Paints and storage.

[JR]

Fed up with getting paint on the bottle and covering the no after seeing Tim post on Vallejo colours and how they could be stored I set too.

Starting with a list
First was a 4 page list of what I had.

I've always just grouped them as I need, and were standing up as normal. But several of the bottles were worn on the labels, and I would find it hard to identify the No
Taking a look at the page Tim mentioned I lined all my paints up shades and groups, ok before any one says" they are wrong " its ok for me :nerd:




Then wrote out on a length of mat photo paper the no and description.





I don't know about anyone else but I certainly have a lot that are very near to each other, perhaps we fall for the " this is the set you need.
Iv'e stood them back up because some have several bottles as in 4BO :smiling::nerd:
Being retired makes time not important, but would like to see how the rest of you store yours.:smiling3:

John

[SimonT]

Afternoon John - not currently having the luxury of a fixed bench I keep mine in those divided cases designed for keeping screws etc in
One for Vallejo, one for Tamiya, one for the enamel weathering stuff, oil brushers and pencils

[Fernando N]

Neat way of keeping them sorted John, I have mine stored mainly using the Hobbyzone organizers.

On the right and center small size for Vallejo and Hataka, on the left and right down big size for Mr. Hobby, various weathering pots, varnishes, Alclad and on the far left a screw storage thing repurposed to hold Revell and Humbrol tins.

Helps to have a corner in the bench one doesn’t use for working:nerd:.

[Jim R]

Hi John
That looks a worthwhile exercise. Should make it much easier to find a particular paint. Fernando and you certainly have a lot of paints to store. I have far fewer and just store them on shelves in rough colour groups.
Jim
I have forwarded the photos to the Tidy Bench Club for the attention of the Paint Organising Committee. I am sure they will be impressed although membership of the TBC requires far more than neatly stored paints. A step in the right direction though :tongue-out3:
Jim

[Guest]

First time I use a new bottle of paint, I paint the top, cap, lid, or whatever if it doesn’t have the right colour already.

[Tim Marlow]

I also use the hobby zone organisers for my Vallejo paint, storing it in the same order as their paint chart, which is basically in colour clouds.....
Tamiya, humbrol, and odds and sods are stored in “really useful “ boxes in easy reach on a shelf above the painting desk because they are used for spraying, washes, or drybrushing, not brush painting per se, so are taken out as required. Oil and acrylic tubes are kept in their own toolboxes.... and primers and varnishes are kept on a shelf above the painting desk....
I think I have far too much paint :flushed:

[yak face]

First time I use a new bottle of paint, I paint the top, cap, lid, or whatever if it doesn’t have the right colour already.

Me too jakko , i have a paint rack that holds the bottles horizontally so the colour is not easily apparent , putting a blob of the paint on the top of the cap makes it easy to see whats where:thumb2::thumb2:

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Tony, might seem counterintuitive, but if you put them in the rack backwards you should be able to see the colour through the bottom of the container......especially if they are Vallejo or similar paint....

[Guest]

If you have a rack like Tony’s that will work (see one of John’s photos earlier, with the bottles lying down on the shelves), but if you store your paint in drawers like I do, it’s mainly the top of the pot or bottle that’s visible

[Tim Marlow]

You could always put them in the drawers upside down :nerd: Not so daft as it sounds for Vallejo paint. They separate readily so storing them that way you can use the undiluted pigment first and then dilute it to taste with acrylic medium......the hard part will be getting the pots to stay upside down :tongue-out3:

[Guest]

You could always put them in the drawers upside down :nerd:

That thought did cross my mind when I read your previous post in this thread

Not so daft as it sounds for Vallejo paint. They separate readily so storing them that way you can use the undiluted pigment first and then dilute it to taste with acrylic medium......the hard part will be getting the pots to stay upside down :tongue-out3:

If you have enough they’ll keep each other upright However, I don’t think I want to use this method with the glass and plastic jars that most of my paints are in. I have a feeling the odd one might leak, especially older ones that would otherwise just dry out eventually. Not to mention that opening one will probably mean a lot of paint on the inside of the lid is going to come out and run everywhere.

[yak face]

Hi Tony, might seem counterintuitive, but if you put them in the rack backwards you should be able to see the colour through the bottom of the container......especially if they are Vallejo or similar paint....

I see the logic tim , but i dont think they would sit properly in the rack , the lid would slip off the back edge and it would all go a bit ‘ Kerplunk!’ with bottles all falling inside the rack ! The other thing is that often the colour seen through the bottom of the bottle is different to the paint when dry , having an actual bit of paint on the lid gives me a perfect colour swatch to reference , cheers tony

[BarryW]

My approach does not need you to see or read the colour.

I record the paint onto a spreadsheet that I keep updated. The paints are grouped, not by colour but by purpose.

The current groupings are

RAF/FAA
USAAF/USN/USMC
Luftwaffe
IJN/IJA
USSR
Basic colours
Metalisers

the columns are

Colour name
MRP number (If MRP)
MRP-F (for water based, brush detail painting)
Vallejo or AKI number (only applies to IJN/IJA)
FS number (where FS)
BS
ANA
RLM (incorporates now in paint name due to MRP labelling)
Notes: ie US modern cockpit or pre-1941 to give some pointers to use.

By having the FS/BS/RLM numbers in different columns you can (double up) for identical colours. This helps sorting. The doubling up is mostly between FS and BS. Of course you can include other columns for RAL numbers for instance.

The spreadsheet is easily sortable and I keep a printed copy by the workbench

I then store the paint in my Hobbyzone racks in MRP number order so they are easily found by cross referencing to the spreadsheet. The Vallejo are in a wall rack which also has some spill over of MRP along with washes and pigments.

if a label is obscured by spilled paint I will write the MRP number in somewhere on the label.

once you have the spreadsheet done it is quick and easy to update and it makes a good reference point.

You can select the right colour from third party references for the subject you are building (by RLM, BS, FS etc.) This means that to a large extent you are independent from colours identified in instructions.

[BarryW]

Her are some pictures of what I do.
The spreadsheet is over three pages.




Here are my paint racks. Some from
The wall rack are out for use.

[BarryW]

Deleted. partial copy of above.