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I bought some golden griffon 'dry' paint and it doesn't quite look mixed enough and there's a tiny bit of oil on the top - can I stir it up? I feel like its a dumb question but its very pasty and I feel like mixing it would result in half the paint left on the mixer or a chunky medium unsuited to use on a brush.

Have you poked anything through it to check out the consistancy of the paint? I've got a few dry paints that I haven't used in over a year, and that hasn't happened to them, although my pot of Eldar Flesh looks a bit oily or shiny on top, but it hasn't seperated. Having tried the paint, it seems to work the same as it's supposed to. Definately don't stir it up until after you check the paint out beneath the separation.

You can also give GW's customer service a call. They'll tell you if that's normal or not, and if it's not, they'll probably replace it for you. Their CS is fantastic.

I think I'm making a fuss over nothing - but what do you think? it looks like it needs a mix.

To my eye, that looks normal. They're not really supposed to be mixed up like a normal paint. My Necron Compound looks similar to that (wet-ish, but not liquid) As long as the paint is sorta "spongy" you're good. Try it out on a piece of sprue or something to see how it works. Just gently brush your paintbrush over the paint, rather than stabbing it into the pot, and give it a little use.

Stick a toothpick in there or something and mix it about, get it all mixed, then wipe the toothpick with your brush to get the paint off.

Fixes it for the immediate future, doesn't waste much paint.

KB, the dry paints are like mousse. You do not wanna do that.

U w0t m8?

I did that to my necron compound and whatever the bone shade one is - didn't seem to damage it, what am I risking here? You say mousse and I think of stirring a mousse and knocking the air bubbles out (a faux pas, indeed) but there aint no bubbles in this here paint. :?

Agreed dont mix them up it just makes them dry out faster in my experience

kb_lock wrote:
U w0t m8?

I did that to my necron compound and whatever the bone shade one is - didn't seem to damage it, what am I risking here? You say mousse and I think of stirring a mousse and knocking the air bubbles out (a faux pas, indeed) but there aint no bubbles in this here paint. :?

I don't know what you have there, but the ones at my local store are like sticky pieces of cake in a pot.

Blancmange is how I view it.

Question, do dry paints dry out even faster than regular paints? I've never bought one because of the simple reason that regular GW paints dry out so fast I figure that dry GW paints are already four fifths of the way there

The picture DrDr posted looks fine to me as long as it doesn't get worse from top to bottom (all the pigment and metallic flakes sitting at the bottom). The best metallic paints I've used are always inclined to separate out in about 5-10 seconds after stirring so it doesn't surprise me that the dry paints have a "swirl" to them when they're put in their pots, as long as it's only a swirl and not large voids where there's no pigment.

I don't see any harm in mixing the dry paints. I've never needed to since they seem to be so "solid" that they don't separate anyway, but looking at your pot, it looks similar to many of the metallic paints that the pigment might be separating. I would definitely mix that well with a toothpick if that was my pot.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
U w0t m8?

I did that to my necron compound and whatever the bone shade one is - didn't seem to damage it, what am I risking here? You say mousse and I think of stirring a mousse and knocking the air bubbles out (a faux pas, indeed) but there aint no bubbles in this here paint. :?

I don't know what you have there, but the ones at my local store are like sticky pieces of cake in a pot.

That'd explain it. Mine are more like a cottage cheese consistency.

Skink: not that I've seen so far, I'm yet to have any gw paint dry out though in general.

I've seen these go both ways, I'd post pics but I have since tossed out the offending pots.

I've gotten "dry" drybrush paints, with the consistency of ceramite
I've also gotten "wet" drybrush paints where the oil part - or whatever makes it liquidy - has completely separated from the pigment

I added water to the "dry" pot, waited a day or two!, it absorbed enough to become useful again (relatively speaking, I probably wasted more pigment than necessary, wiping it off my brush since it was wetter)

The wet pot I mixed and aside from it being more liquidy than my other's it seems to be fine. You do have to keep mixing it however, as its still prone to separation.

overall, the only two I even see as useful to buy, if I were going to again, would be griffin's gold (maybe) and necron compound (more likely)

These are a couple of dry citadel paints i have showing difference between what i class as a good one and one that is a little less desirable.

It's perfectly fine to mix them and, honestly, you should mix them every now and again because the medium and pigment do tend to separate.
Everyone here saying not to mix them is giving you bad but well meaning advice.
(And as far as them drying out quicker if mixed, that's simply not how evaporation works. The water based medium will evaporate far quicker if it's allowed to separate and pool at the top of the paint than if properly mixed in. Honestly, from the perspective of someone who has made a number of paints from scratch over the years with different carrying mediums, their carrier for the dry series is... less than stellar and the paints need to be thoroughly and effectively mixed on a regular basis in order to keep them at the right colour and consistency.)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also! for those of you who like the effect of the 'dry' paints but don't care for the limited range (or ridiculous prices) of the GW paints, you can just get any old acrylic thickener and create the same effect (liquithick is inexpensive and easy to find.)

To hijack my own thread...

Why are dry paints better anyway? For example, I've dry brushed on (wet) black or metallic without any issues...

When drybrushing you don't need the paints to flow, you just need the pigment. Theoretically, GWs dry paints are more pigment and less medium. Practically, it doesn't make a lot of difference - the gw drys are marginally easier to use

You can drybrush with damned near anything. I've drybrushed with Vallejo's Metal Color range, which is VERY thin, it's prethinned for airbrushing and even for an airbrush paint it's exceptionally thin.

I found the trick to drybrushing with excessively thin paints is to slowly build up the pigment on your brush. Instead of just dipping your brush in the paint, wiping it off and then drybrushing, you put a little on your brush, wipe it off, put a little more on, wipe it off, put a little more on, wipe it off, repeating as necessary and THEN try and drybrush with it. That'll gradually build up the pigment on your brush without it being too wet (being too wet causes a scratchy-streaky finish).