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Because it will take a while. For me, at least. I hate the citadel paint pots, so I found these: http://www.pandurohobby.se/Katalog/20-Mala-Rita/2030-Konstnarsmaterial/203050-Tillbehor/1/275353-Ritflaskor-plast-5x30-ml
It's in swedish, but yeah... 5 bottles of 30 mL for 9 dollars. I don't know, feels like a lot of money for 5 bottles. I'd prefer not to order from eBay or Amazon. Any Swedes that know of any similar bottles being sold around Stockholm?

Also, are these necessary for paints like shades?

Some people do it, but given the time and expense necessary, you have to be both very invested in the Citadel range, and very much against lidded pots.

I would say no, because it's easier to buy a different range of paints that come in dropper bottles.

But for some people (mostly professional painters that want 100% matches to GW schemes) it pays to transfer the stuff. I think they usually buy in bulk, and get closer to 100 bottles than to 5.

The bottles are far cheaper if you buy in bulk on eBay.

It's not expensive to make the switch, just buy bulk from ebay. Very cheap, free or very cheap shipping, so no problems with customs. Not worth it if you're dead set on buying domestically though.

It's a bit tedious but I just put 50 of my Citadel paints over in dropper bottles, took me a couple of hours and I'd say it's well worth it.

I'm looking on eBay, what's the optimal size for a dropper bottle? 15 mL? 20 mL? 30?

I wouldn't go past 25, there would be more air than paint.
20 would be more than enough and allow you to combine a couple of half pots.

I got 200 15ml pots on ebay for like $20, they are still going strong 2 years later

Firstly, I'd agree with Polonius. But...

I got a few of these, from that shop, a few years ago. The 10ml bottles comfortably hold the contents of a 12ml citadel pot, in my experience, and I prefer the dropper design to Vallejo's.

They don't ship outside the UK, which is a pain, but I doubt they're the only seller of dropper bottles in the world. That page might give you more keywords to search for, at least. '10ml LDPE/polyethylene bottles' etc.

Really good bottles are practically free on eBay. Like, a lifetime supply for the price of dinner at Denny's, though you may want to order a small number first to make sure you like the quality. I far pefer the type that has a two-piece lid and where the dropper is a long and fine, over the type that Vallejo and Reaper use.

That said....

I think one of the main reasons to choose Citadel paints is if you prefer pots over droppers. Those of us that like wet palettes, not putting too much paint on the wet palette is important, because it can bleed/run everywhere overnight, ruining your wet palette. It's pretty hard to decant just the right amount from a bottle.

Color fidelity to GW schemes probably isn't a big deal to most people, though color options might be. Local availability might also be important one way or the other (having to mail order 1 paint of whatever brand when you run out sucks). Another good reason to like Citadel paints is if you want both airbrush and paintbrush paints (and for a few lucky colors, drybrush paints too) that are perfectly matched.

The irony for me -- someone who uses lots of Vallejo and GW -- is that I put my Vallejo non-airbrush paints into old GW pots (from shade pots, which clean out nicely), and I put my GW airbrush paints into eBay dropper bottles

I don't really feel its worth doing unless you've tied yourself to GW paints. I've just increasingly moved away from GW paints entirely rather than putting them in droppers.

I don't particularly love droppers anyway, my paints from testors, humbrol, tamiya, P3 and gunze all come in screw tops or tinlets and they don't bother me... it's just GW pop tops specifically suck. They dry out and many of them the lid doesn't stay up or it does stay up and paint rolls down the back of the "tongue" part and can be a bitch to clean out.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
it does stay up and paint rolls down the back of the "tongue" part and can be a bitch to clean out.

This, without a doubt, is the single worst part about GW paints. Though cleaning P3 pots isn't exactly happiness and joy either, and their rims get pretty gunked up too.

True, but cleaning a p3 rim takes me about 5 seconds because one it's built up a bit it usually comes out in one nice rubbery chunk. The last few GW ones I cleaned it got caked in there and I spent ages gnawing at it to get it out because it refused to come out in one piece. My mephiston red lid is now well and truly warped from my twisting and gouging

If you're gnawing at the pot to clean it, you're definitely doing it wrong. Use a tool or something, cripes.

