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OK, here's the problem.

A lot of my paints have, apparently, dried out, without me ever having opened them!

I bought a lot of paints during 2009, but never got around to using them.

Vallejo, GW Foundation, Washes, 'regular paints', etc.

Many have dried out!

I read elsewhere that I should use:

1) Liquitex Ultra Matte Medium
2) Flow Aid
3) Distilled Water

...but I don't know in what ratios, formulas, etc.!

I have the Liquitex Ultra Matte Medium and the distilled water, but couldn't find any 'flow aid'.

Help me out, please!

And, of course, thanks!

For a few of my dried paints all i done was turned on my tap so it was dripping water and used 1 or 2 drops at a time, mixed it with a cocktail stick and it seemed to work fine

Not fully sure how long the paint will last after that tho :/

'Flow improver' they meant, such as that by W&N. What John suggested is usually enough tbh.

Just add a few drops of each and mix/shake well. I wouldn't worry about the matt medium either neccessarily.

Are they dry as in "bone dry"?

If so, try grounding the solid paint to turn it into a powder. Then the best advice I can give is to return it to the paint pot and add distilled water until the water level is approximately where a new paint pot's contents would be. Then add some agitators (metal ball bearings?) and shake as long as possible?

If the paints are bone dry and pretty much plastic (press the end of a paint brush, wooden end, into it, if the "paint" leaves an indent where the brush was then add 2 water drops and mix, if it doesnt leave an indent it may be beyon reviving.

Taken from personal experience with my skull white paint

EDIT: Adding water doesnt really work with metalic paints, tried it with my shining gold and it ended up drying up really fast where as my skull white still looks useable!

I have rules similar to johnscott... if I can mash it up and add drop by drop water, I do so. If it is rock hard, I toss it. Once it is completely dry water won't do anything to it (I've tried!).

The stuff I do remix works fine if I get the consistency right. I have a couple of older paints that I go back and rehydrate every couple of months. No problems with them. If I add too much water, I just wait for it to dry a little, then it works fine!

I've never tried to revitalize anything but normal paints, though. I have no idea how washes / inks / foundations would work. It is possible that the additives recommended by the other posters are particularly relevant to the higher pigment load paints to keep the pigment suspended. Washes and inks tend to be more soluble so don't have as many problems as the suspension style paints, at least in my experience.

I would be cautious about regrinding the paint for the totally dry stuff... you basically would be making the paint from scratch at that point and there is too much chance of it going wrong, at least in my opinion.

Of course, I'm the one with Devlan mud turning white, so maybe I shouldn't say anything about paints right now!

I can't help you with washes/inks(these shouldn't be dried out, if they are... there is a bit of a problem), and I can't say if this works for foundation paints, but what I do is use Tamiya acrylic paint thinner (X-20A), I apply a few drops of the stuff from a pipette into the pot, and then stir vigorously with the tail end of a paintbrush. I keep applying thinner until the paint has achieved the desired consistency (in my case, I like my paints to be thinner, so I end up putting a good amount in there). When all is said and done, I drop a paint agitator in there, give it a good shake, and then back into storage it goes.

For paint agitators I use 8mm hematite beads, I got 90 of them on a string for about 4 bucks +s&h. I consider them to be a good investment, as they make it much easier to mix your paint up when shaking.

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VJ71061

This is what you want. Vallejo and GW's formulas are close enough that the Vallejo Acrylic Thinner/dilutent works wonders. Just put a bit in, then shake it...alot.

Kanluwen wrote:

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VJ71061

This is what you want. Vallejo and GW's formulas are close enough that the Vallejo Acrylic Thinner/dilutent works wonders. Just put a bit in, then shake it...alot.

Or put an agitator in there, and shake it less

Thanks guys - all good ideas, I'll be trying them out!

chaos0xomega wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VJ71061

This is what you want. Vallejo and GW's formulas are close enough that the Vallejo Acrylic Thinner/dilutent works wonders. Just put a bit in, then shake it...alot.

Or put an agitator in there, and shake it less

Agitators don't do anything when the paint's dry and just absorb the agitator

Add a small ball bearing when you buy your paints and as someone else said it's a great aggitator, just a few small shakes an it keeps them pretty good, I found this out too late though and have some paints that are very cloggy and thick around the lip, but a small amount of water does actually help and in some cases i've now got the correct straight from the pot consistency, although with your amount of posting you shouldn't have time to paint anything! :-)

No metal glass or plastic nothing that can rust or corrode should go in the paint.

^^^ I understand why you would avoid metal and I doubt most plastics would have sufficient weight at that size to help, but why no glass? Is there some sort of negative reaction to paint that I've never heard of?

I am constantly adding water back into my paints and it works fine. The problem is when it dries out to chalk hard or even just plastic hard. I never really know what point it is still good or not, but since checking is simply adding water and mixing hard with a bit of sprue, I usually give it a shot. I have paints that are, quite literally, a decade old (I just don't use Skull White that much...) that I have been reviving over and over.

The glass can break and that would be bad for you and the paint use a non reactive stone.

I use lava stones in my paints. Has great weight to it and is neutral to the paint.

I've heard that Vallejo dryness/separation can be fixed with some heat as well. Pop them in some warm water and it should make it a bit easier to mix (and destroy the label on the bottle but ah well).