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So I got a bottle of VMA bright brass less then a year ago and havn't gotten around to using it since then. I noticed when I first got it that some of the golden paint had seperated and dried at the bottom of the bottle, but otherwise the paint came out and applied just fine. Earlier today I was going to use the paint and it came out all think and silverish like. When I tried mixing it or painting it on a model there was little to no color, the paint become a brackish silvery, and had a soap like consistency. When I washed the paint off my brush my water had soapy suds form. I was wondering if this is normal for VMA paints to do over time and how I can go about preventing it from happening to my other VMA paints?

Well, the metallic flakes would indeed settle over time, and while they wouldn't dry, would indeed settle down fairly solidly on the bottom. As they likely contribute to the overall colour, that would explain some of the changes.

As for the soapiness, I wouldn't be surprised if the VMA is formulated with some sort of flow aid, and as that is essentially a form of detergent, that would explain it.

Get a small glass bead or similar as an agitator, pit it in the bottle and shake for a few minutes, should mix it thoroughly and bring it back to life.

I tried adding a bead to agitate the paint better when i shake the bottle. It does make the paint coming out of the bottle look more homogenous, but when I mix the paint with a brush or painting with it the paintt starts building up a soapy consistancy. That said, im still not sure why the overall paint is so much thicker now then before, and when I took the cap of to try mixed the paint in the bottle with a stirring rod I discovered dried chunks of golden paint.