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I've just gotten into the hobby and have come possession of a bunch of used Citadel and Game Color paints and I'm just wondering how do you tell if they're OK to use? Is it just a case of if they aren't dry they're OK? They're about 2-3 years old. I also have some Citadel washes.

Pretty much, yes, if they aren't solid, they're probably fine.

If they've gone thick, gradually mix in water until they come back to a normal consistency. In most cases they should come good... If they go all grainy, then they're too far gone, although acrylic thinners might fix it.

Looks can be deceiving also,
I had a bottle of fleshtone which flowed and looked fine but when I painted with it I would get some maybe 0,5mm dried clumps of paint in places which no water could dissolve.

Water is not your best way to retrieve thick or partially dried paints. Get some matte acrylic medium and start with that. Drop in 3-4 good heavy mixing beads (BBs are good here) and shake vigorously. The matte medium and grinding action of the mixing beads breaks up the clumps and helps get the pigment back into suspension.

Once you have the paint back to the thickness of the matte medium, THEN you add water to further thin it as necessary.

The paints look fine, and if you're using a palette, water is fine in the short term, but if you want to fix them, matte medium or some Lahmian medium will do the trick.