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Just wanted to share a tip on how to revive old paints.

So, a while back I got out of miniatures gaming due to college. College is over now, therefore I get to get back into miniatures.

While previously in to the hobby, I purchased a full set of GW paints, you know the ones in those crappy screw top bottles that always dried out. Well, they dried out into a thick goopy mess. But, as goopy as they were I figured they could be saved.

By making a mixture of 1 part water and 1 part matte medium (try the big bottle of liquitex stuff), and mixing that in with the paints I was able to get them back to a working consistency.

But, why not just use water alone? The problem is that paints have binding agents/adhesives in them along with pigment and sometimes fillers. Part of the stuff that dries out is that binding agent. So, adding water would get it back to consistency, but it would also mean the paint is less able to bind to the surface its applied to, or to itself to form a solid coat of paint. Which means it rubs off much more easily.

Matte medium is basically almost all binding agent, which dries clear and flat. It's not coincidence a lot of painters like myself use it as an adhesive, or craftspeople use it for things like decoupage.

I'll have to experiment more though, as the water may affect the quick drying of acrylics. I've considered using Tamiya acrylic thinner instead of water, mixed in with matte medium. Hopefully the two chemicals won't react badly with each other.

Woo, tell us the test result if your paints were saved.

Mine old ones were thrown away ( 100% dried solid ><

thanks for the useful tip there
ive allways used water alone to sort out old dried up paints, ill have to give this a go now and see how it does


also, is there a good place to buy it from?
wasnt sure if it was US based or not.

You'll find acrylic matte medium everywhere there's art stuff. Vallejo makes some as well.

All matte medium is think and almost goopy, so don't use it alone or you'll have paint that's just goopier.

However, a word of warning. This will change what kind of sheen your paints will dry to. I know a lot of acrylics tend to try with an almost satin sheen. Vallejo I know dries to a matte. I also know that matte medium tends not to go on as smoothly, which is why I watered it down as much. You may be able to get by with less matte medium.

I have over 120 paints to reconstitute, so I needed a sizeable bottle. However, I'm also a painter (on canvas) so I had extra on hand.

Next step for me is transferring all of these paints into vallejo style dropper bottles.