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Hi there!

I have an issue with the new GW paints. For some reason, some of the paints are just a big blob of putty-density paint, rolling around in the paint pot like a wet marble. This issue seems to really affect my white base paint: I have 6 pots of the stuff that are pretty much not usable. If I add water it gets too runny (still with the ball in it), and if I break up the ball I get chunky white paint that is useless for anything.

Any ideas?

Same thing happened to me with my white. The layer paint I just tossed out. The base paint I mix with a little, throw a base coat on a model if need be (even if its really thin) then top coat it with the white from Badger Minitaire.

Not sure why the white dries up like that, I am guessing it has to do something with the pigment. Even when shooting white through an airbrush, gives the most problems with dry tip.

Its disgustingly bad. I have only ever used GW paints (mostly because I am too lazy to make the commitment to switch to something better), but this is getting ridiculous. Its also separating the bristles on my paintbrushes, which sucks. Im trying to paint a crapton of blue and white dire avengers/guardians (about 100), and this is becoming more trouble than GW is worth. I just see close to $30 CAD worth of paint sitting there useless and it grinds my gears.

HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!!!!....sorta....

So i have good and bad news for the both of you.

Good news! You are not alone!

Bad news! You are screwed either way!

Snoop you are pretty close in your assumption with it being the pigment, but its rather, the lack of it that causes this problem. Yellows and whites are very VERY bad at drying out, this is in all paint ranges, not just GW, albit, GW is a wee bit worse because it has latex in the paint, but thats a whole other issues. If you water it down, as you found out, it gets really runny which no one likes, but, its kinda the only thing you can do. So, you may ask your self, well what can i do to actually fix this problem?

More good news there are a few things, ill go from the worst to the best solutions

1)Dont paint in white, Yeah not really helpful i know sorry :/

2) Air brush your white, get some Air brush paint which have extremely small ground pigment and it works much better. Down side, you need an air brush, up side you have an air brush now

3) Thin your paints and have patience, paint very thin layers of white, over and over again to get the effect.

4) Dont paint in white* Paint off white, honestly you should never NEVER paint in pure white unless its a flair or edge highlight. Pure white looks very cartoony and not that great, if you want to stick with GW i would HIGHLY suggest you start using a color called Palyd witch flesh, for your whites, its an off white and does not have the drying out effect you get with most whites.

5) Dont use GW whites, GW, while i love them, have pretty crappy white and yellow paints, this again is due to the latex in the paint.

As for the spreading bristles thats not just the paint, thats you. If you are dealing with paints that dry out very quick like yellows, whites, and metallic, you HAVE to wash your brush constantly, I use a winsor newton brush and still you metallic, HERETIC! the enthusiasts might say, but as long as you keep the paint wet and keep it from drying on the brush you are golden.

Hope this helps guys!

If you have a gw store nearby just bring it in, it doesn't matter where you bought it. I've done this now with several pots of paint and they exchanged it with no issue.

Yeah, it's annoying. I have to go through all my GW paints every few months and add acrylic medium to stop them drying out. The older pots with the black lids are particularly bad for it. I don't have many of the new pots as I stopped buying GW paints quite a few years ago. Once the paint has solidified, there is nothing you can do, but if it's still viscous then you should be able to thin it out again with acrylic medium.

 Smacks wrote:
Yeah, it's annoying. I have to go through all my GW paints every few months and add acrylic medium to stop them drying out. The older pots with the black lids are particularly bad for it. I don't have many of the new pots as I stopped buying GW paints quite a few years ago. Once the paint has solidified, there is nothing you can do, but if it's still viscous then you should be able to thin it out again with acrylic medium.

Super secret squirrel tip for the black pots, store them upside down.

 Gunzhard wrote:
If you have a gw store nearby just bring it in, it doesn't matter where you bought it. I've done this now with several pots of paint and they exchanged it with no issue.

Good to know.

If anyone is looking for a great white, try the Badger Minitaire line. Cames in a big dropper bottle for a great price. It actually covers pretty well for an airbrush paint too even if you are using a bristle brush. Its also not so rough on your brush bristles.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gunzhard wrote:
If you have a gw store nearby just bring it in, it doesn't matter where you bought it. I've done this now with several pots of paint and they exchanged it with no issue.

Good to know.

If anyone is looking for a great white, try the Badger Minitaire line. Cames in a big dropper bottle for a great price. It actually covers pretty well for an airbrush paint too even if you are using a bristle brush. Its also not so rough on your brush bristles.

Vallejo Thinner medium.

Its more of a retarder than a medium (you cant really use it to make washes) but a few drops of that will save most pots of GW paints.

I had some old screw top lids which were close to dry, and after a few drops that a a few drops of water they are as good as new. Granted, they need a little more thinning when I go to use them compared to new paints, but its saved several pots of fantastic colours.

I use them with the new paints too, except in the new range metallics, as too much of it can separate the metal bits from the paint and it does not dry as well.

If it's Ceramite white, make sure you use something like a stirring stick to really break up what settles on the bottom of the pot, and to stir it up really well.

On the plus side, Ceramite White has one of the best coverages of white acrylic paint out there (which isn't necessarily saying much). On the minus side, it is still a chalky paint, and tends to separate from its medium.

Note that White Scar doesn't separate as much/as badly, and is more similar to whites from most other companies.

As Gunzhard mentioned, too, you can always take it back to GW or most hobby shops that sell GW paints for an exchange, if all else fails.

When storing the paint, you really need to make sure that both the lid and the rim are clean and that it's snapped all the way down.