Why the current GW paint pots are their best ever

[Tsuro]

I wasn't sure about the best place to post this, as I don't have permission to submit articles to the librarium (making the idiot's guide something of a tease) and there's no tutorial aspect to justify inclusion there, so here it is in general, even if it's only peripherally related to Space Marines...

I believe the paint pots currently being sold by Games Workshop are their best ever, but to understand why the current pots are so good we must first look at what came before them.

A History of Games Workshop Paint Pots

This is the first pot design. It has a round base and a soft plastic cap that fits all the way around the rim.

This cap forms an excellent seal and prevents the paint from setting in the pot; the paint in those pots is still good and it must be about twenty years old. Notice how the ink has a different coloured cap.

[/clearfloat]

This is the next pot design, and aside from changing to a hexagonal base it is exactly the same as the previous pot, with the same air-tight lid. The coloured caps remain, with washes and glazes replacing inks.

These pots appear to be the same size as the earlier ones, but now you get 17.5ml of paint per pot as opposed to the previous 20ml (there was 10ml in the ink pot though). This is a fairly common response to economic pressure; apparently consumers prefer to pay the same and get less than pay more for the same amount.

Games Workshop thought there were better deals to be had though, and switched their supplier to one in France. At this point it is worth mentioning that Coat D'arms, the first supplier to Citadel Colour, still exists and still sell the exact same shades that Games workshop used to. You get more paint in their pots as well, and they are cheaper

This is the hateful third pot. I'm afraid I couldn't find any decent pictures online, and I don't have any to photograph myself.

This isn't to say that I never owned any, I actually had a great many. However I then went to university etc. etc.. and didn't paint for a few years. When I next opened my paint box, every. single. one. had dried out. This is because this new pot had a hard plastic screw-down cap and it formed a rubbish seal; there are stories of paint being sold dried up and of inks leaking out if not stored upright. To add insult to injury each pot now contained only 12ml of paint, and if any got on the runners you needed God's own strength to twist the cap off again.

Following that, the next pot could only be an improvement. And it was. Although it was still made of hard plastic, and still contained less paint, it returned to a flip-top cap that is far easier to open.

It also creates a better seal. Not as good as the old soft cap pots, but better; I've been looking at my pots and they all need rehydrating to a greater or lesser extent, except for the ones that have dried up completely - if you're careless enough to allow much paint to gather around the rim (and it doesn't take a lot) you can kiss the rest of the pot goodbye. Notice how all the pots had the same coloured lid, which I've decided I don't like.

Here we are with the current style. It has only just occured to me that I have not got any of the new metallic pots; if I had thought of it sooner I would have gone and bought one special. This pot marks the triumphant return of coloured caps and more importantly of forming a seal around the lip of the pot with soft plastic.

Granted these are still new, but I haven't had to reydrate any yet.

Hang on, you might be thinking, doesn't that just mean that the new pots (albeit smaller) are only as good as the old pots?

No, you see as good as the first pots were, they weren't perfect. They had a number of issues and it seems someone actually gave some thought to solving them. Given the direction of Games Workshop pots down the years, this is astonishing to me.

Problems with the old pots and solutions from the new

The Hinge.

After repeated use the hinge may begin to tear on one side. After this happens it is only a matter of time before the cap parts company from the pot entirely.

This happens because the hinge is flush against the side of the pot. The curved side of the pot, and hinges only really work in straight lines. This means that when the pot is opened the outer edges of the hinge have to move further than the centre does, which means they are stretched, eventually causing them to fatigue and fail. This is exacerbated because, not being robots, we don't open pots perfectly straight - instead introducing a slight twisting motion to the cap which, you guessed it, puts more stress on the hinge.

Take a look at the new hinge on the right. It is projected away from the pot so it can open nice and straight, and the middle section of the hinge has been removed (replaced with a handy locking mechanism) so that the cap has more freedom to twist at less stress.

The Lid.

Not a lot of explanation needed for this one. The protruding section of the lid is subject to the entire stress of opening the pot, and eventually it snaps off. Unlike the hinge (where it still works until the tear works it's way around) there is rarely any sign that this is about to snap off until it does. I was "lucky" enough to have this happen a few days ago, otherwise there wouldn't be a picture.

