How many paints do you have?

There's no such thing as too many paints.

What I hate is when you need an oddball colour for a barely significant part. You buy the paint and then never need it again for anything else.

Not as many,but hundreds for sure,if you model for many years they just build up.

I've been building up my collection lately, and I'm around ninety or so.

670 bottles as of tomorrow, comprising 360 colors,,,,,,,all Acrylics except for 15 WEM ship colors

(an order of 9 bottles is arriving Monday)

Rex

I use Testors enamels, and they have a limited shelf life. I need to have two storage drawers- one for unopened bottles and another for the opened ones. Or, I need to develop the discipline to discard a bottle of paint once I have used it, even if a lot is left :-(

I have never counted. But suffice to say there are a few hundred there. Enamels and Acrylics- why limit yourself? Much of the Humbrol, Model Master, and Polly Scale lines. Quite a few Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous, plus a few odds and ends such as Testors square bottles, Pactra, Floquil, Badger, Cote de Arms (sp?), Valejo, Color of Eagles, Aeromaster, Andrea, Promodeler...

That story that "Acrylics dry out" is just that, a story

It is all in how you take care of your paints,,,,,,any paints

I use the same method for Acrylics as I used to for my Enamels, there are two things here as far as "discarding paints stories",,,,,,,I have only ever thrown out about a dozen bottles of paint, of all types,,,,,in 48 years of modeling,,,,,,,and I just recently bought over 220 bottles of Aeromaster Acrylic paints, in three batches,,,,they have been OOP and in a storage shed for over a dozen years, and the only one that was no good when I opened the box was a broken bottle, and even that one was still liquid enough to run onto a couple of other paint labels in the carton

just update your caps and seals,,,,,keep Oxygen out of your bottles, and lube your bottle threads so that you never have to use tools to open the bottles, if you ever notice some paint on the threads of a few bottles, take the time to clean the ones that need it,,,,,,,in other words treat paints the same as hand tools instead of disposable supplies, and you will dispose of them less

Rex

edited to PS: I had no choice in whether I bought and prepared that many bottles of paint,,,,,,all but about 100 of them are OOP, and they will be the same actual age 3 years from now as they would be if they were on my own shelves,,,,,,,,,,,,,so I bought them so I could store them correctly, instead of finding out they were impossible to get when I need another bottle

Yup. I have some Polly S Acrylic paints in my paint box that are over 30 years old and still perfectly fine. I have more issues with Model Master Enamels than I do with most of my acrylics as far drying out/going bad.

31.     About ten are custom mixes I made from nearly empty colors for a few projects. The rest are basic colors such as Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Black, White. I have two or three grays and four or five different greens. I mix colors on demand and eyeball it rather than buy a specific FS or RLM color. I use medical dosage cups to mix small amounts and then when you add in the thinner the quantity is just about right for any spray job I need. My budget won't support much more right now.

Chris

Usually it's one less than I need at that moment...

180+ Bottles. At least 2/3's being Tamiya and Gunze acrylics the rest a mix of mainly of humbrol, revel and testors with a bunch of other thrown in.

 I have had some of the humbrol tins over 25 years. Usually the only bottle/cans I have to ditch is because "I" haven't resealed it properly.  

...Around 250 or so. That doesn't include my artists oils and old rattlecan stash.

I don't see how you can keep oxygen out of bottles.  When they are down to about half full, any time they are opened new air gets in them. I don't care how well I seal the lid, the enamels do cure with time.  Acrylics may be different- I don't use many- but enamels do have a limited lifetime once opened.

you exhale into the bottle just before you close it,,,,,,or give a squirt of Nitrogen from a can

human exhale is a large percentage of Nitrogen with Carbon Dioxide as the second gas,,,,,Air is the same percentage of Nitrogen with "bondable" Oxygen as the second gas (second by volume in both cases)

