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The other day I got some feedback saying that one of the problems with my models is that they look as if the paint is old (just to clarify I am not upset with this feedback at all). I live in Manila, on a good day its 30c stagnant polluted tropical air and on a bad day its 35c. On top of that my apartment is like a microwave oven. I got my paints a few months back (though I don't know how long they had been in the shop). I am just wondering how I can store them to keep them fresh? I am resigned that I may need to buy a new set of paints, because, well I think my painting is fairly decent but the paint i have is gloopy, and often a bit like molasses. This is not a bad workman tool situation, my painting isn't great, but I think it could be really improved by better paints...and storage seems to be the problem.

Has anyone any experience with this? Can I keep paints in the fridge? Can I repair my paints by mixing with something? If you look at my recent models (in my gallery) I think you can see what I mean.

Help and advice would be really useful...

On a side note, when I use GS, if I want something like a basic square, should I let it harden first then cut it? Or do I cut it whilst soft?

The Chickeny Chicken.

im kind of in he same boat with my paints, some of them are "gloopy", and it seems like the metalic paints are the most effected by the weather here in Iraq. however i may have a solution. i mixed a little water with my "gloopy" metallic paints and they came out spreading better than when i bought them. its worked on most of my other paints as well. the only one that didnt really take was my "Tau Scept Ochre" maybe i added too much water or not enough, either way i had to get a new one. just remember it only takes a few drops, the containers arent that big. Hope this helps!

Gloopy paints mean that they are drying out. Add some water to them every now and then (distilled water is best because of the lower levels of minerals and such) to keep them liquid. Make sure to mix it throughly once you've added the water.

Thanks guys. I will try that. Fingers crossed! :-)

Keeping them in the fridge will help to reduce evaporation of the water content.

I guess it won't do any harm either as long as they don't freeze? I have a crap fridge.

Try to get paints with dropper bottles and store your paint upside down.

that sounds like a good advice, however with the citadel paints i think it matters what edition you use. the current ones dry out really fast no matter what conditions you have, yours being a very difficult to start with...
if i could choose i would love a backflip to the old mostly white capped bottles from around 10+ years?

here on the following pic the two bottles on the left...




and manoknok, i truly feel stil a bit uneasy for the cause of this thread...

vik

@ JEM what is a dropper bottle?

@ Von Domm...don't worry...:-)

^^

do you by chance use only the new tins? i think they clog up really fast and when the rim is dirty they dont seal anymore as they should...

the foundations and the metalones are the worst for me too btw...

vik

I would go with the advice these posters have given you. Also, what might help further is to avoid painting directly from the open bottle. Buy yourself a palette or even a piece of solid white porcelain bath tile and transfer your paint to that with an old brush. This is a nice way to paint once you get the hang of it, because you can mix paints and add water as you need without the fear of contaminating the bottled paint with another color or having it dry out on you. Best of Luck!

Thats a very good tip thanks @ Element! Will give it a go!

Dropper bottles are the small bottles (15ml to 30ml) that allow you to measure or squeeze the liquid out of one drop at a time, like Visine (eye drops) or something like that. They are very good at keeping paints liquid as the seal from the screw top cap is better than the current GW bottles. You can buy them from ebay or purchase Vallejo brand paints which already come in those types of bottles.

I've transferred most if not all of my GW paints to these dropper bottles and from now on will only buy Vallejo as they're easier to use instead of pulling paint straight from the pot. Vallejo has a Game Color line designed speicifcally to match GW paints. The names are even quite close, which I find amusing!

Agree with the above posters, the main reasons your paints are drying out:

1) You're leaving them open too long while painting
This is probably 90% of the reason paint dries out

2) The bottles may suck
GW bottles aren't the greatest and in my experience, do dry out quite fast if they're something you use frequently (and as such, have open a lot). For example, my basic frequent colors (bleached bone, metallics, white, black) dry out quick on me, but I still have a bottle of elf flesh from nearly 15 years ago.

3) You may live in a very arid environment
I doubt this is the case, although it is hot where you live (Manila) it's also crazy humid and rainy, meaning in an environment like that, you probably have more of an issue keeping things dry rather than wet. Humidity is more of a factor than temperature when it comes to paint drying out, which you've got no short supply of!

Solutions:

Don't leave em open! (We all do, I'm especially bad with my metallics). Use a palette (or bath tile, I actually use a notepad with some packing tape on it, that way I can just rip off the top sheet and start fresh when I want) so the paints are closed more, or, switch to a dropper style bottle (Vallejo's, I've been converted my paint collection to this over the last year or two). Mind you with Vallejo's you'll be using some form of palette since you can't dip into the bottle.

Hope that helped, another "cure" for your semi dry paints that I use is a bit of water (as the above posters said) and then I typically drop in a small ball bearing/metal object to use as an agitator so it makes shaking the paint up easier.

manoknok wrote:@ JEM what is a dropper bottle?

@ Von Domm...don't worry...:-)

Dropper bottles are what Reaper brand paints come in. They look like bottles of eye drops. I find them easier to use, and easier to store. Also, cheaper.