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Hi,

Looking at getting my GW paints into dropper bottles as I seem to waste a lot taking it out with a brush and the tubs get really messy. Wondering where is the cheapest place to get a load of these? Also, whats the best way of doing it? With a pipet?

I am in the UK. Thanks,

Grady

eBay from china if you're not rushing to get them is the cheapest.
I got a couple of hundred ages ago and have a few spare.
Good thing to add is tiny glass beads for agitators to aid when shaking the paint... 2-3 of them per bottle is good for me. Be sure to check the neck diameter on the bottle before ordering some that are too large. eBay again for that.

To decant into them, shake the citadel well, and carefully pour it. You dont really want to be using a tool if possible because contact with anything = more waste.
If its a bit thick add a drop of distilled water (use distilled as this is for long term storage and tap water tend to go funky after some weeks)
You can add medium instead, lahmian maybe, or a vallejo one.. whatever you like to use normally.

When youve poured as much as possible out, add a splash of water/medium whatever youre using and make an effort to get it all out. You can get 99% out if your happy to pre thin a little as you do so. Just be mindful of how much youre adding so not to overthin. best to go slowly.

Using a 17ml bottle you get to add 5ml of water to a 12ml citadel before its full. but that may be too much thinning.. depends on each paint in question.

HairySticks wrote:
eBay from china if you're not rushing to get them is the cheapest.
I got a couple of hundred ages ago and have a few spare.
Good thing to add is tiny glass beads for agitators to aid when shaking the paint... 2-3 of them per bottle is good for me. Be sure to check the neck diameter on the bottle before ordering some that are too large. eBay again for that.

To decant into them, shake the citadel well, and carefully pour it. You dont really want to be using a tool if possible because contact with anything = more waste.
If its a bit thick add a drop of distilled water (use distilled as this is for long term storage and tap water tend to go funky after some weeks)
You can add medium instead, lahmian maybe, or a vallejo one.. whatever you like to use normally.

When youve poured as much as possible out, add a splash of water/medium whatever youre using and make an effort to get it all out. You can get 99% out if your happy to pre thin a little as you do so. Just be mindful of how much youre adding so not to overthin. best to go slowly.

Using a 17ml bottle you get to add 5ml of water to a 12ml citadel before its full. but that may be too much thinning.. depends on each paint in question.

Brilliant stuff! Thanks a lot Hairy Sticks! How many spare is a few? (says you live in Warwickshire! I'm in Leamington)... No homo, but I smell a date coming on !

... Im not really sure how many...
I did this with them ~


a home made rack built into some shelving, the paint holders are short lengths of 32mm wash basin waste pipe sat at a slight angle so that gravity holds the bottles in.
About the same size as vallejo...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5pcs-200pcs-Empty-Plastic-Dropper-Bottles-Eye-Liquid-Screw-Cap-Secure-Lids-15ml-/130676887665

These are the bottles I got. but theres literally tonnes of choices... these were cheap and havent let me down yet, although the dropper nozzle could stand to be thinner and more precise.
I had some 100ml ones too. for water, mediums, home made wash etc.



I do live in Warwickshire, although dont really play much (or ever more accurately).. would like to get some games in though, just struggle to find time / opponents.
What games do you collect and play?

I get my dropper bottles from the dollar store

Do not use a pipette. You will lose most of your paint, stuck in the pipette

Just slowly, gently pour it in, and use small stirring stick/spoon (think those old McDonalds coffee stirring sticks) to scoop up what's left.

A useful alternative a buddy does is to pour 90% of the GW paint into a dropper bottle, then add Liquitex Flo-Aid into the remaining 10% (which is hard to get out anyhow). Then he has thinned paint in a pot, and unthinned paint in a dropper.

I've decanted all my paints into eBay dropper bottles like these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-5-100ml-Empty-Plastic-Squeezable-Dropper-Bottles-Eye-Liquid-Dropper-/271584716677?var=&hash=item3f3bb5e785

The great news is the bottles are extremely cheap, the bad news is they're extremely cheap. The nozzles tend to split very easily which results in lots of mess whenever squirting out paint, the caps can split at the top if you over-tighten them, and they generally feel pretty flimsy. They'll do the job, but the feeling of quality is completely absent.

