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Hey guys, my first post here on Dakka! been a lurker for a while but wanted people's thoughts on this.

After recently getting back in to model building and purchasing a large number of paints, I'm very worried about them drying out. I use Vallejo as my paints and all are new so I have yet to encounter the problem of dried up paints, however, I would like to keep it from eventually happening since some colours I may rarely use.

Obviously shaking them is something most people say, so do those with a large collection of paints have some sort of schedule for a shake the paint pots day? Do you add anything to them? Whether it be a drop of water or some proper paint thinner such as the one Vallejo produce? If so, how often do you care for your paints? Weekly? Monthly?

Any answers will help!

Paints...dry up...? 0.0 I stopped playing for about three years and came back to the hobby to find my old Citadel paints to still be as gloopy as ever. Great help is I, eh? ^^

Actually, I never shake paint any more - too much ends up in the lid and dries out even faster.

I hate to stir with a stick because it ends up wasting paint.

What I do now is to put a nickel-plated ball bearing in each pot and then use a magnet on the outside of the bottle to roll the ball around inside.

It works great and doesn't waste any paint!

Just make sure the balls are plated - plain steel will rust and bugger your paints.

I could do them for 10c each, if anyone wants them.

And going back to your original request, I find paints that are closed generally last almost forever - it's leaving them open that's the real problem. I have citadel paint that's at least 15 years old still going strong. I might add a drop or two of DISTILLED water to a paint once in a blue moon, but that's generally to those I use most (Blood Red, Chaos Black and so on).

Add Liquitex Slo-dri to your paints as well as some water and they should be fine. I have some paints that I bought back in '99 that work just fine.

Conspiracy theorists will tell you the GW pots are designed to waste paint by having it dry on the lid etc. Not sure I agree it is faulty by design, but it is an issue. I just add a little water to the paints (2-3 drops) if I notice it getting dry and stringy. I also use a wet pallet when painting, so I don't have issues with it drying in the lid while I paint from the pot.

I also recently started switching to vallejo game colors, and the nice thing about them is that the dropper style bottle means less dries on the lid. If you're like me and paint from an airbrush or pallet, the dropper is a superior paint dispensing mechanism anyway.

I use copper ball bearings. The copper reacts on a chemical level with the pigment and keeps it from drying as quickly. I bought 1000 Bearings for $29 and will never run out.....they also work great for other model problems....

Nope, it's a nonissue with citadels, though I agree with the other poster about shaking them making it cake around the lids. I am new too, and bought a bunch of pots from a local store, and noticed that they were all different pot designs. Turns out some of this paint is about 6-7 years old, and still perfectly fine. Just stir it a little with the brush I use to transfer to my wet palette and it's fine. I do recommend wet palette, as it may seem like you're wasting paint on the palette, but it's much better than drying the whole pot out leaving the lid open and painting straight from it. Not had any Vallejo paints long enough to give an opinion on them. The new acrylics made for minis are far different from the model paints I used as a kid, and that's probably the same reason you're asking this question. Have no fear, there's some real quality here.

I tip them upside down, the paint on goin to and around hte lid seal helps the drying up alot.

on a related topic, the surface of my wet pallette ahs been drying up a lot lately, it's sumemr here in Australia, if i dont have the aircon on it dries out, if i do have it on it dries out....the sponge is very wet still....

I'm using the P3 wet pallette, wonderingw hetehr i need a deeper container like a takeaway container..?

I've never seen anything wrong with stirring the paint with a toothpick.

Step 1: Buy an acrylic retarder from an art supply store. I bought the store brand from Wallack's (in Canada for sure...)

Step 2: Add a drop to each pot when you use them. If you are using the same paints over and over, only add a drop when you know know they will be going back into the case for awhile.

Step 3: Shake your paints often, everytime you use them. Despite what the 3rd poster says, it doesn't waste paint...its still all in the pot right? And you aren't painting right from your pot right?

Step 4: Win!