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Anyone had an experience with their model air (or game air I guess) paints going bad over time?

I cracked open a Burnt Umber that I haven't used in, umm, probably a year maybe two, and I just could not get it to spray well. I don't remember it being particularly bad but it's been a long time since using it last. It just constantly wanted to clog up, sometimes it'd feel like it was about to clog but instead spat a glob of paint on my model (I'm using a 0.5mm tip, I'm guessing with a 0.3 it'd just clog rather than spitting globs). Even if I added a ton of thinner, it'd obviously spray easier but still end up spitting chunks and clogging frequently.

After spending a few minutes getting frustrated at the paint splatter on my brand new Arachnarok Spider I swapped to model air tank brown, which is a very similar brown maybe a touch less reddish in tone and it sprayed fine.

I recall in the past other VMA paints have done a similar thing to me right after I bought them but just assumed it was those specific colours being bad.

I'm wondering if model air maybe can go bad as I've not experienced this with any other line of paints (their non-air paints seem to all be fine).

How much of the bottle have you used so far?
I have many Vallejo paints that tend to separate, with a very thin mixture on top, and a thicker one at the bottom. For air color it's not much of an issue because the thinner part will airbrush pretty well. But I guess it's possible to airbrush that thinner mix until you end up with just the thick slurry in the bottle, at which point mixing the paint properly won't fix it anymore.
It's just an hypothesis, as I've never had issues with air colors. But ever since I found out Vallejo colors must be rolled between the palms of the hands instead of shaken, I've had much fewer issues with paint consistency (I mix each bottle a lot before using, even if it looks fine).

Sounds feasible. I have had thin basically clear liquid from vallejo bottles before. Nothing I can't shake back into action but maybe after long time that might not help.

Vallejo lines often have the issue of separating in the bottle. You need to shake the bejesus out of them every time you use them. After a long while, I'll often pull the dropper off the bottle and stir it up with a toothpick as well. Add water as needed if it's beginning to thicken up.

fresus wrote:
How much of the bottle have you used so far?

From the looks of it I've only used about 1/3 of the bottle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

tneva82 wrote:
Sounds feasible. I have had thin basically clear liquid from vallejo bottles before. Nothing I can't shake back into action but maybe after long time that might not help.

Yeah, I shook the hell out of it before using it. Maybe shaking it is a bad idea, I've heard that shaking can cause inconsistencies as the air in the bubbles causes paint to dry out locally, but I've shaken my paints for decades and never had a problem previously

I never had burnt umber vma go bad.

iv gotten a lot of the greys and whites go horrably wrong but not the burnt umber.

 Todosi wrote:
Vallejo lines often have the issue of separating in the bottle. You need to shake the bejesus out of them every time you use them. After a long while, I'll often pull the dropper off the bottle and stir it up with a toothpick as well. Add water as needed if it's beginning to thicken up.

This is an air rather than a regular Vallejo paint, they don't seem to separate out as badly (some of my non-air browns separate out terribly, with the green parts rising to the top).

The regular non-air paints all seem fine, the formulation of non-air paints might be more robust, some of them are a bit on the thick side but nothing a bit of airbrush thinner doesn't fix. The air paints do tend to form a rubbery skin as they dry, maybe whatever additive causes that rubbery skin has also caused rubbery globules to form in the paint itself.

Dunno, just seems odd.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Todosi wrote:
Vallejo lines often have the issue of separating in the bottle. You need to shake the bejesus out of them every time you use them. After a long while, I'll often pull the dropper off the bottle and stir it up with a toothpick as well. Add water as needed if it's beginning to thicken up.

This is an air rather than a regular Vallejo paint, they don't seem to separate out as badly (some of my non-air browns separate out terribly, with the green parts rising to the top).

The regular non-air paints all seem fine, the formulation of non-air paints might be more robust, some of them are a bit on the thick side but nothing a bit of airbrush thinner doesn't fix. The air paints do tend to form a rubbery skin as they dry, maybe whatever additive causes that rubbery skin has also caused rubbery globules to form in the paint itself.

Dunno, just seems odd.

Just yesterday putting on wolf grey first into cup after ~week or week and half first came out pretty much clear liquid. Bit of shake and grey paint came.

I've had a bone colour go bad and clumpy. constant clogs.

Yeah, have known some to go tarry. Blues, whites and browns.
Their white kills my airbrush if it's old stock, even thinned down.

It's dependent upon the color. In my experience, VMA 066 Gold always clumps beyond repair within a year (often less), but I have other colors that are still good after more than five years. I also have a paint shaker, so the problem goes well beyond just settling.

Interesting! I think it explains why I have had issues with certain Vallejo Air colours in the past, hadn't realised they could go bad, most other paints I've airbrushed seem pretty consistent over time.

Vallejo Air paints are latex based paints, if they've separated completely and won't re-disperse when given a general shake then the whole bottle is lost and no amount of shaking or magic tricks will get it back unfortunately, once latex has polymerised that's basically it. The reason non airbrush paint doesn't go the same way is because acrylic paint is water soluble so even if it has started to thicken, a small amount of water and a really good shake will normally reactivate it (that is unless it has dried to a crisp!). It just depends on several factors, humidity, temperature, quality and tightness of seal, sunlight exposure even down to the specific batch, some will be worse off than others and it's just down to luck on if the paint can be saved.

I believe the reason why airbrush paints are latex based is because they have a finer density than acrylic and need less watering down meaning it can carry more pigment than a non-airbrush paint which has to be watered down significantly and require more coats due to the fact it carries less pigment because of the watering down process.

 Supershandy wrote:
Vallejo Air paints are latex based paints, if they've separated completely and won't re-disperse when given a general shake then the whole bottle is lost and no amount of shaking or magic tricks will get it back unfortunately, once latex has polymerised that's basically it. The reason non airbrush paint doesn't go the same way is because acrylic paint is water soluble so even if it has started to thicken, a small amount of water and a really good shake will normally reactivate it (that is unless it has dried to a crisp!). It just depends on several factors, humidity, temperature, quality and tightness of seal, sunlight exposure even down to the specific batch, some will be worse off than others and it's just down to luck on if the paint can be saved.

I believe the reason why airbrush paints are latex based is because they have a finer density than acrylic and need less watering down meaning it can carry more pigment than a non-airbrush paint which has to be watered down significantly and require more coats due to the fact it carries less pigment because of the watering down process.

Fascinating information, thanks for sharing.

Explains why my various air brush paints seem to be more flaky (pun intended) than non-airbrush paints.

Yeah, good to know, I've always noticed Vallejo Air paints seem to have some rubberisers compared to their brush-on line that is a bit more chalky. I had thought that maybe it was polyurethane, but latex makes sense as well.