Preserving Acrylic Paints

Have you tried storing them upside down?
That slows evaporation a lot.

Mike

S*&T can them. Water based paints spoil.

This is something I learnt the hard way many years ago.
Where I live, anything water based evaporates at a stupid rate.

To slow this down, I place a little bit of Vaseline on the lip of my paint jars.
Not too much, just enough to contact the lid when you screw it down.

I have almost 0 paint loss now

that is an interesting tip tweety. I'll have to try that. I use tamyia acylics most of the time and I was happy when they started making them in the smaller bottle. I have tossed a fair share of paint because of spoilage.

I've found that acrylic paints (I use Tamiya and Citadel) are nowhere near as bad as Humbrol and Revell enamels
from the point of view of evaporation/spoilage, partly due to the design of the containers. With the aforementioned enamels, excess paint builds up around the tin lids and prevents them from sealing properly (scraping them clean with a modelling knife sometimes works, but not always, and is VERY messy!).
Enamel paints also tend to react strangely when they start to evaporate, often all the solvent solidifies into a rubbery top layer, leaving the pigment at the bottom; whilst metallic paints tend go lumpy, gelatinous and "gloopy".

I've lost count of the number of enamel paints I've had to throw away, many not even half-used, because of this.
This is one of the main reasons I'm switching to acrylics now (after painting with enamels for almost 4 years)

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hatewall S*&T can them. Water based paints spoil.

I have several bottles of Createx that are over 10 years old and it hasn't spoiled.

Mike

I use predominantly Gunze acrylics which are stored in a toolbox, in a cupboard, therefore well away from direct sunlight (Like we get that much sun in the UK!) or any other heat source.

This seems to have prevented evaporation becoming issue, even with some of the paints which I mixed up ready for spraying 18 months ago, and only use infrequently.

Karl