Transfering paints in dropper bottles using Glaze medium

[Draumur]

Hey everyone, I have a question about glaze medium and flow improver.

I've been thinking about transfering my citadel paints from the atrocious pots to some dropper bottles, and I've seen many people using flow improver to make it easier. Should I buy that or could I use my glaze medium? I already my paints with pretty much every time, so it would allow me to skip a step while painting, but I am unsure if that's a good idea.

Thanks a lot!

[BLZeebub]

I don't see why it would be an issue.  Almost anything besides water (ed:  even water is fine, but it also thins and can evaporate out pretty quickly sometimes) seems to make an effective flow medium (floor polish, glycerin, actual flow improver, etc).  If you're worried, try it on one bottle, give it a couple weeks to make sure it doesn't act weird, and then do the rest.  I would assume glaze and flow media are nearly the same as far as drying time, especially if you already add the glaze regularly.

 

Edit:  Clarified water statement

Edited May 22, 2021 by BLZeebub

[Maledrakh]

Warning! Warning! Will Robinson!

You really, really need to consider if you want to add anything at all to the paint on a permanent basis, and at the very least experiment to see if whatever substance you add to the paint actually works like intended. The long term effects especially might not be what you want. 

There is a true story somewhere on this forum about a person who added something (floor polish?) to ALL his brand spanking new reaper paints, which resulted in a whole lot of ruined paint and when he complained about "bad paint" Reaper naturally had to dismiss the person with "your own fault for adding stuff to the paint".

I myself experienced "stainless steel" balls that where anything but stainless when I put them in the paint (to act as agitators when shaking). Now I use haematite beads and have not had a problem with rust in the paint after that.

I use water when transferring citadel paints, which works fine. (for me at least)

 I would also offer the advice to keep any additives to the same brand paint that you are working with to avoid cross compatability problems, such as lahmian medium for citadel paints, vallejo for vallejo paints, reaper for reaper paints etc

[Bold]

17 hours ago, Maledrakh said:

You really, really need to consider if you want to add anything at all to the paint on a permanent basis, and at the very least experiment to see if whatever substance you add to the paint actually works like intended. The long term effects especially might not be what you want. 

 

Agreed. Some additives should be used very sparingly, such as surfactants (aka "flow improver") or drying retarder.

 

Confusingly enough, some products are poorly-labeled. For example, most products labeled "flow improver" (e.g. Liquitex Flow-Aid) are just surfactants. But Vallejo's "Flow Improver" is actually a drying retarder. If you add too much to the paint, it'll cause problems.

 

For transferring Citadel paint to dropper bottles, I'd recommend not adding anything at all at first. (Use disposable plastic funnels to make it easier.) I have seen suggestions on WH40k forums to add flow improver when transferring Citadel paints to dropper bottles, but I don't think those people understand what the product is. Surfactants just break the surface tension so that the paint doesn't bead up on the surface of the miniature; I think these well-intentioned hobbyists wrongly believe that "flow improver" will help the paint flow out of the pot, but what's really happening is the flow improver is thinner than paint, and effectively thins the paint. To avoid the problems caused by too much flow improver, it'd be smarter just to use distilled water to thin the paint as need: to get the last bit of paint out of the pot, add a bit of distilled water and swish it around with a clean brush, but accept the idea that you're not going to get every last bit out of the pot. And unless the pots are brand new, watch out for dried chunks of paint, especially near the lid. You can also use fine mesh paint strainers if you're using older pots.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Bold

[crowsandbones]

There are fancy dropper tops from a company called Dr. Tabletop that fit citadel pots, saved me a lot of headache but I can't say anything about whether it's a cheaper option than buying bottles, funnels and mixer beads. Its MUCH more convenient tho. I only had around 15 citadel paints so $25  for a 20 pack of dropper tops was the way to go for me.

[ManvsMini]

3 hours ago, crowsandbones said:

There are fancy dropper tops from a company called Dr. Tabletop that fit citadel pots, saved me a lot of headache but I can't say anything about whether it's a cheaper option than buying bottles, funnels and mixer beads. Its MUCH more convenient tho. I only had around 15 citadel paints so $25  for a 20 pack of dropper tops was the way to go for me.

 

That's an interesting product (I'm assuming it's their DropTop product?). Unfortunately it looks they've seriously increased their prices, a pack of 24 dropper tops now costs $42. It only works out to about $0.50 more a bottle, but still... that's a 40% increase.

[crowsandbones]

15 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

 

That's an interesting product (I'm assuming it's their DropTop product?). Unfortunately it looks they've seriously increased their prices, a pack of 24 dropper tops now costs $42. It only works out to about $0.50 more a bottle, but still... that's a 40% increase.

Dang, that is steep. I purchased from one of my LGS only a couple months ago.