Well, I can’t see any difference if you normally close the bottle lid tightly - the only thing I can think of is preventing/reducing the amount of air getting in the bottle, and even that I am skeptical of - otherwise, what difference does it make which end of the bottle the pigment settles out into (except it may be messier getting the lid off).
Speaking of settling out, I often find that shaking the bottles of separated out paint usually does nothing, so I have to hand stir, dragging the settled up pigments from the bottom of the bottle (big blobs of goop at the end of the stirring rod) and stirring round and round till these blobs dissolve again - not difficult of course, but time consuming - eventually you get back to a nice homogeneous paint mixture.
This is like checking your watch with a cup of coffee in your hand; you can store your paint upside down but, unfortunately, you will never be able to remove the lids because the paint will run out.
On the subject of DYI; I had an acquaintance who made his own paint stirrer from a Floquil bottle cap and a length of brass tubing - he cut a notch in the end of the tubing and then soldered on a couple of brass veins then hooked up the other end to an offset chuck mounted in a drill. The bottle itself was held firmly in a wooden jig to keep it from torquing. I just happened to be in his workshop when he was preparing paints for a painting project. This gismo seemed to work okay!
I have been buying acrylic artists paints at arts and crafts stores for the past few years. They are of high-quality, come in a HUGE variety of colors, can be mixed to obtain any color you can imagine, and are MUCH cheaper than Poly Scale or most dedicated hobby paints.
Polyscale has drastically risen their prices over the past two years. HOWEVER, the pigments in polyscale are ground MUCH finer than standard acryllic paints. Also the binder is designed to dry quickly, and attach to a variety of materials (metals and plastic) and stay there when handled! (Except for flex pieces, then I find Polyscale to flake off.)
Craft store acryllics are a mixed bag. You may find some that are great. You may find some that are worthless, because they are inconsist, glop up fine details, run, and flake.
My advice is get some of each. Try a small patch on a similar piece of model material, and see which you like.
On the topic of putting paint jars upside down:
Paint jar lids leak a tiny amount of air. (Especially with little piece of paint building up on the surface, making it uneven) This air drys out paint prematurely. By placing the paint upside down, the paint exposed to the minor cracks in the lid will form a thin dried paint skim that seals the bottle perfectly every time. Thereby keeping fresh air out.
Also putting some thin saran wrap (plastic wrap) on the jar lid will accomplish a similar effect.
If they don’t stay that way forever, it can make the paint easier to shake back into usable shape but usually I only succeed in permanently attaching the caps to the bottles. Storing upside down did work with the old Testors enamels. Also using stainless or chromed ball bearings does work well (and no rust) for shaking paints. J.R.
I’ll just chime in. I own the micro mark paint shaker and it does wear out after a while. The internal parts aren’t made for much extended use and the motor and/or the linkage will wear out. I don’t paint all that much either.
Most of us would turn the container right-side-up before attempting to open it. Many of the rest would do so after learning the hard way. Of course, there will always be a small group of non-conformists bound and determined to resist logic and open the container while its upside-down. [;)]
You just fell upon one of the reasons it is a good idea to store paint upside-down. Instead of dragging the pigments up from the bottom, you would be stirring them down. This helps to ensure that you get all of the “blobs” mixed in rather than leaving some stuck to the bottom of the container (which would affect the colour).
In spite of all the usual misinformation above, be advised that violently shaking bottled model paints before use is ill-advised. If any paint may have dried/partially dried/skinned over on the underside of the cap or near the bottle’s threading, shaking can cause particles from it to break free and fall back into the liquid paint to clog an airbrush unless the paint is strained before use.
Likewise, storing paint bottles in the inverted position is preferred as it tends to avoid the drying problem altogether. So, paints should be stirred, not shaken, before use. MircoMark and others sell a very nice little battery powered stirring device (cited above) for just this purpose.
Yes store your paint upside down. And I also have a paint shaker from Micromark.
I used it 1 time. If your paint is sitting for more then a few weeks then that paint shaker can shake it till it’s blown up a sub station and your paint will still be unshaken. I bought the Cordless Mixer. This thing will stir any paint, even if it settles on the bottom. It works great.
I have one of Micromarks littlepaint shakers and the noise it makes running drives me nuts.It is kind of like one of those Wagner power painters it buzzes all the time you are using it.The little battery operated paint stirrer is much faster and quieter. The BEST thing I have found is the vibrating shell cleaner from my reloading days. It may cost a little more but you can put ten or twelve bottles in it with medium and let it shake all night. I have walnut shells in mine right now. Just remember to put some clear packing tape over the labels , it will remove the lettering on them!
I just picked up a little battery operated one from Ikea yetserday for $3.99. Unfortunately the head is too large for the small bottles. It doe fit the 2 oz. bottles. I will try to cut the head off and fashion a small propeller from some scrap styrene. If that doesn’t work …oh well. It didn’t cost much.
You know, I keep thinking someday I’ll read a news story about a 14 year old boy coming into the Emergency Room after an “incident” involving one of these things and some girlie magazines.
Like I said back on page one, a stirrer is easy to make.
A tube through a lid , another smaller tube through it and propeller soldered to the end. Attach to dremel on low speed and stir away. I have used this one for 10 years.