If you haven't been exhaling/squirting,,,then you have had free air entering and sealed into your paint bottles since you opened them the first time,,,,,and air is what causes the paint to dry inside the bottles

when I switched to Acrylics three years ago,,,,,,I gave away over a hundred Model Master Enamels (all still good at inspection), some of which I bought in a Wisconsin hobby shop before it shut down when I lived up there,,,,,,,I moved to Tenn from Wis in 1992

as with cleaning brushes and tools,,,,,,,I have found the "my stuff doesn't last as long as his" posts to match up with "I don't do any of that fancy stuff" posts,,,,most of the time caused simply by not knowing that there are things that you can do,,,,,,and believing that they can actually work if tried

another is the "shaking kills paint" posts,,,,,,yup, it will, if you open the jar, leave it open as you paint, close the lid nice and tight, and then shake it just before you open it up for the next use,,,,,,you will have perfectly aerated paint that you see has dried out after you pry the cap off with Channel Locks

but, if you get a proper cap, clean and wax the threads on the jar, exhale into the jar before putting the lid on, and use a non-reactive and non breakable bead,,,,,,you can shake that bottle every time just before you open it,,,,,,,you shake today's bottles, let them settle out the bubbles (which aren't air anymore), and then stir each slowly with a stir stick before decanting into a palette or airbrush cup, exhaling and covering the bottle immediately (proper caps seal along the *inside* of the jar edge, not the outside as they are sold to us)

About three dozen or so bottles, mostly Model Master enamels.

Close to 400 bottles, over the years there have been a couple of hobby stores in the area that closed and I got some paint for 10 cents on the dollar.

Mostly Model Master, Tamiya, PollyScale, Humbrol, and Vallejo.  

over the years I've had some paint dry out in the bottles, but not a lot.  

a few of the Model Master paints were bought  back in 1994 and are still good, many of the Model master and Most of the Humbrol and  many of the Tamiya are 8 to 10 year old.  

but there is always that one more color you need when you start a new project.. lol

Tarn,

Help me understand 'proper cap'.  I have been using wax paper as a clean seal on top of my bottles upon reclosure for many years. That way when you shake, paint doesn't coat the top of the bottle which is another reason the bottle won't open later.

I haven't done the breathe into the bottle trick. Starting that next.

I tried using both clear plastic wrap and aluminum foil both in the past (tips I was given by other modelers)

I would sometimes find a disc had been cut off and fallen into the paint (the jar lip acted as a sheetmetal punch or broach)

I looked at the jar lips,,,,,,,and they are tapered, sealing around the outer lip, meaning that if your seal up in the cap leaks even the slightest, the paint can get to the threads

There are two kinds of proper caps for the glass bottles out there,,,,,one is a tapered lip like LifeColor's cap has, it jams down and seals around the INside of the paint bottle,,,,,,,,the other is a Polycone Liner,,,,,,,it is a cone that shoves down into the jar, again sealing around the INside of the jar

the paint doesn't get out to the outer lip or onto the threads with these caps

www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/StoreCategory.aspx

search Google for 28/400 Polycone Liner for Model Master, PollyScale, etc sized bottles

another thing people worry about is putting an agitator in the paint that either might break or might rust,,,so, I use Hematite beads from Hobby Lobby,,,,,,,they are "already rusted" so to speak

Rex

Paints that are still liquid and can still be used, or paints that have petrified in bottles that can't be opened but by heavy construction machinery?

I've got roughly 30 rattle cans and maybe 200 jars of paint.

Have been building and painting for 67 of my 73 years and would not even consider trying to count all the bottles and cans of paint that I have. Some of them are in little square bottles with "15 cents" on top and are still  perfectly good. I also bought full racks from stores going out of business years ago. I just purchased 30 bottles of Vallejo Model Air for 3 projects I'm working on. I believe that I could count the number of dried up paints I've thrown out over the last 67 years on my fingers. The only other ones I threw out were empty. 

Jim 

More than I will ever use.

mississippivol

Usually it's one less than I need at that moment...

I have probalby 30-40 enamels that have been in my hobby box for about 10 years...probably gone bad. Paints that I use, acrylics, less than twenty at the time, but I desperatly need to beef up my selection

I have fifty bottles, most are colors I used only once, a small number are ones I use up and replace frequently. Some are unopened that are OOP. I still have some oil paints.

Seeing how many paints everybody else has I don't feel so bad about my collection building up.  I have probably less than 100.  A mix of Tamiya, MM Enamel/Acryl, Vallejo Model Color, Vallejo Model Air, Humbrol & Mr. Color.

I'm trying to standarize my paints to keep down clutter and waste but it buying paints gets as addictive as buying kits.