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I have many bottles of paint that haven't been opened in months, they are still usable, but are thickening. Am I right in assuming the the new Lahmian Medium is also usable as an acrylic paint thinner? I know these are water based, but I have saved old enamel paints using thinners and ai am thinking I may need more than water to reconstitute some of the pots before having to run out and pickup new stuff.

Thanks!

What you can do is add some 50/50 mix of matte medium and 10:1 water flo aid mix.

Michaels carries both the medium and flo aid. And you will have much more than the lahmian medium for the money.

Ok, cool. Thanks for the heads up! Not a fan of our local HobbyTown and the FLGS is 45minutes further down the road than Michaels!

Plain old water and some thorough agitation will be enough to get them back in working order (I brought a pot of Skull White back from a completely gelatinous state with that method - it wouldn't budge beforehand, even with vigorous shaking), but I've found that paints revived that way seem to thicken again faster than fresh paints, even if they've been thinned to the same consistency. Using additives in addition to/instead of water will get the paints closer to their original condition, which will help them behave better and last longer between rounds of "maintenance."

Also, I add 5 drops of Liquitex Slo-Dry to every new paint I get to prolong shelf life and increase palette working time. A single bottle of that stuff will last you a very long time.

I wish there was a miniature paint shaker like the one at Home Depot...

http://www.micromark.com/paint-shaker-120v-ac,6781.html