"When are you out of paint?" Topic

The local game stores have discontinued paints for figures or have not restocked since last fall. I can drive down to the big city (60 miles/97 kilometers) or post an order for Reaper or Vallejo paints.
I find myself using a toothpick to scrape paint out of the bottom of one of the dropper bottles. This is a viable plan if I am painting the brass buttons on Bilbo's waistcoat, but not so good if I need to paint the coats for an entire regiment.

It did get me to wondering when folks consider a paint bottle ready for the trash. When nothing comes out when you turn it upside down and squeeze? When you add an eye dropper of water, shake it about, then still get water out? When it dries out into a solid lump? When do you chuck it and move on and buy a new bottle?

Grelber

I am not forgiving of paint.
If it is a problem it goes into the trash.

I don't like painting that much that I will tolerate anything less than perfection from the paint itself.

Bunkermeister

I just pitched a small tube of red oil artists paint that crumbled into pieces when I tried to open it. There was just enough in it that was still good to use for painting over the scratches in my car fender (close enough color match! Got more on my hands, actually… ;-)
So that paint "died well" and gave it's last, and it will be remembered (also because a few drops fell into the kitchen carpet, never did get it all out… ;-)

I figure ooze is salvageable, as is--sometimes--flakes in solution. I add suitable solvent and a mixing ball, and give it a shot. Solid is pitched.

But usually there's a fresh bottle. Shake the old bottle, pour into the new, close the bottle and shake. Once you hear the mixing ball in the new bottle, pitch the old. Anything which won't pour is done.

Anything solid is binned. Anything else is salvageable. It is far easier with pots of paint than those horrible modern dropper bottles which seem to be ubiquitous now. With pots of paint, I can actually scrape out the final remnants, and they are much easier to mix too.

When the paint in a bottle dries out I cut he plastic bottles in half, soak the halves in water and peel out the paint chips, which then I collect in glass jars and call it Fraud Art.

I overbuy paint – and like the Bunkermeister, the trash can has a siren call for dried up paints

I don't know if I have ever run out of a paint color. I have tossed a number of bottles because I did not like the consistency of the paint anymore, or they flat-out dried up.

I'm a craft paint user. I buy it from the usual suspects: Michael's, Wal-Mart, JoAnne's, or Hobby Lobby.

If my paint bottle becomes too thick, or worse, I replace it.

If I were to go high-end, such as Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0, I would mail-order it. There is no vendor in my area who sells it directly, unless I travel two hours by car, to the heart of Minnesota's Twin Cities metro area! I have found some wargaming stores in Superior, Wisconsin, but they, too, are 2+ hours away. Cheers!

If it's too thick, I just add water. Once it's solid, I replace it.

I am a Humbrol Enamel user, and have thrown several tins out when they get a really thick skin, or turn watery!
I try to keep them going by adding a bit of white spirit after each use, and this seems to work most of the time, depends on the colour…

Either when it has turned solid or I can't get anymore out of the bottle.

Craft store paints are always available. Even dollar stores carry them these days.

Yup, when it's no longer wet.

To the OP, surprisingly, Amazon is a good place to shop in a pinch.

When the paint no longer flows smoothly, especially after thinning, I pitch it out.

I've still got several ancient (from the late 80s and early 90s) Partha pains that work with a little medium mixed in. But many have dried out and been tossed.

If any paints become too much of a chore to make useable with water or medium, they get tossed.