Several months ago, you may recall that I’d written a post about a brand of paints that the Polish card model manufacturer Shipyard includes in their boxed kits. The brand is a Polish brand of matte artist’s acrylics called Renesans. Ever since I discovered these paints more than a year ago, I’ve really liked how well they work on paper models.
Here’s a link to my previous post: http://wp.me/p32ONi-U5
I used these paints on my 1/96-scale HMS Alert model and amusing them on my 1/96-scale HMS Mercury model as well. I have enough paint remaining from these and some left over from a lighthouse kit I built, that my supply is okay. But, it has bothered me that other people couldn’t try them out, as Shipyard stopped selling these paints on their website. They still include small jars of them in their boxed kits, but you can’t get refills.
Renesans actually has at least four lines of paints. The paint in question is called Renesans Colours. I contacted Shipyard and while it was nice of them to respond, and though they said they contacted the paint manufacturer, they didn’t provide anything useful.
I started hunting around for the Renesans brand online, but didn’t have much luck. I started researching other brands of acrylics and I finally found one that I thought might make a good substitute. The line is from Blick Art Materials, and it’s simply called Blick Matte Acrylics. But, I couldn’t find anything that I liked as much.
I managed to find a shop in Poland, but they didn’t ship outside of Europe. Then I found another shop in Poland that would ship to the U.S., but they would only take a bank transfer for payment. I don’t know how this is for others, but my bank charges $40 for an international bank transfer. There was no way I was going to pay that kind of money for the privilege of purchasing some paints. So, the search continued.
Eventually, before giving up, I finally got smart and posted a call for help on the paper modeling site Papermodelers.com. About 5 days later… Bingo! Someone pointed out a Polish paper models online shop that carried the line that would ship to the U.S., and they accepted Paypal payments! Of course, you never know about these things, but I went ahead and took the chance.
My new paints
Today, I am happy to say that the USPS handed my order to me exactly 2 weeks after placing the order. The total cost per tube ended up being $3.73 each, final cost. About 2/3 of that cost is postage, but it was worth it to finally have a source for them.
If you’re interested in getting these paints, here is a link to the products on the online shop: https://www.swiatmodeli.eu/pl/c/Renesans/58.
This is a Polish site, but they have a Google Translate module, so you can set the language to english (or whatever you prefer). You can also set the currency to dollars, Polish zlotty, euros or pounds. I found that the best value is to order either 9 or 18 tubes. Those are the cut-offs before shipping charges go up. For the U.S., the Polish Postal service apparently won’t shipping anything heavier to the U.S. than 18 tubes.
Blick Matte Acrylics
I mentioned this alternative earlier. Blick Art Materials has shops across the U.S. in high density population areas, primarily in college towns, I think. They have their own line of matte acrylic paints called simply Blick Matte Acrylics. This is the closest I’ve found to the way the Renesans Colours line works out.
The paints come in 2 oz bottles that list for only $2.49. Cheaper than hobby paints, but they are decent quality acrylics. I think there are about 72 colors available. You can find them in their stores or online here: https://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-matte-acrylics/
I may actually try them on some ship modeling projects. Ω
Ship Modeler 