"Let's talk about paint pots" Topic

What prompted this post is that I just spent a few minutes prying out the dry and hardened paint that is preventing me from closing my Citadel paint pot. I almost exclusively use citadel now because they have such a broad range of colours, but used to mainly use Foundry. As much as I love Citadel, I'm not a fan of the pots because of the clogging and drying issue. I actually have a special metal stick that use to do the clean out.

I'm curious what other people think about paint pots. By my experience there are three basic varieties. These include the previously mentioned Citadel which are fine, but a bit annoying. Then you have Foundry with a similar pop top design, but the lids don't get blocked up as much. Finally, there is the eye dropper Vallejo type which avoids this issue entirely. I'm not a fan of the eye dropper type because I'm cheap and feel I use less paint if I can just take a bit out on the brush and mix it on a ceramic tile.
I may be the only person silly enough ponder this, but do you have a favourite style paint pot, putting aside cost and quality of the paint?

Are they as bad as the older screw top pots from Citadel from the mid 1990s?

Those things dried out if you looked at them.

You can always buy dropper bottles from Amazon (come in at least 2 sizes). I have seen folks apply their GW label to a dropper bottle too. Problem solved.

Thanks

John

Droppers all the way. I've had far less waste than with any other type of paint pot. The tops don't seem to fail as often or as early as the pot types do either.

I've found the droppers are easier to clean up when they do get dried paint as well

I stick with the pots for the most part. But maintenance is part of the package. Add a little water from time to time. Add a mixing ball, which you will pour into the next pot along with the last of the paint. And go through with an Xacto knife when the dried paint prevents the lid sealing properly.

The eye droppers--and I do have some--offend my frugal German soul every time I have to squeeze out, say, and entire drop of yellow for that single Austrian cockade.

I hate the Citadel paint pots (and the unhelpful obscure fantasy color names, and sometimes the paint), so mostly I avoid buying them. Still, some Citadel products have been extremely useful, so to sever all interactions with those frustrating paint pot caps forever, I transfer the paint into dropper bottles.

I have used a variety of dropper bottles, but most of the Amazon purchases have been, well, meh. I've been switching over to Vallejo-style or MIG-style dropper bottles whenever I can add them to an order or FLGS purchase, despite the outrageously inflated prices. Uniformity of size, function, and dropper nozzle diameter is worth a lot, and TBH I just don't use that many of them.

The eye droppers--and I do have some--offend my frugal German soul every time I have to squeeze out, say, and entire drop of yellow for that single Austrian cockade.

I originally also hated the dropper bottles, but they preserve paint and facilitate mixing so well, I've completely dropped my bigotry. An easy majority of my hobby paints are now in dropper bottles.

- Ix

I still use Citadel paint pots from the 80's (I transfer other paints to the empty pots.) And most of my old GW paints are still good after 30+ years… ;-)

Could someone please explain to me the purpose of that uvula thing hanging from the lid?
I'm serious. I want to know.
If it's to facilitate dipping your brush directly into the "pot", all it does is facilitate evaporation.

I'd like to know too.

The only things I've ever seen it do consistently are:

• Flip drops of paint around the area
  
• Interfere with closing the cap, as messily as possible
  
• Block the brush from the paint

Which of these things is any benefit to the user? I don't get it.

- Ix

Robert, what should really offend your frugal soul is paying $7.80 USD for an 18ml pot of GW white, instead of paying $3.89 USD for an 18ml dropper bottle of Vallejo White.

I gave up on GW paints about 10 years ago when their shelf life was roughly that of a seriously ill fruit fly.

One thing it does do, and that's to make it more difficult to use up the paint inside the pot. And at the prices that GW charges…

I rarely use GW. Between Vallejo and Warlord I can get virtually any color I need and I detest the GW pots.

I do like Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade and find a thinned Zandri Dust helpful for dirtying things up.

I haven't touched any pot paint since the 90's and never plan to again. Dropper bottles all the way.

I remember when the GW round bottles came out in the late 90's (I believe around the late 90's). Someone said that they looked like bolter rounds. I could tell that the GW newgroup was pleased until some wag said, "No wonder me bolter jams all the time!".

My GV paints (still an old model) have been alive for about fifteen years… I made a special plastic box for them, where there is a plastic honeycomb material on the bottom and I pour water there. The box closes tightly, high humidity is maintained there and the paints are preserved very well.
But there are also side effects… If you do not wash off the labels, the paper will get moldy. And there is a constant smell of stagnant water in the box.

I believe that the extra bit on the citadel lids is to keep the lid upright when open. I only use the citadel washes, I cut the hinge off the lid and end up with a fully take off lid. No clogging of the lid.

Rest of my paints are foundry and cd'a. Strangely I keep the hinges on those. Every so often I remove the dry lid paint, add some acrylic thinners.

Vallejo, great paint, don't like dropper bottles. Had a few clog up. But as already mentioned I don't like wasting a whole drop of paint for a single tiny spot.

I don't like dropper bottles as they lead to too much waste. Also: contrast or washes DO NOT belong in droppers; pots only.

The citadel pots are fine: you can turn the lid inside out for easy cleaning and the inside lid holds a little paint. I guess if you're a primary color mixing arteest droppers work better but for those who use the color out of the pot and own 50 shades of gray. Not so much.

Also: contrast or washes DO NOT belong in droppers; pots only.

