Mixing and storing paint

[Brucebruce]

Hi folks,

For my deep space nine model I'm thinking of going with a 50/50 mix of tamiya light grey and dark copper. I read somewhere that people use the tamiya thinners and just pour it straight into the bottle, up to the shoulder.

Does anyone see any problems with me doing this with both bottles and then pouring them into a sealable glass jar? That way I have one mix of paint that will hopefully do me for the whole model.

If I keep it sealed the paint will stay ok, right? hehe

[Joseph Osborn]

I wouldn't pre-thin the paint at all. I'd just mix the two equal parts into one container and use that mixed paint for all my subsequent painting, thinning it as needed.

[Kylwell]

I do it a lot. Thin in the bottle that is. Never had much of a problem with it. I would suggest using a spare bottle to mix the 2 colors.

[TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan]

The first problem with thinning an original paint mix for airbrushing, in my opinion, is that if you make a mistake, you'll have to add more paint. Earlier this year, I had put together a Sakura Wars steampunk mecha that had a fabulous pink color. It was a mixture of white, pink, purple, and cobalt blue. I was pretty impressed with it. If I had added too much thinner at first by mistake, I would have to try to add more paint in the same ratios and hope to keep the same color after the thinner was added.

The other problem, as I see it, is that if you don't have the original in an unthinned bottle, it will make touching up with a brush difficult. Your paint will likely not be thick enough to hand brush the mixture.

So, it's best to use two bottles: one for the original mix paint, and another for thinning for an airbrush.

[Kylwell]

I do touch-up with my airbrush. When mixing I use a clean bottle unless it's something like 2 drops of black in bottle of white, then I just a bottle of white. Usually the only time I will over-thin is when I'm scraping the bottom of the bottle and am trying stretch the paint a bit in hopes of getting everything painted before having to run out and get more paint.

I have learned tho' that some colors, like red, can give you some great weathering effects by over thinning. It enables you to build up darker colors while giving other areas a faded look.