Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

any have luck with transferring GW paint from the pot to a dropper bottle?

Lots of people do it, works very well.

While your doing it add in a little bit of sprue (preferably metal) to help with mixing the back after long periods of not being used.

cool!

where can you buy dropper bottles?

Gripper107 wrote:where can you buy dropper bottles?

I find them in pharmacies. You might find them in craft or hobby stores as well, I imagine.

NOTE: I just copied this from my post on the warhammer-empire forum, so just go with it.

a constant problem with GW and non dropper style paints is that unless you scoop a glob of paint out, you end up using the paint with the top off and expose the remaining paint to the air and it speeds up the drying process.

With the newer flip tops, the paint there dries, forms chunks and ends up in your mix and can often spawn mini chunks when you paint it onto a model, causing little bumps in your paintjob.

So my latest scheme is to convert ALL of my GW paints and washes into vallejo style dropper bottles.
Reaper and Vallejo offer packs of like 3 bottles for some $2.5 if I recall, but I'm using 15cc natural bottles from http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=25040&catid=750

At a whopping $.31 each, it is very cost effective, and when you need to replace a color you just refill the bottle.

This also reduces the footprint of your paints in storage which is always nice. Droppers also make doing custom mixes with GW colors much easier as you can now measure them out like you would any others.

I also use volcano rock beads that I got from ebay as agitators. I got that idea from someone on dakka, and the volcano rocks are heavy enough to do a good job and are non porous and won't affect the paint at all. 50 beads ran me about $8.

So if you have 100 GW paints, it'll cost about $50 to convert all your paints and add beads, but as a one time cost provided you simply clean and refill the bottles when you run out of a color.

So, exactly how many ounces of paint = 15 cc? Also, what's the internal width of the bottle's neck with cap removed?

1cc= 1ml iirc, so a 12ml GW paint will fit in it with room to spare for additives like water or matte medium what have you.

12ml of paint=0.4oz. Note that reaper paints are .5oz and vallejo paints are 17ml, so these bottles are slightly smaller in capacity but are roughly the same overall size.

As for the bottles I linked, the inside diameter is 3/8" which is just shy of 1cm.

That's 1/16" too narrow. :(

I use a paint mixer that I got from micro mark and the mixing head is 7/16". Meh, maybe one of the other bottles on their site will work.

What size lava bead did you use?

Thanks,
Sid

I have had good results using "Silver Solder" (2%Ag/98%Sn) for agitators. I melt a blob however big I need then wash it in Rubbing alcohol to get rid of the rosin residue and put it in whatever needs it.

I recently transferred 40 of my GW Paints to Droppers. Some of the GW Paints I bought new and used just once (to mark the top of the cap) were almost dried out. The Vallejo Flat Yellow that I bought, a couple weeks after I bought the GWs that were drying out, was quite seperated but I popped in a agitator and put it in my MacGuyver-ed paint shaker (made from an electric carving knife) and it turned out great.

aerethan wrote:NOTE: I just copied this from my post on the warhammer-empire forum, so just go with it.

a constant problem with GW and non dropper style paints is that unless you scoop a glob of paint out, you end up using the paint with the top off and expose the remaining paint to the air and it speeds up the drying process.

With the newer flip tops, the paint there dries, forms chunks and ends up in your mix and can often spawn mini chunks when you paint it onto a model, causing little bumps in your paintjob.

So my latest scheme is to convert ALL of my GW paints and washes into vallejo style dropper bottles.
Reaper and Vallejo offer packs of like 3 bottles for some $2.5 if I recall, but I'm using 15cc natural bottles from http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=25040&catid=750

At a whopping $.31 each, it is very cost effective, and when you need to replace a color you just refill the bottle.

This also reduces the footprint of your paints in storage which is always nice. Droppers also make doing custom mixes with GW colors much easier as you can now measure them out like you would any others.

I also use volcano rock beads that I got from ebay as agitators. I got that idea from someone on dakka, and the volcano rocks are heavy enough to do a good job and are non porous and won't affect the paint at all. 50 beads ran me about $8.

So if you have 100 GW paints, it'll cost about $50 to convert all your paints and add beads, but as a one time cost provided you simply clean and refill the bottles when you run out of a color.

Isnt it just easier & cheaper to get the better Vallejo paints in the first place? :p

Another note- if there are ANY clumps in the paint- it can block the dropper nozzle. Most people remedy this by squeezing harder- which can lead to a rather catastrophic popping of the nozzle which throws paint all over the place. I have a pair of sweat pants that can attest to this. So- stir it well, and strain out any lumps before putting it into dropper bottles

2 notes on the easier and cheaper:

1. While yes it is cheaper to buy vallejo to begin with, most of us didn't start out that way, and after 10 years of hobby I have paints from years ago that are perfectly fine were it not for the bottle. I have about 100 GW paints, and that translates to a $350 replacement if I were to just toss them and replace them with vallejo. Instead I can transfer all of them to dropper bottles for a grand total of $31. When they are empty they will be replaced with vallejo equivalents with the below exception.

2. Some things GW just does better. GW easily has the best silver metals I've ever come across. Foundations are also a staple in my collection. So some of these colors I will continue to buy even after I've transferred them all to bottles. I also like to have several types of certain trouble colors like red and yellow as I have found that mixing GW blood red and Vallejo blood red gives me just the right consistency that I want from it.

Another note- if there are ANY clumps in the paint- it can block the dropper nozzle. Most people remedy this by squeezing harder- which can lead to a rather catastrophic popping of the nozzle which throws paint all over the place. I have a pair of sweat pants that can attest to this. So- stir it well, and strain out any lumps before putting it into dropper bottles

How do you propose straining it?

Mistress of minis wrote:

...Another note- if there are ANY clumps in the paint- it can block the dropper nozzle. Most people remedy this by squeezing harder- which can lead to a rather catastrophic popping of the nozzle which throws paint all over the place. I have a pair of sweat pants that can attest to this. So- stir it well, and strain out any lumps before putting it into dropper bottles

Whenever I get a clog now I grab a thick pin (I use a poultry lacer) and clean it out. I haven't had a mess due to a clog since the Polly S Yellow Gray explosion of '09

Thanks for that link aerethan, I bought like 70 bottles and have successfully transferred all my paint into dropper bottles.

Painting the tops helps quickly identify the color I need.

jehjr1337 wrote:Thanks for that link aerethan, I bought like 70 bottles and have successfully transferred all my paint into dropper bottles.

Painting the tops helps quickly identify the color I need.

You didn't peel & reuse the labels from the old pots though.

hey jehjr1337 what size dropper did you use?

I myself just finished transferring all of my GW paints to those dropper bottles just a few days ago.

Next project is a wall mount with labels to store them on their sides facing out.