Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Any way to salvage old paints that have gone gluppy, semi hard, lost consistency etc?
I have several old pots still about half full but it aint happenin'.

If they are just a little bit thick, you can add water or medium. If they are solid, they are done.

Gloopy you may be ok with mixing some distilled water and some medium.

If its hard its gone/or use them as gw dry brush paints.

What pray tell is medium?

Acrylic medium

its one of the base chemicals in acrylic paint that is used to suspend the pigments.

they come in all flavors but matt is probably what you want to use.

you could also get away with distilled water only. dont use tap otherwise the minerals might mess with stuff.

 Ratius wrote:
What pray tell is medium?

It's the paint without the pigment. Lahmian medium is GW clear matte. Ard'coat is GW clear gloss.

You won't change the consistency of the paint but you will reduce the pigment count and the paint will be a bit more transparent. But you will be able to use it again.

I though ard coat was a varnish.

Ard Coat is just clear acrylic paint with no pigment. So, it works as a varnish. I use Future myself as it's cheaper and lasts forever.

 Todosi wrote:
Ard Coat is just clear acrylic paint with no pigment. So, it works as a varnish. I use Future myself as it's cheaper and lasts forever.

Ard coat doesn't really paint like other paints. It doesn't flow off the brush nicely and likes to bubble up.

I'd describe Ard coat as a varnish more than I'd describe it as a paint.

I wouldn't use it to thin paints. I have tried it before and didn't like the results, made the paints harder to work with. Probably could thin with Ard Coat + a bunch of additives to bring back some of the beneficial properties of the original paint, but if you're going to that effort might as well just use an acrylic medium that already has those additives in it.

Future is also a varnish, but it's a floor varnish and I think it has some sort of ammonia base so it's not really equivalent to Ard Coat even though they're both varnishes? I dunno, I've never used Future because it's not easy to obtain down here.