A precision screw driver is a tool It might be the paint itself, it just seemed way harder and more brittle than P3 paints or older GW ones, normally you get under the gunk and grab it with pliers and it just comes out in one.

Either way, it was a pain in the arse. The P3 ones have never given me that sort of trouble. Unfortunately I don't particularly like P3 paints, I just like the pots

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
True, but cleaning a p3 rim takes me about 5 seconds because one it's built up a bit it usually comes out in one nice rubbery chunk. The last few GW ones I cleaned it got caked in there and I spent ages gnawing at it to get it out because it refused to come out in one piece. My mephiston red lid is now well and truly warped from my twisting and gouging

On Citadel paints, this has to do with the color (I assume the pigments used for them). For example, silver, blue, and brown will always come out as a big rubbery piece; red, orange, and white will always come up in little powdery pieces that are a royal pain. I use my greenstuff sculpting tools -- in particular, the one that has a little hook at the end. They slide out pretty well

Red is definitely a color that is harder to clean out. I'm lucky though: I go through so much mephiston that it never has a chance to gunk up

Little tip for citadel pot fans -- if you want to avoid paint sliding down the back of the little tabbie thing to the back of the pot (which invariably makes a mess), when you open the pot, press the cap forward from the back, and take paint from the BACK of the tongue first, instead of the front. It greatly reduces the amount of cleanup over time.

I think Mephiston Red and Rakarth Flesh are the only GW colours I've actually used in, I dunno, the past year or so. Pretty much everything else I've replaced it with something else.

I don't particularly like airbrushing Mephiston Red though because I don't know what's in it, my Blood Angels I'm swapping to VMA Ferrari Red. So Meph only really gets used when I need a small dab of red somewhere.

I wonder if VMC has a good alternative to Meph.

Sounds like with some of the info posted here, cost is not as big an issue.

So now, its about your desire for dropper bottles vs. the time it takes to switch them.

For me personally, I had slowly switched over the years to brands that come in dropper bottles - especially after the citadel paint change a year or two ago.

Regarding the shades - while I do like a few, I am using the army painter "inks" (which are really washes) as they match the old GW washes (dark tone is devlan mud, I think for example).

Best of luck and use lots of towels for spills!

what I'd do, if you're strongly against the pots, as others say, order a few dropper bottles to make sure you like the quality, then transfer the least used paints of your GW collection - you know, the ones likely to dry out the most, first. The paints you use the most, hardly need to do that with, honestly, as you go through so much, it doesn't have time to dry out. Which is why my ratskin, leadbelcher and mephiston are still in their pots, all the time.

When you've decided which you like, pots or droppers, you can go through your paints and either do it all in one day, or a few here and there, til you're done. Or of course decide not to.

The only thing I'd definitely switch to dropper bottles, if I'd bought them, which I haven't, is the air brush paints because seriously how else would you get them in an airbrush? sigh.

But, anyway, just my two cents, good luck!

I'm sort of panicking, because Evil Sunz Scarlet and Dawnstone are both not sealed correctly, so I have to add medium every now and then so it doesn't dry out. I'll order soon.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I think Mephiston Red and Rakarth Flesh are the only GW colours I've actually used in, I dunno, the past year or so. Pretty much everything else I've replaced it with something else.

I don't particularly like airbrushing Mephiston Red though because I don't know what's in it, my Blood Angels I'm swapping to VMA Ferrari Red. So Meph only really gets used when I need a small dab of red somewhere.

I wonder if VMC has a good alternative to Meph.

I think the closest alternatives are Model Color Red, and Model Air Scarlet Red (** NOT Game Air Scarlett Red, which is quite a bit darker). The Vallejo product covers like poo compared to GW's red, though. Of course, right now, painting tables-full of red models makes it so that even a little better paint makes enough of a difference for me to go one way or the other. Also, I find it inconvenient that the Vallejo reds (of which there are so many...) don't match up between Model Color, Model Air, and Game Air in their basic 'red'. I used to dilute either model color or citadel with thinner; now, I just buy the citadel mephiston red in air and base and am a happy man.

It doesn't matter so much when basecoating, but if I'm doing any kind of detail, the premixed airbrush paints are just more predictable consistency than what I concoct.