Now take a look at the new pot on the right. There is no knob sticking out on this one, it is all worked into the lid; there is absolutely no chance of it snapping off! You can also see in the profile shot that the new pot isn't a cylinder - it narrows towards the top. Not only does this give us more space to get our thumb under the lid, but the wider base makes the pot more stable.

The Lip.

You may have noticed by now that I consider allowing paint to dry out in-pot the greatest sin a pot can commit, and for all my praise of the soft cap it is not immune to this. If paint gathered on the rim, it would be pushed up into the lid when the pot was closed. Eventually this paint would get so thick that the lid wouldn't close properly, ruining the seal.

It's amazing just how much paint can get up there, I really wish I'd kept some of the massive paint rings I'd removed over the years.

Now, this could have been caused by my using the rim to wipe the excess paint off the brush in the days before I watered my paints and used a pallet, but most of it ran down as intended. No, I rather think the pot itself was to blame. Take a look at the picture on the left, you'll see that there is a blob of paint trapped under the nozzle. Every time the pot is opened a not insignificant amount of paint is worked there and pushed into the rim when the lid is closed.

The new pot on the other hand, whether by design or a consequence of the improved hinge, has the spout well off the rim. No paint getting trapped here.

[clearfloat]

Further improvements and why you should care

In addition to these solutions there are further improvements in the new design:

• Locking mechanism in the lid
  
• More stable pot (this is more a consequence of giving less paint than intelligent pot design, but I can't deny that I lost more paint to knocked pots when I was young then I ever used on models)
  
• The standard colour range has transparent lids - no more painting crosses on the top to see what is inside.
  

All well and good, but why should you care? Simple - Games Workshop has adopted a manifestly inferior pot in the past, there really is no reason to believe that they could not do so again. If for no other reason than forcing your customers to rebuy all their paints (as I had to) is a fairly easy way to make money, assuming you're confident your customers won't go elsewhere. And that's the rationale behind the hobby stores, is it not?

I'm not saying we should all rush out and buy empty pots, instead that when they eventually run out do not throw them away. A quick bath in detol/simple green and they will be good to go again, and you will be ready for whatever happens next. (personally, I want to find out if the new caps fit on Coat D'arms pots)

Tsuro

[Commander Sasha]

Great article, always nice to see someone thinking about all aspects of the hobby.

 

I have started buying Gamecolor paints, as I like to be able to add a droplet of paint to a mix on a palette, but I agree that the latest pots of GW are a great improvement. Hopefully someone in the buying dept of GW will see your article, and recognise the positive feedback!

[Lorenzen]

theyve already swapped to an inferior pot..

 

the current gw paint pots no longer have the "locking" piece on the lids, so they dont stay open in a remotley usefull manner.

im pretty sure they arent fully airtight either anymore so your paint will dry out quicker than it used to.

 

the 1st point is the most important though.. tbh they should swap to dropper bottles vallejo style.

[Cyrox]

Brilliant thread, well written and brings back some good memories

 

I still have some of those original pots, albeit empty. I use them for mixing now. The lip used to hurt your fingers after a while

 

+1

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

theyve already swapped to an inferior pot..

 

the current gw paint pots no longer have the "locking" piece on the lids, so they dont stay open in a remotley usefull manner.

im pretty sure they arent fully airtight either anymore so your paint will dry out quicker than it used to.

 

the 1st point is the most important though.. tbh they should swap to dropper bottles vallejo style.

 

I prefer the last ones. They have a better thing in the middle of the lid, the lids actually stay up, they close nicely, and they're shaped better for brush dipping.

[Something Wycked]

I just dug out some Foundation paints that are quite old- they're from the very first batches (probably bought within a month of release) and they have fully dried out, every one of them. Not saying you are wrong, just that you probably use paint at a much higher clip than I do ;)

[Marshal Wilhelm]

These paint pots allow the paint to dry out.

If these are the best ever, then the others don't look very good....

 

You need to try paint and pots from a different manufacturer ;)

 

I get 18mL of P3 paint to 12mL of GW paint. Etc.

[Olis]

Very nice article, I was ready to be cynical but you've made me consider the newer pots with a slightly better outlook. I still think a softer cap to the current pots may be a good idea, mind you. :)

 

If you could do an article on the various competing paint ranges, that'd be a godsend.

