Better mixing of Vallejo paint bottles

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**Synchro**

Reaper paints I heard have the little skulls in them to help with mixing, but the Vallejo paints have nothing and so you really have to shake the heck out of them and even then it may not be right. I was thinking of something to put into each bottle of Vallejo paint I have that will help with mixing. Has anyone ever used lead weights or lead shot (like for shotgun shell reloading). Will lead react in any way with the paint over time? I do not think it would, but wanted to see if anyone has any experience with it. I have seen one person online using black lava beads like you would use to make a necklace, but those are not as cheap as lead shot.

Anything know of something else that might work as good or better?

**Catyrpelius**

REaper has recently moved to little plastics beads, a bag of these beads is pretty cheap at a crafts store.

**Synchro**

I would love to know the weight on the beads Reaper is using and then buy something like that or if that even matters.

**Cjsuner**

I actually used a little piece of sprue in my paint, and it really helped.

**oadie**

I don't think lead would react badly and the weight would be a definite boon, but I haven't tried it, personally. If Reaper is moving to plastic, I imagine it's a financial decision, not a problem with the material's physical properties. I just can't imagine a little plastic bead having sufficient weight to move the paint around like glass, ceramic, or metal would...

**Synchro**

I posted this same sort of question on my Facebook status and here is what a scientist friend of mine came back with. Interesting information.

I don't know if lead oxide will affect the paint. It won't oxidize like steel and produce a strong pigment ( iron oxide is red, brown, black, or yellow depending on oxidation state and water of hydration). Plastic is good from a stability stand point but the relatively low density won't give it much inertia. It will just move around with the paint providing little mixing action. A higher density particle will be better. You can probably find aluminum oxide particles online. Aluminum oxide is inert and has a decent density (3.5) ~2x plastic. It is used for vibrational polishing. Other ceramics should work as well; silicon carbide (3.1),, zirconium silicate (3.9), barium sulfate (4.5), or the other of heavy ceramics tungsten carbide (14.3). Avoid aluminum nitride, it can be water reactive.

Now to see what is out there and cheap.

Mu

I use a piece of gravel, the kind you get in pet shops for putting in fish tanks. It's also handy for terrain and basing as well

**nectarprime**

BBs.

**Synchro**

ding ding ding!! I think we have a winner with the gravel suggestion. Two birds with one stone, I like it even more! So simple and yet so easy to overlook.

As for the BBs, I looked at those too and most nowadays are copper coated steel and the reviews I read were that in humidity they still rust. So submerged in paint i am going to guess is a no go. The old all copper ones might be a possibility, but the pebbles I like even more.

**Natorum**

Lava beads work well.

Somewhere in the forums Legoburner wrote a great post about trying a number of different agitators in his paint pots. He went through a variety of different things to try and came up with the conclusion that lava beads were a good alternative.

I bought a couple of hundred of them and have transferred all my old GW paints to Vallejo bottles, and I've also got about 100 Vallejo paints that I added a bead to.

All seems to work very well to me.

**Synchro**

Yep, I saw that article. From looking at it though lava beads are more expensive than say a bag of pea gravel and I am thinking would work just as well. At least the lava beads I found online were more expensive.

**Synchro**

Picked up a bag of small fish tank gravel at Petco for $4 after sales tax. I now have enough pebbles for paint bottles for the next millenium, that or I will be making a lot of terrain and using them for bases, which is more likely. Anyhow, I rinsed off a handful of pebbles and dropped in a few bottles. This worked great for most of my Model Color, Game Color and Model Air bottles as well as my bottles of washes I made from Les' recipe. The ones where they did not work as well were in the Gamel Color Heavy Opaque bottles. They are thick and while I sure it helps to have the pebbles in there, it was not nearly as effective as in the other bottles that had a high viscosity. I think I need a little bit heavier item for the Heavy Opaques.