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Short question:

Is there anything wrong with pre-diluting paints?

Long question:

I'm mixing some paints together in bulk so that I can have a supply available when I need it. To do this, I'm taking a few vallejo model color bottles, and emptying their contents into a larger bottle and mixing them all together.

The problems is that There's no way to get all the paint out of the bottles. So after I pour out the paint from the vallejo bottles, I'm going to fill each bottle with 1/3 water and shake it vigorously, and then pour the diluted mixture into the large bottle to mix into the final mix. This will cause the final mix to be somewhat pre-diluted. Is there anything wrong with doing this?

Thanks so much Dakka!

The only thing wrong with this that I see is a little to much water and you ruined a few pots of paint. If that were to happen i would add some medium and make a giant batch of wash I guess.

 Deathshead420 wrote:
The only thing wrong with this that I see is a little to much water and you ruined a few pots of paint. If that were to happen i would add some medium and make a giant batch of wash I guess.

But I was already planning on diluting this paint 2:1 to begin with anyways. If I add half a bottle of water to each paint bottle I put into the mix, this is the same amount of water I was planning on diluting with originally right?

I personally would start with half of the water you originally planned on and go from there. You can always add more.

I'm with Deathshead. Diluting the paint as little as possible (until use, of course) gives you maximum flexibility and cuts down on the volume to be stored. Give it more rounds of water>shake>pour if you need to, but I'd rather waste a little more paint than have two very full bottles of tinted water.

Since your donor bottles are dropper style, you can always pop the top off and suspend them upside down over your new container for a while. Considering how the paints normally settle, you'll probably get a lot more of the paint out than you expect, if you're patient.

Alternatively, just store the paint upside down for a while. The pigment should settle for you. If you shake the paint really well first, it should settle. You can also consider an agitator, like a BB, but make sure it's something that won't react with the paint. Stainless would be good, I'd think.

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to minimize the use of water and go with the upside down storage idea.

On the topic of aggitators, I picked up some beads from hobby lobby that I was planning on using. They are silver plated round pearl beads. Is this safe to use?

shop.hobbylobby.com/products/silver-plated-round-pearl-beads-147967/

Ball bearings or buckshot work well.

You want something heavy.

Lead sinkers (used in fishing) would also work.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Ball bearings or buckshot work well.

ok dumb question but where would get ball bearings or buckshot? Do you actually mean, buy shotgun shells and open them up? Sorry I'm really a newb at this.

The topic of agitators is a bit off topic from what this tread originally began with, so I decided branch it off into another thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/485930.page#4927744