How it started
History
Humbrol was founded in Kingston upon Hull as the "Humber Oil Company" in 1919. After supplying oil for bicycles the company produced black paint for renovating them and then a range of twelve colours. During the 1950s and 1960s, Gerald Barton turned Humber Oil Company into "Humbrol" which developed a range of model paints and other modelmaking paraphernalia.
From 1967 to 1989 the company produced a Humbrol Authentic Colours range that was not only aimed at modellers but specifically reproduced historic colours, such as RAF Duck Egg Blue, Luftwaffe Dunkelgrun or GWR Coach Stock Chocolate. Initially these were only sold in sets, but from 1974 they were sold individually, with some changes to the range over time.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Humbrol, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2