I recently put in an order for some of these bottles which are far more expensive but promise to be much higher quality.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dropper-PET-Bottles-Multicolor-Liquid-Needle-Tip-Cap-Childproof-Filling-Oil-/121440845962?var=&hash=item1c4670408a

I've noticed Warcolors & Reaper both sell empty dropper bottles too, though again they aren't cheap.
Oh and I use these small funnels to transfer the paint over to the dropper bottles. If it is thin enough when pouring (add flow improver to taste) then very little is wasted.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/mini-funnels-SET-3-SLIMLINE-FUNNELS-BLUE-SMALL-GREAT-FOR-OIL-/321630801954?hash=item4ae2b09022

 Minimachine wrote:
I've decanted all my paints into eBay dropper bottles like these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-5-100ml-Empty-Plastic-Squeezable-Dropper-Bottles-Eye-Liquid-Dropper-/271584716677?var=&hash=item3f3bb5e785

The great news is the bottles are extremely cheap, the bad news is they're extremely cheap. The nozzles tend to split very easily which results in lots of mess whenever squirting out paint, the caps can split at the top if you over-tighten them, and they generally feel pretty flimsy. They'll do the job, but the feeling of quality is completely absent.

I recently put in an order for some of these bottles which are far more expensive but promise to be much higher quality.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dropper-PET-Bottles-Multicolor-Liquid-Needle-Tip-Cap-Childproof-Filling-Oil-/121440845962?var=&hash=item1c4670408a

I've noticed Warcolors & Reaper both sell empty dropper bottles too, though again they aren't cheap.
Oh and I use these small funnels to transfer the paint over to the dropper bottles. If it is thin enough when pouring (add flow improver to taste) then very little is wasted.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/mini-funnels-SET-3-SLIMLINE-FUNNELS-BLUE-SMALL-GREAT-FOR-OIL-/321630801954?hash=item4ae2b09022

Those look similar to the bottles I've got. I cant say they feel like the highest quality bottle ever made either but they do the job just fine. On the 200 I got, it was quite a few times cheaper than buying the vallejo ones 6 at a time, although the nozzle on those is better.

Funnels I have no need for. Honestly, get a brand new citadel and shake it up, if its one of the thicker batches (Im sure you've seen variance in the viscosity of their paints... I have)
Then add a few drops of your preferred thinner / medium (use distilled water and not tap water for this as its for storage and not immediate use)
It can be easily poured out into even a tiny bottle neck, once you cant pour any more, a 15ml bottle(usually closer to 20ml tbh) is probably about half full, and there's paint all around the walls of the citadel container, now add a few more drops of the thinner / medium of choice and shake vigorously, that will pour out even easier being mostly the thinner and there... 99% of the paint is poured out, and pre thinned approx 30% by volume.
For the thinner, I mix up a bottle of approx 75% distilled water, and top it up with flow aid, drying retarder and liquitex airbrush medium. (any medium will do, this is just to keep the % of acrylic polymer up in the final mix avoiding weak binding of paint)
For a finishing touch, carefully peel up the citadel label and wrap it around your new bottle, then put a drop of the colour on the top of the lid

you dont need any additional tool, funnels, brushes, spatulas, syringes or anything. And in fact its best to not use one. Aside from the obvious waste of any paint that is on the funnel at the end, its something that needs cleaning thoroughly before using on the next bottle. ~ I'm not buying 100 funnels, and I'm not cleaning it 100times to transfer the colours either ...its a totally unecessary fuss and a waste of time ... if you have shakey hands and cannot do it... sorry to be harsh, but maybe painting figures wouldnt be so much fun anway?

Warcolours sell the bottles from the second link there, Minimachine. They're childproof and have the little triangle symbol for "don't drink this, it's paint" moulded into the top of the lid.

They're pleasantly squishy, or I'd be cross at just discovering this.

I've bought the eBay bottles.
Imo the caps suck. Far to many have split.
I guess around 5-10% of the caps have broken.
I might have gotten a bad batch?
I dunno.
Just my experience.

 Tjomball wrote:
I've bought the eBay bottles.
Imo the caps suck. Far to many have split.
I guess around 5-10% of the caps have broken.
I might have gotten a bad batch?
I dunno.
Just my experience.

I found that blue caps split, but white ones are fine... I figured the dye also made it brittle. Other colours I didnt try. Like the vallejo, if you dont wipe the nozzle off you get gunky build up in the caps. Which might split it eventually I guess ~ or make you tighten with too much force and split it.

By the way. Not all dropper bottles are the same size. This sounds stupidly obvious, but some are a LOT bigger than others -- they might not look it, but when you pour a GW paint pot into some, you fill it near the top; on others, less than half way.

If you're going to be mixing stuff like airbrush thinner, it's actually good to have the extra headroom.