evaporates leaving only a brown scum in places. Multiple coats doesn't add any kind of shine only more brown traces. Its odd, I'd have thought I'd need to mix it before use but there's nothing on the bottle to suggest I need to do that.

[Brigand]

Its worth a shot I supposed, and its entirely possible that the two bottles I bought from different shops came from the same batch which may be dodgy. As I said, a friend has a bottle and swears there's no white layer.