"Dried up Paint Bottles" Topic

I am trying to get into painting again, however, so many of my bottles of water-colors are dried up completely. Are they done? Can they be brought back to life?

Hal,

If they are acrylic, they are dead, dead, dead.

Bill

Yep, they are gone. However, there are so many options to get back into painting. On the cheap end there are the "craft paints" found in the big box hobby stores, to the higher end; Model Master and Vallejo. Let's not forget the P3 line by privateer press, Warpaints, and there is GW's line. Personally, I've steered away from GW paints, I've found that they lack consistency and vary in quality, not to mention price. Ah, if you're using varnish to seal your figs, use a test fig first. Some paints don't like certain products. Good luck, have fun and welcome back into the fold.

Reaper HD are amazing, simply amazing.

I've found that over the past ten years my painting has been so spotty that I've had to revive and recover drying (not dried completely) paint bottles every year or so. In my extensive experience with this subject, the longer they have to dry, the worse they are. I have found myself digging and scraping out dried crust bits, only to rehydrate the paint. Then I test paint some stuff, because often if it has been too long or more than once, the bottle will have so many little bits or "floaties" in them that it's really gone.

All in all, the cost of paint in 1 oz bottles is so low that it is worth it to just pick up another. Now, starting over with an entire collection can be really annoying.

As a side note, coming from an old-fashioned fellow who loved painting out of the pot lids, and resisted for many years the new dropper bottles: I have found that the dropper bottles last longer due to the smaller amount of air leakage to dry the paint, and thus are easier to rejuvenate and recover, and have less waste. I have a collection of Vallejo that I bought in the big case back in 2010 that is still holding strong. Paints from GWs (previous line) I've had to toss for being too dried out due to the large open mouth pot letting in too much air.

If they are actually " water colours" you may be able to revive with ….. water.
If they are water- based or solvent based acrylics which are really dry, then they are dead. I check my acrylics regularly and, if they are getting a little thick, add some water and stir well. I have also used Vallejo airbrush thinners to do the same trick. This only works if the paints are still stirrable; once they are beyond that stage, just chuck them in the bin.

I've had some success using rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) to thin out thickened acrylic paints.

had the same problems..but on the other hand i was able to purchase a big wood nicely manifactured artist box of old plaka/pelikan water based colours on ebay…at about 50 € including postage..for over 60 colours..3 of them definitvly dead…some problems to revamp gold/silver and metal..the rest ok with strong stirring and water but they had the consistency of a tooth path ….just to know..is it possible to totally clean the 3 / 4 remaing glass pots and re-use them ?..in fact i liked so much those vintage containers from Plaka

Italwars – Soap and hot water should clean out those paint pots. You may have to do a little detail work with a thin blade or needle to get everything, however. Good luck,

Jim

What make of paint is it Hal?

Thanks everyone for your information. The paints are primarily the old "Howard Hues." I do have lots of raft paints and have been picking up Valejo from Hobby Lobby the last year or so each time we go.