Expired paint?

[shatteredsoul76]

Can someone tell me as a general rule of thumb how long will paint be ok before its no good and cant be used? It seems like the way its stored as well as the caps being on tight would have a lot to do with it but even if its stored in ideal situations could it still go bad? Also Im pretty sure they are most if not all enamels if that factors in as well.

The reason why I ask is I have a chance to buy a good amount of used paints for a decent price but I dont want waste my money if they expire say after 5 years for example. Thanks for any and all advice, by the way this forum is by far the best when it comes to models but it makes my eyes hurt from all the reading!

[62rebel]

i don't know about your experiences, but for me, Testors enamels in bottles is like burning 5 dollar bills. don't get me wrong; i like Testors and have used it since the mid 70's, but if i had a quarter for every bottle that dried up on me? yeesh. i remember when a bottle was 15 cents, too. i've had my model stuff packed away for months, and took the paint out last week to satisfy a jonesing for modeling, only to find several more bottles dried up. grrrrr. it seems that, once that bottle is opened, you have a limited amount of time to use it. even if you DON'T open them, they dry out on you sometimes.

it's part of the budget for modeling that just disappears, like sheet styrene and sandpaper.

[shatteredsoul76]

Thanks for your help Rebel, I still may pick these up if I can get them cheap enough.

[LoneWolf15]

Aside from drying out , enamels will begin to crystalize in the bottle and form a type of sand that is going to end up in your finish and can't be sanded out . I always advise that when purchasing paint , go to a hobby shop that sells alot of it . Quicker turnaround almost always guarantees fresh paint , thus avoiding the aforementioned conditions !

Donn Yost

[Jairus]

Not all paint is made from the same materials!

Different colors require different materials to appear: red, blue, yellow, black and white. Each color changes and ages according to the materials used. All paint will age better in a sealed unit as long as leakages do not occur, and can last for many years if the seal remains intact.

[charlie8575]

One trick I learned to keep paint from drying out is to store the paint jars upside down. This helps seal the air out. Also, make sure that little cardboard insert remains in the bottle, that's instrumental in keeping the pain solvent.

And yes, keeping the lids on tight is an absolute necessity.

[Mike Kucaba]

I think and my experience confirms that enamels (solvent based) have a shorter shelf life than lacquers.I bought some automotive lacquers from ebay several years ago and they were from before the implement of zipcodes on addresses!! These were thinned with a modern lacquer thinner and I airbrushed several models and they turned out fine.

[59 Impala]

I don't know how long it's been since Testors quit making the PLA enamel paints, but I had a bottle of the green that was opened years ago. I kept the lid on tight and when I opened it, it was still good and I used that paint to paint the 53 Ford with the Packard tail lights on it with no problem. The price of that bottle was 10 cents, so that gives ya a clue of how old that bottle was. Dan

[CAL]

Yup, it really depends on the paint. I have some little testors bottles that are 20 years old that are still good if you mix them up with a little power mixer. However, some paints, particularly whites and off-whites yellow or don't ever dry.

I have had some paints that were never opened and had gone bad in a couple years.

[shatteredsoul76]

Thanks for all the input once again guys you have helped me out lots. The guy said that he checked every bottle to make sure that they mixed well and threw out what was obviously bad, so Im gonna go ahead and try to pick them up.

[cruz]

I would buy them but would use them exclusively on parts and small details, I wouldn't use them for bodies or large surfaces.

[samdiego]

Until you have to hammer in the stir stick and then you might still be able to reconstitute the stuff. Maybe not for the airbrush though. I had a very old spraycan of Testor's Sea Blue, could have been 15 years old, maybe older, and had never been opened. I shot a '58 Impala (it's in the gallery) and it behaved just like the Old School Testor's is supposed to.

Edited January 27, 2011 by samdiego

[2000-cvpi]

I have never had any problems with older paint. Currently I have several cans of old spray paint from Testors, lots of the small jars of paint going as far back as ten cents a jar. All are just fine. Maybe I am just lucky.

[Darin Bastedo]

some of the paint I'm using is over 15-20 years old and it is still fine.