Complete 180° disagreement. I vary the dilution of washes and contrast paints with water and acrylic medium constantly, sometimes multiple ratios on the same miniature. Dropper bottles make it really easy to control the ratio of tint to diluting fluid.

I once saw a video of someone painting that giant Necron thingie with potted paints. I figured it would take at least 5 pots to finish it.
But that's OK, because it's only money.

I use Tamiya, Gunze, craft paints from Hobby Lobby and Michaels, and I have a few Velejo paints, as well as the old school Testors in the little glass bottle.

My favorite is Tamiya, glass bottle with a lid the color of the paint. Easy to find what I am looking for, and then cylindrical glass jar allows me to mix it with a stir stick without missing corners.

Easy clean up for all of them, mostly water except for the Testors. My collection is old but the Testors colors of today match the ones I painted 40 years ago.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

My favorite is Tamiya, glass bottle with a lid the color of the paint.

Almost the color of the paint.

I paint the top of every Tamiya jar I own with the actual paint so I can compare paint colors, and select the exact green I want from the 227 Tamiya green hues available on my rack.

(I do the same with all my paints, so this isn't a special criticism of Tamiya. I admire Tamiya for at least trying to show the color with the jar lid.)

"I believe that the extra bit on the citadel lids is to keep the lid upright when open. "

It also allows the paint on the inside of the lid to drip back into the pot instead of running onto the pot edges…

I have mostly converted to dropper bottles like Vallejo.

Storing paint pots upside down helps reduce some issues.

The old 90s Citadel bottles would get paint on the threads if you shook them which would dry sticking the lids on. This rose to the advice of stir don't shake, which I didn't understand at the time, but is also good advice usually as it mixes the paint more thoroughly.

The newer Citadel bottles not so much.

I have exited from hobby brands and use Liquitex artist paint that is in a squeeze bottle but gooey like tube oil paints. (Soft Body acrylic line.) So I'm used to thinning everything as needed.

I do premix some magic washes, acrylic thinner, and thinned glue in dropper bottles, so I guess my preference is those, but so far not for my raw paint, just mixes. Oh and I fill jars with my airbrush mixes, which can screw onto the siphon feed, although I usually use the gravity cup.

I still have a soft spot of the old Humbrol Authentic tins/paints. If you keep the lid clean they last at least 40 years, cover with one coat- using a brush stick or air brush- and still dry to dead matte finish that acrylics rarely achieve (apart from Polish Crimson, which dried a bit shiny the last time I used it). And you can get a paint stirrer into the tin, to mix the paint properly.

(Spare me any lectures about carcinogens, solvents, etc. My generation was exposed to a lot worse, from DDT to CS gas crystals, PCB and carbon tetrachloride. Turpentine and MEKO are among the least of the HAZSUB's to which we've been exposed.)

Years ago, here on TMP, someone disguising himself as a Chemistry Grad Student, was bragging about how he washed his hands with toluene before lunch. I hope he was being sarcastic. 🤷

Years ago, here on TMP, someone disguising himself as a Chemistry Grad Student, was bragging about how he washed his hands with toluene before lunch. I hope he was being sarcastic.

Or drunk, John? Doing it as a dare?

Like it or not it takes years for research to work out whether some new chemical is dangerous or not. Things have improved since the 60's, when mothers happily pumped DDT at flies and other bugs in the house and we polished brass with carbon tet.

I still prefer the tinlets (and the old Testors screw lids) to plastic dropper bottles, flip-top pots and similar, even if they require more cleaning.

I remember my Chemistry teacher cleaning a piece of silver jewellery in either benzene or toluene. Poking it about with his bare fingers. "Don't you guys do this, it's carcinogenic, but I've been doing it for years so there's no point in me not doing it".

I still prefer the tinlets (and the old Testors screw lids) to plastic dropper bottles, flip-top pots and similar, even if they require more cleaning.

I've never liked metal press-to-fit seals. It always seems only a matter of time before the lid gets dented or bent, and no longer seals properly. I lost multiple cans of Minwax to this problem.

I have lost more paints to improperly sealing screw lids than to any other phenomenon. Tamiya, Testors and Model Master jars are (or were) well done and I still have a lot of good ones that are old enough to attend college, but the old Pactra lids were pretty bad about ruining the seals with rust and paint build up, and I lost some of my favorite paints of all time to failing Pactra lids.

I've also had more than one glass jar explode in my hands while trying to crank off a stuck steel lid with pliers. That's always a fun mess to clean up…

One of the reasons I became a fan of dropper bottles is because a soft plastic bottle with a mixing ball and plastic lid is just an elegant and pragmatic solution to preserving and measuring paint. I share the OCD-ish aversion to wasting paint expressed above, but in practice I find running out of paint a much less common problem than premature drying or separation.

@Dagwood, I understand his attitude. There's a lot of chemicals which were commonly-used, but are now identified as carcinogenic or otherwise hazardous. But it's a bit late now for me to worry about them- the damage (if any) was already done 50 years ago, before the hazards were identified.

@YA, the Humbrol lids were fine and wouldn't deform, as long as you opened them carefully. An Aussie 5c coin was and is perfect for the job, whereas a screw-driver or similar could deform the lid. The main problem is that you always run out of the most useful colours first, and the ones that are left may be 40 years old, but were only used once or twice for small jobs- and it could be another 40 years before they're needed again.