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I have several of the GW paints, which I'm happy enough with, but recently some of them have begun to get globby. I suspect a recent wave of humidity is the root of the issue, but I'm not totally sure. Either way, would mixing a little water into the problem pots help? Also, should I need to replace some paints, what brands should I look into?

I recommend using some actual thinner to bring them back to life rather than just using water. You can make your own thinner out of various mediums, or just buy an acrylic thinner. I have a Humbrol thinner which works well but acts as a drying retarder, so I only use it on paints I don't mind having longer drying times on. If I have a pot that is almost dead, like it's pretty much solid, I'll use Vallejo airbrush cleaner to try and soften it up (stirring it with a stick). Assuming I can bring it back from being solid, I then use Vallejo airbrush thinner to bring it back to the correct viscosity.

I'm sure there's a lot of other thinners and mediums you can use as well.

I recently managed to revive some very old paints with hot water. Took a while but they are usable again. They do tend to dry out faster on the palette though.

I bought some acrylic paints from my local hobby store. Not only were they 25% of the price they are working out really well AND you can buy colors like, "White" and "dark red" instead of "Skull white" and "Dragon fart Red"
Ok I made up that last one but seriously GW paint is nothing special.

Mad_Proctologist wrote:
I bought some acrylic paints from my local hobby store. Not only were they 25% of the price they are working out really well AND you can buy colors like, "White" and "dark red" instead of "Skull white" and "Dragon fart Red"
Ok I made up that last one but seriously GW paint is nothing special.

But ideally if the OP can revive the GW paints that's the best way to go. Personally I do really like the GW base range and GW do have some colours I like that aren't well covered in other ranges. Beyond that, I like Vallejo, I like P3, I like Gunze (though Gunze are better for spraying than hairy brush painting IMO). But it depends what you're wanting, if you want a solid colour in as few layers as possible, it's hard to beat GW base, but then your colour selection is limited. P3 I find to not cover great but are still nice smooth paints I find. Vallejo somewhere in between. But at the end of the day I usually just find the colour I want in whatever range and make it work.

For reviving paints, I do recommend some sort of thinner over water because it's less likely to bugger up the paint (thinners typically have binders in them which helps maintain the quality of the paint as it thins). Also I should have mentioned the reason I use Vallejo airbrush cleaner if the paint is REALLY bad initially is because it does have some decently strong solvents in it, so it will tend to break down the solid block of paint. If you don't have a solid block of paint, though, I use the less harsh Vallejo airbrush thinner or Humbrol thinner.

It's definitely best to include some more acrylic medium when thinning paints a decent measure beyond their original viscosity, but thickened paints got that way through the evaporation of water - replacing the lost water is all it really takes to restore them. I was given an old pot of Skull White (black flip-topped hex pot, to roughly date it) that was the consistency of an overly firm flan - you could cut into it with gentle pressure on a toothpick, but shaking wouldn't even coax a jiggle.

A bit of time, a bit of water, and a toothpick for stirring were all it took to get the whole pot back in working condition. Still just as useable, several years after its resuscitation. Acrylic paint that's cured is beyond hope, but the stuff can get quite thick without starting to cure, if the moisture loss is sufficiently gradual.

With all that said, a bit of medium certainly won't hurt the paint. If you happened to have some airbrush thinner around, for example, feel free to toss a bit in. I simply wouldn't consider it a necessity.

 oadie wrote:
but thickened paints got that way through the evaporation of water.

I thought it was more generally "evaporation of solvent", which for most acrylics isn't just water. When you smell an acrylic paint and it has a distinctively chemical smell to it, I figured that was the solvent that was evaporating.

I dunno, I've tried reviving a few paints with just water and I seem to get better results using an actual thinner, though it might just be because the thinner is a stronger solvent than water and so can break down the globs better.

You may be right, Skink. Despite all purity of intentions, it's always possible that I'm talking out of my ass.

I think we need some sort of electronic Bat Signal to make Sean_OBrien swoop in and drop some paint chemistry knowledge. He seems to have a solid handle on all of the actual processes behind the anecdotal evidence that leads to our (often widely varying) assumptions.

Funny, I revived a few paints recently.
This guy oddly used the same method but he actually wrote a decent article:
http://blog.jonathanmortimer.co.uk/?p=29
Works ok just make some note not to use these paints for 0.2mm nozzle air brushes...