"2014, and Games Workshop paints still dry out???" Topic

Hello all.

Been posting updates as I get myself organized to get back into gaming by finally painting all my Warhammer armies that I have had stored for a while.

So to explain my title – In late 2012 I purchased a lot of supplies in addition to all the models. I carefully stored everything indoors and everything is in new condition.

I purchased craft paints for terrain, and three brands of miniatures paints – Citadel, Foundry, and Vallejo. I bought all the core sets of each brand.

As I said this was late 2012, so it's been a little over two years.

Upon breaking everything out and starting my terrain, all the craft paints were perfectly fresh, big bottles and small. The Foundry and Vallejo paints still being sealed were perfectly fresh and liquid as the day I bought them.

Wouldn't you know it? When I got to the Citadel paints a good number had lost most of their moisture and were just barely hanging on as usable. When you shook the bottle there was no movement, they had thickened severely. I had to go in with flow enhancer to rescue some of them. They had never been opened and were still sealed.

Nearly every gamer knows about the Citadel paint pot nightmare that took place in the 90s, with those infamously designed screw-top covers, with expensive paints drying out even when closed tightly.

The whole point of my rambling is sort of a set of questions and an observation at the same time:

Was it unreasonable of me to expect GW paints to stay fresh for two years if they were sealed or was I asking too much? Foundry and Vallejo didn't even flinch.

Is it because GW simply assumes that you'll begin using their paints right after you buy them, so they don't put that much effort into effective seals for their paints? How can it be 20 years later that GW still doesn't know how to package their paints when they have two competitors who have mastered it completely?

The thing about this that makes me chuckle is that cheap bottles of generic Michael's Crafts paints had better seals on their paints and held up better in storage than one of the world's supposed premier maker of miniatures and miniature paints.

Perhaps it was foolish of me to purchase paints and then not use them for so long, but originally I had planned to begin painting in 2012 but had to shelve the whole project until just recently.

Opened paint pots are surely more prone to drying out than sealed pots?

I have quite a number of Coat d'Arms paints (the ORIGINAL Citadel paints) opened and in use for more than 2 years, possibly longer (I can't remember!). None have dried out and these are the old "flip top" pots that GW replaced with the screw tops.

Hello MajorB,

Oh wow, yes indeed! I remember the old Coat d'Arms! That was the first and only time that Citadel paints were actually impervious to drying out, and if I'm not mistaken weren't those paint pots identical to what Foundry uses now? That little garbage can-shaped cylinder with the white flip-top.

Your reference to Coat d'Arms paints really has me convinced that at some point way back a CFO of Games Workshop made some financial, cost-cutting move which is why they switched the horrific black screw-tops, and why their paints haven't been packaged properly since.

GW finally did change their pot design I think back in like the mid or later 2000s which is what I have now. They are clear pots, shorter than Coat d'Arms and Foundry, and they also have flip tops.

But the thing I notice about GW's flip tops now is that they still don't have a strong-feeling snap when you close them. It's weak. They DO snap closed, but it feels like a snap-closure on something that is already worn out, like a hatch or door on an old toy. By contrast when you close a Foundry paint or a Coat d'Arms paint you really feel it snap shut.

The other thing about the GW paints now is that they do have an initial "seal" that you have to crack, but it consists of these really pathetically thin zipper teeth that you barely feel when you first open it.

I am just convinced now that GW packages their paints as cheaply as possible without regard for longevity. Purely financial. No way it could be accidental. They should have never abandoned the Coat d'Arms pots.

You are absolutely right about Coat d'Arms. When I was first gaming back in the early 2000s, I opened and used Coat d'Arms as well as Foundry paints. Many of those paints were open for 7-8 years or more and NEVER dried out.

Vallejo and Reaper same deal, those dropper-style screw tops seal paints like Titanium. I had Vallejo for a decade and had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

If you need to replace any of your dried out paints then you can buy Coat D'Arms here:
blackhat.co.uk/coat_darms

Hah! You should use enamels. I'm still using Humbrol paints that I opened in the seventies and they are still fine!

I have some Reaper Pro Paints that are more than 10 years old and still good as new. Sadly, they discontinued that line. (What's funny is that the new Reaper dropper bottles clog easily with dried paint.) Vallejo is my go-to.

I've been happily GW paint-free for many years now, and rightly so, it seems.

I have 2 GW paints that are at least 10 if not 15 years old. Still good

Baranovitch,

The exact same thing happened to me. I've still got Polly S paints that are over 10 years old and still useable. Unopened GW paints I purchased less than 12 months ago are totally dry.

Perhaps this is "designed obsolescence" and is a strategy to sell more paint. If so, it's failed with me. I avoid GW paint like the plague now.

I use a mixture of water and alcohol to bring paints that are beginning to dry out back to life.

Yup, my experience with GW paints too. I've got Foundry, Reaper & Vallejo paints over 15 years old that are still going strong.

I have some of those GW paints from 20 years ago still in use. Most of my modern paints are coat'd'arms, still producing good products.

I started buying vallejo in '91 ( yes I'm an old git) and those colours are still going strong.

The gw colours don't last and dry up even still sealed.

It is the only thing that doesn't change edition to edition.

I've taken to letting them down each time I use them. A pipette is very useful for adding fractions of a ml of water each time.

Perhaps a bit of planned obsolescence on GW's part?

More than a bit and very obviously planned. My original Coat'd'Arms GW paint pots are still good while my newer paints need thinning every time I open them. I try not to buy much from GW now days.

I have some very old GW paints that are still usable. The exceptions are where the plastic top is brittle.
The oldest paints I have are Colour Party horse colours which are getting too dry to use.
Are they still going?

So just an update…thank you all for your insights and input!

I finally got my supplies together and actually went in bottle by bottle to see what the condition of the GW paints are.

I must admit that my initial criticism was found to be somewhat exaggerated. Found some interesting things.

The GW ultimate paint set has layers, bases, drys, and textures. The ones I was most concerned about were the bases and layers, but also concerned about the drys and textures given the fact that they are drier to begin with.

I opened each one and to my pleasant surprise, most of the paints were actually still in excellent shape and the pigment was mixed and the moisture and consistency were still fresh.

For some strange reason, some of the bottles had a "zipper" seal around the lid that you had to crack to open for the first time. But the zipper seal was sporadic, not all the bottles had them, I don't know why.

It would seem that GW's current flip-top bottles achieve a better seal than I had first assumed. Two+years and the vast majority needed no water or flow addition added. Some of the layers and bases had begun to lump up, but adding in a little distilled water and alcohol and stirring brought them right back to new.

I'm very pleased that a GW paint product actually stood the test of time after so long in storage, considering the huge dollars they cost these things should have Foundry or Reaper level seals or better. But that's GW for you, maintain just enough quality without providing true peace of mind, you always have to babysit and worry about GW paints, so that hasn't changed much, lol.

So between the GW set, my Foundrys and Vallejo's, I'm good to go.