Am I collecting paints?

Guess I get curious about if any are impulsive buyers like myself. Obviously, I'll never need all those paints!

Jim, you just testing the waters with your little toe...

A small paint collection here: On little shelves attached to the wall, about 30 bottles of Model Master Enamel and about five of the little square Testor bottles. In the top drawer, about eight Tamiya acrylic bottles and back-ups of about a dozen of the most heavily-used Model Master colors. That's all.

Hehehe!  I just scored another 25 bottles of old Monogram Pro-Modeler acrylics for a $5 donation to a church rummage sale.   I think I could have gotten the paint for much, much less, but they needed the money more than I need the paints.  If half of them are still good to use as primers, then I'm doing good.

I'm the slumlord of cheap paint.

What does it say about your paint collection when you bring home a bottle of MM enamel that just cost you $3.69 and the bottle on your shelf next to it is marked $1.55-and they both came from the same shop? (Amazing how expensive this hobby is getting!)

I haven't counted the various bottles and such, but it is a lot.  I bought out a portion of a local store's stock of MM enamels when they went out of business...dude was selling them off at $.33 just get rid of them.  I should have bought the metal rack while I was at it.  

Were horders I wish I would have hoared all that lacquer base paints before big brother made the manufactors get rid of it.                      Aceses5

I seem to be an oddity when it comes to modeling. I'm a minimalist. I don't have a huge stock of paints. About 15 bottles of Tamiya Acrylic and maybe 10 bottles of Model Master Enamels, augmented by another 10 of Testers Enamels. For oils I have a set of regular artist oils, and a handful of craft style acrylics - which rarely ever make it off the shelf...

I don't really have a disposable income so I can't always buy what I want, or need. Many colors I simply mix myself until it meets my own eye's approval. I also never had a 'stash' until just recently. By comparison, its not very large, only about 6 models, purchased at extremely low prices from Mosquito Con this past April.

Though, I will say, I never understood the point of having a 'stash' until now. Now that I have a meager stockpile, I can't seem to shake the feeling of wanting to add to it. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), the financial situation involved in having a wife and two young kids keeps me in check.

Modelers tend to be hoarders. Nothing funnier than talking to a customer who just purchased my product to find that they really purchased it more than ten years ago from the original manufacturer. To them it seemed like just last month they acquired it, but after some discussion and removal of dust from the memory circuits they realize it WAS that long ago.

I know of a guy who has been collecting decals, now that he has the time to build, he's found out that the decals even though "protected" aren't suitable for use anymore and better more accurate markings are now available. This hobby can be a gamble when it comes to acquiring stuff, but we tend to purchase more than we'll ever need, use or build. Most ends up in the bin either while we're alive or after we're gone.

Only got Testor's, Testor's MM enamel, and Tamiya paints on the shelf... Maybe 40 bottles, all told, along with a Valejo skin-painting set and assorted tubes of oils, about a dozen...  Got about 20 rattle-cans too...

My LHS is only a few blocks away, if I need a color, it's good reason to split from the house for a bit... "Need some paint, back in an hour, Honey!"

"What?"

"Said I need some.. " *Door Slam*

I created a spreadsheet that lists all the paints I have, so I don't keep buying certain colors.

Bgrigg

 

I have them arranged by type: Gloss and Flat; and in numerical order. So I get to be obsessive compulsive without carrying a large inventory!

All mine are on shelves marked with labels I printed on my computer, but that was needed as I kept buying paints I already had when all were kept in a big box. All are grouped by colors for standard ones (green, grey, etc.) and then other groups are Panzer, Luftwaffa, and so on.

Boy I thought I had a lot mine looks puney to all of you 60 MM 22 PolyS assorted thinners,glues,finish coatings and 3 Tamiya.                  Aceses5                              In process  Trumpter 1/35 Geschutzwagen  IVB                                                                                              

I have somewhere in the 300 to 400 bottle range. The largest offender is Humbrol. Have almost all of them and many in duplicate or triplicate. As I started using acrylics, the numbers started going up very quick. Even have some of the old Testors in the little square bottles that are marked 15cents (they are still good too). Bought a rack of them when a LHS in Philly went out of business Waaaaaay Back in the old days.

Jim

I use Tamiya exclusively, which means I have 79 bottles of paint. Tamiya carries 87, but I haven't had a need for 8 colors. Yet!

I have them arranged by type: Gloss and Flat; and in numerical order. So I get to be obsessive compulsive without carrying a large inventory!

I guess I should add that I dabbled with a model railroad for a while, so that accounts for maybe....1/5th of what I have, plus there are maybe 20 bottles of Floquil Military colors that Testors dropped after they acquired Floquil/Pollyscale. I am still P.O.'ed at them about that, and I just never tossed them out as most are still good. There are a bunch of the little Testors square bottle paints that I still use from time to time, and 20-25 bottles of Auto colors from my attempt at building cars, but lost interest and ended up returning to my love of military aircraft. Plus a few little square bottles of Pactra paints left from my early days of modeling.

At a guess, I'm also int he 200-250 range. Mostly Tamiya and Gunze acrylics, about 50 or so Vallejos and a handful of various enamels and lacquers (mostly that I have picked up to sample) .I also have a handful of Testors "square bottle" enamels left over  from the early 80's. It hink they cost about 40c each at the time.

 Doesn't stop me from buying more.

It doesn't seem to matter how many you have, the next kit you pick up usually requires a colour that you don't have...  

PS: Tamiya's acrylics have an amazing shelf life . Some of mine are nearing 30 years old and still going strong.  

I am somewhere between the two of you guys. I have somewhere between 200-250 paints I would roughly guestimate. Some colors are made only by certain makers, and other colors only by other makers. Not to mention enamels and acrylics. In my mind, I need them. I think...

I think you have a problem!!!

I have about 20/25 of Testors 1/4oz. bottles for brush painting, and maybe 30 Model Master bottles for airbrushing, half of which are beyond  their shelf life and need to be weeded out!

2 bottles of acrylics for washes, 1 CA, 1 Testors cement, 1 Testors clear parts cement. I prefer to buy more kits!!!