"HOW MANY Bottles on the Wall?" Topic

Working on paint storage--new unit for dropper bottles is supposed to arrive from Litko tomorrow--and I was a little shocked by just how many bottles there are in the house. So two potential poll questions:
1) How many bottles is a reasonably complete set?
a) Up to 50.
b) 50-100.
c) 100-200.
d) 201+

2) How many do you actually own?
a) Up to 50.
b) 50-100.
c) 100-200.
d) 201+

And yes, inevitably. though I think 50-100 a perfectly reasonable assortment of paints, somehow the actual bottle count is more like 300. Can't quite see how it happened.

Other examples and/or explanations?

200+

My cheap storage was built as follows. Obtain cheap 2x4 piece of plywood. Screw to ply wood cheap acrylic nail polish shelves:

link

Looks like this when complete:

1) If I go with how many different paint colours I have, it's easily 200+

2) Dropper bottles … zero.

I use a ~11"x13" art cart with three tiers.

I need only part of these.. some are for WWII and therefore useless.

B, 50-100

Well over 200. Mostly craft paints some very old (1980's) GW paints and some dropper bottles but I throw the dropper part away.
Paul

some are for WWII and therefore useless.

How does this come about? What makes a paint for WWII? What makes it useless for anything else?

Useless for me, because I don't paint after Waterloo period models..

How is a color for a time restricted?

1) How many bottles is a reasonably complete set?

I guess it depends on your needs. I suppose that I could manage 25-32mm science fiction miniatures with white, black, brown, silver, blue, yellow, and red, and just derive whatever else I needed from them.

2) How many do you actually own?

Fewer than 50, for sure. Maybe as few as 20.

I think paint bottles are like coat hangers and rabbits. If you leave them alone for a bit, you wind up with lots of them. I even have tins of Humbrol enamel paints I bought in my college days. Whether or not they are still of any use is another matter since I haven't opened one in ages.

Sho Boki wrote: WWII colours are "Useless for me, because I don't paint after Waterloo period models."

I still find those earthy greens, yellows, browns, blues etc useful for earlier periods, as first coats, as 'natural' fabric colours for ancient/mediaeval clothing etc.

Cheers,
John

I've got about 200.

This is clearly a bit more than I need, given that a few are unnecessary duplicates and some hardly get used, so a "reasonably complete" set might be say 150 for me. I could probably be pretty happy with 100 well-chosen ones.

OK, no one's done this yet. I did wait. So ..

Ninety-nine bottles of paint on the wall
Ninety-nine bottles of paint
Take one down
It's dried up and gross
Ninety-eight bottle of paint on the wall

I even have tins of Humbrol enamel paints I bought in my college days.

Those were great tins that could be used for terrain bits, maybe fuel barrels or water drums. I don't have any of mine from those days.

Actually, given that we are wargamers and have no self control, it's more likely:

Ninety-nine bottles of paint on the wall
Ninety-nine bottles of paint
Take one down
It's dried up and gross
One hundred and five bottles of paint on the wall

Just jars and humbrol tins, 50–100 range. Counting a basement full of cans of spray paint, well over 200+!

For me, around 170 for historical periods from Ancient to WW2.

I would think a good complete set, for multiple periods, shouldn't exceed 100. Especially if you're willing to mix your paints to get particular colors.

Erzherzog Johann for the win.

I have no earthly idea how many bottles of paint I own, but it's probably well over 400. That includes over 300 acrylic paints, large collections of acrylic inks and speedpaints, and a lot of misc. brushable clearcoats and primers.

In spite of this vast sprawl, I still find it a struggle sometimes to paint particular colors. For instance: early this year I needed an acrylic purple paint, and I had to borrow a purple craft paint from my wife, then mix it with white to get the highlight version of it. I clearly can't say I have "more than I need".

I was hoping to reduce my paint bottle proliferation by investing in the Army Painter triad system, but it didn't make as big an impact as I'd hoped. The ends of some triads don't got dark enough or light enough, and there are whole categories of historical or realistic/drab/desaturated colors missing from the range.

One of the results of collecting the AP triads is that I now have a box of giveaway paints. I need to empty it a third time onto the FLGS "free" table.

- Ix

And yet there are some of us who have a tiny collection and customise everything they do from a handful of basics. Personally, I'd be lost trying to do that so I have nothing but admiration for those brave souls among us.

Cheers,
John