[Vodunius]

Personally I'm skeptical about the whole sealing issue, yes the inks could leak, but so can Windsor & Newtons. I don't believe the paint could dry out that fast with the minuscule amount of air coming through the screw (especially since the common problem of paint on the screw would have worked like plumbers mait), as far as I'm concerned they must have deliberately designed the paint to dry out quickly to drive up paint sales then when they managed to sink their monopoly they decided to change the formula and changed the pots as a PR move rather than admit they'd been shafting their customers.

[Brother Valerius]

I really hate the current GW pots. Not only are they harder to open (seriously, to open some of my Foundation paints I have to pry so hard it starts to hurt), they don't stay open nicely like the last pots do. I would sacrifice several firstborn children to convince GW to return to that style.

[thade]

+1

 

Thanks for talking me into it. I will definitely be storing these paint pots now, just incase the next iteration is rubbish, as you say. <3

[darth_giles]

While they still have their detractors, I'm sure we all agree the screwtop paint pots were totally horrible and needed to go away.

[Olis]

While they still have their detractors, I'm sure we all agree the screwtop paint pots were totally horrible and needed to go away.

 

Yes. Horrible. May they never return. :ph34r:

[Coopervisor]

I can remember those old hexagonal pots fondly. The only issue I have with the new pots, is the lack of thing to hold the lid open and back.

[Morollan]

I'll refer to the various pots as Mk1, Mk2 etc, in the order of the pictures in the OP (and adding a Mk6 for the very latest pots).

 

I still have several Mk1 and many Mk2 pots, all of which are still usable.

 

Mk3, on the other hand, all disappeared many years ago, despite being many years younger than the Mk1 and 2 pots.

 

Mk4 still sees service and probably accounts for the majority of my paints. Add a couple of drops of water when you finish using them and keep the rim clean and they'll go on for a long time.

 

Recent purchases were okay with the Mk5 pot but the new Mk6 doesn't stay open and is really annoying, to the extent that I poured my new Blazing Orange from a Mk6 to my old Mk4 pot last weekend.

[Jacinda]

These paint pots allow the paint to dry out.

If these are the best ever, then the others don't look very good....

With the new pots, it is easy to get a half-closed lid if you are not paying attention. After pushing the lid down, look at both sides to be sure the lip is all the way down. I have caught myself quite a few times only having one side snapped down and the other cocked up a bit.

[Seahawk]

I loved all the hard-plastic tops, the screws (Mk3) and the flips (Mk4). I think both are vastly superior to the Mk5 and Mk6, as they never dry out on me, whereas some of my new foundation paint is already dying out. The 3-4 will continue to serve me long into the next versions with a far better performance track than anything newer.

 

I particularly hate how the Mk6 pots will not stay open. There's no locking mechanism so they just close on me and make a mess. Oh well.

[Morollan]

I loved all the hard-plastic tops, the screws (Mk3) and the flips (Mk4). I think both are vastly superior to the Mk5 and Mk6, as they never dry out on me

 

I'm surprised you like the Mk3's. As mentioned above I don't have a single one that is still usable now but many older types that are. Every single one of the Mk3's has dried out.

[Zincite]

Interesting, I was just considering this the other day. However, while I prefer the new ones, the old ones were better in one way.

 

They actually stayed open.

 

Consider, the current pot should have a 'folded' piece of plastic that extends up when you open the pot, holding the lid up (Rubbish description, but heyho). In the ten or so newer pots I have, only one had this piece of small plastic attached. This means that the lid leans over, making it difficult to get the paint off the lip.

 

Also, the lack of a ridge around the edge means that paint spills over onto the side of the pot often when you wipe your brush off. However, that's made up for by the fact that you can tip these new pots over and the paint won't start spilling out for a few seconds meaning that you can save your carpet. Yes, I have a lot of carpet stains from those last pots.

 

As a last point, the newer pots just don't really have the feel of the older ones. The new ones could just be any old paint pot picked up from Hobbycraft, the older ones looked special.

 

Okay, so the older ones were better in a few ways. Sue me.

 

EDIT: By the way, that was a really great guide and I enjoyed the read. Make more and I'll willingly slather you with more praise.

[Seahawk]

I'm surprised you like the Mk3's. As mentioned above I don't have a single one that is still usable now but many older types that are. Every single one of the Mk3's has dried out.

When I started hobbying, it was with other models and paints, so the screw top is what I'm used to, not all this new-fangled but poorly made stuff.