Incidentally, Vallejo has a very nice alternative to Khorne red (sorry, can't recall the color. It might actually be Scarlett Red...). It's like Khorne, but it doesn't have the bit of pinkish/purplish tint, and is just straight on darker red. It covers pretty decently too, IIRC, but it's just not a color I use much. Great for Flesh Tearers and a darker red than Mephiston though.

On a different note, what crazy person at Vallejo decided to name one paint Scarlet Red, and another paint, Scarlett Red?!?! That's like, tablet autocorrect sadism

Maybe it's just my luck but stopper bottles have been nothing but trouble for me. I hate mine with a passion and will never buy them again.

If it works for the rest of you then more power to ya, I guess.

 Breotan wrote:
Maybe it's just my luck but stopper bottles have been nothing but trouble for me. I hate mine with a passion and will never buy them again.

If it works for the rest of you then more power to ya, I guess.

If I'd bought Reaper paints first then I'd hate dropper bottles now. The handful of Reaper paints I've bought have all been clogged when I bought them, unclogged them with a thick pin and they just clog up again. On my Twilight Blue I've now removed the cap and actually drilled out the hole to be a touch larger so we'll see if that stops it from clogging.

But at least it doesn't dry out like GW's bloody pots.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Talys wrote:
I think the closest alternatives are Model Color Red, and Model Air Scarlet Red (** NOT Game Air Scarlett Red, which is quite a bit darker). The Vallejo product covers like poo compared to GW's red, though. Of course, right now, painting tables-full of red models makes it so that even a little better paint makes enough of a difference for me to go one way or the other. Also, I find it inconvenient that the Vallejo reds (of which there are so many...) don't match up between Model Color, Model Air, and Game Air in their basic 'red'. I used to dilute either model color or citadel with thinner; now, I just buy the citadel mephiston red in air and base and am a happy man.

It doesn't matter so much when basecoating, but if I'm doing any kind of detail, the premixed airbrush paints are just more predictable consistency than what I concoct.

Yeah I've heard you mention that in other threads. Personally it's never bothered me that VMA and VMC are slightly different. If anything I prefer it because it gives me a wider range of colours. If ever I'm buying a new pot of paint it's 99% of the time because I want a new colour, not the same colour in a slightly different consistency

I like Meph because it has pretty good vibrancy compared to how well it covers. Which is important with hairy brush painting, not so much with airbrush painting though. When airbrushing I'll usually use a VMA red or a Testors red. Testors red is my favourite for airbrushing but I need a lower odour cleaner when cleaning up because it makes my room stink to high heaven (the paint itself isn't too bad and the Testors thinner isn't bad, but Testors thinner is too expensive for me to use it as a cleaner).

The reason I keep Rakarth in my line up is because it was the main colour on my Tyranids. I actually painted my Tyranids originally with a 50/50 mix of Dheneb Stone and Bleached Bone, Rakarth flesh is almost a perfect match for that mix which was fortunate. VMC has some nice beiges as well so I could probably replace Rakarth if I wanted.

Sorry for digging this up again, but do you guys use these so called "shaking beads" in dropper bottles?

I do. I used 2x 8mm stainless steel nuts.

Retrospectively, i should have used glass beads, buy ì haven't had a problem yet.

Agitators are definitely beneficial - kinda mad my Vallejo and warcolors don't have them

kb_lock wrote:
I do. I used 2x 8mm stainless steel nuts.

Retrospectively, i should have used glass beads, buy ì haven't had a problem yet.

Agitators are definitely beneficial - kinda mad my Vallejo and warcolors don't have them

Why not just pop the top and stick one in?

Because I'd rather get mad at something I could so easily fix, instead of something I have no control over.

Jesus Talys, keep up.

kb_lock wrote:
Because I'd rather get mad at something I could so easily fix, instead of something I have no control over.

Jesus Talys, keep up.

Hahaha! Exalted =]

I'm surprised I didn't get a response to this from you mate;

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300/648746.page#8406064

Totally love dropper bottles... I eventually started buying those once I discovered Vallejo's stuff.

Never did do any transferring though of paint in pots into droppers... I just either used up the pots or gave them to folks who wanted them.