"Best pallet for painting. Beer bottle tops?" Topic

I never used to use one as I used GW paints directly from the pot. Since switching over to Vallejo this is no longer possible so a small handy, disposable pallet was necessary.

Having searched my workbureau (a workbench but from Ikea) high and low, I couldn't find anything because of all the beerbottle tops laying around. Then I had an ingenious idea to carry on using painting as an excuse to enjoy my other hobby of drinking beer, WITHOUT having to clear my workbureau up after every sesh!

Just a little bit of a backlog in bottletops, mainly Dortmunder Union Export. I'll have to get on with it

Blister packs.

You can also buy a plastic dimpled pallette dish at craft stores, or WalMart. When acrylic paints dry out, just peel them out, or let them soak with spray Simple Green in them.

I use white ceramic tiles. Can soak them afterwards to remove the paint. Cheap as well.

Gallon milk jug caps. Reusable. After a while and a build-up of paint, just bend and twist and fold them in half and the paint peels right out. And with kids in the family, I have tons (then again, I have tons of beer bottle caps, too).

Beer bottle caps should work okay. When I used bottle caps for mixing, I preferred water / soda bottle caps, as they are deeper and are never bent so they lie flat.

Eventually I got sick of having the desk cluttered by all these palettes with dried up paint in them, because I kept saving them for re-use the next time I needed that color.

So I went to the art store and picked up some cheap water color palettes; there are many many designs but these are round plastic dishes with several (7 maybe?) wells for paint. The plastic is a kind paint doesn't adhere to well so they clean up with only a little scrubbing in hot water. They were $2-4, I think.

I do like beer caps for one thing though: they are perfect disposable containers for mixing 15-minute epoxy. I always seem to want to contain small amounts of that stuff.

Before they got rid of them, I loved the plastic Yogurt lids. Here's another one: cover anything handy in tin foil. Dispose and re-wrap as needed. An old plate is a common choice. The dried paint can be picked off with your thumb nail…

I use cd's. So many free internet service cd's are around that I started using them. No apsorption, totally smooth. Ideal.

A brand of crisps(chips to those over the pond)called Pringles, comes in cardboard tube with a soft plastic lid. The lid is ideal as when it is covered in several layers of dried paint, simply bend it and peel off the paint.

I use a 3" wide roll of scotch tape.

I use a "wet pallette" from Masterson – it is essentially a plastic case with a sponge and a water permeable membrane – keeps your paints moist, prevents "clumping" and you can mix colors and leave them for a few days without painting and come back and use them again. A great system for my Reaper and Vallejo paints. If you haven't tried a wet pallette – you should – I used to use blister packs, water color trays, sheet styrene, etc. I wouldn't switch back after using it.

Yep, beer caps work great. Lick them clean, of course. LOL

Bottled water caps.

I use blister packs. Annoyingly though, I'm runing low. Everyone and his dog is using those clamsgell blisters instead of card backed ones, and I don't like using them for pallettes. Looks like I'll need to buy some more GW minis for the blister pack plastic.

CDs for me. I stock up everytime AOL gives out their free service CDs.

I use a Styrofoam plate as a palette. Super cheap.

Metal lids from frozen orange juice containers also work.

I'll second Crispy's aluminum foil suggestion--I tend to use very small bits of paint, and having a flat surface works better than the "dimpled" art supply palettes.

jeff

Used jam jar lids for years, still have large supply from when mother used to save them for me (she baked all her own jam tarts and mince pies).