 

All the problems mentioned in the OP never happened with me. It always sealed fine, I never had leaks, and when I did get paint on the runners it was pretty easy to open still. Plastic-paint-plastic is a very weak bond; try metal-paint-glass. THAT needs clamps and strength to get off. Not that I complained about that either, since I figured it was just part of the hobby experience.

 

It is inferior to the Mk4 pots yes, except where larger brushes are concerned.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

These paint pots allow the paint to dry out.

If these are the best ever, then the others don't look very good....

With the new pots, it is easy to get a half-closed lid if you are not paying attention. After pushing the lid down, look at both sides to be sure the lip is all the way down. I have caught myself quite a few times only having one side snapped down and the other cocked up a bit.

 

I have experienced this too.

 

I loved all the hard-plastic tops, the screws (Mk3) and the flips (Mk4). I think both are vastly superior to the Mk5 and Mk6, as they never dry out on me, whereas some of my new foundation paint is already dying out. The 3-4 will continue to serve me long into the next versions with a far better performance track than anything newer.

 

I particularly hate how the Mk6 pots will not stay open. There's no locking mechanism so they just close on me and make a mess. Oh well.

 

I will reveal to you some cunningness from my older brother.

 

He has made a little block, from hi-density foam. Imagine an L-shape, in 3-D. Now the bottom of the L-shape has its base cut, sloping up & towards the upright part of the L.

 

The paint pot then sits on top of the previously horizontal part of the L. When paint drips from that inside lip of the lid, it falls into the pot, instead of onto the rim.

 

Hopefully I have explained it well enough :D

 

To summarise, open a pot of paint. Tilt it away from the lid side. Now whatever paint drips from the lid falls neatly into the pot and nowhere else.

The L-shaped foam is to give it that tipping effect away from the lid side, and then provide something to stop the pot from falling forwards.

 

+++

 

With the foam-L, it doesn't matter how annoying the hinge mechanism is, even when the lid closes, all the paint will neatly go back into the pot.

 

Voila!

[Tsuro]

Okay, there's rather more discussion than I anticipated (which is sadly indicative of a wider lack of imagination on my part) so hopefully no one will take it as a slight if I don't address their comment directly.

 

theyve already swapped to an inferior pot..

 

the current gw paint pots no longer have the "locking" piece on the lids, so they dont stay open in a remotley usefull manner.

im pretty sure they arent fully airtight either anymore so your paint will dry out quicker than it used to.

 

the 1st point is the most important though.. tbh they should swap to dropper bottles vallejo style.

 

Damnit, you're right. What's worse is that my pot of Space Wolves Grey is missing the locking piece too - Not only did I fail to notice this when taking the photos, but since I bought it when they were switching the pots over it means that the Colour line has never had this feature. I'm tempted to throw my hands in the air and scream "why GW why?" but in that small, cynical part of our hearts I think we know why. It must have been cost.

 

I just dug out some Foundation paints that are quite old- they're from the very first batches (probably bought within a month of release) and they have fully dried out, every one of them. Not saying you are wrong, just that you probably use paint at a much higher clip than I do :P

 

I'd be astonished if my paint use was that much higher than yours - I've done exactly two models in the past twelve months, and not many more before then (I really need to speed up my sculpting, but that's another thread entirely) which is why paint drying out is a big deal to me. Not that this in any way invalidates your experience (and from reading down thread you're not alone in this.) but it does make me wonder if there's an issue that only occurs with use (similar to the mk.I pots.), because the worst thing that's happened to my foundation paints is they've separated; which is no hardship at all.

 

While I'm thinking about this, we know the foundation paints have a higher concentration of pigment, does it follow that they have a lower concentration of water, or are otherwise more susceptible to drying out?

 

 

These paint pots allow the paint to dry out.

If these are the best ever, then the others don't look very good....

 

You need to try paint and pots from a different manufacturer ;)

 

I get 18mL of P3 paint to 12mL of GW paint. Etc.

 

I was careful to say that I believed these were GW's best pots, (and certainly their best designed) not that they were a universal gold standard. In truth I have no aversion to other manufacturers - I've bought a load of paint from Coat D'arms in my search for the perfect grey for my Space Wolves, but I think a lot of us prefer to stick with GW either because it's a known quantity or simply because it's more convenient to wander down and buy a pot when needed over ordering online and waiting for delivery.

 

Still, I think I saw some paints in an independent boardgame store last time I was there, so I'll probably give those a go this time - I found a depressing number of 'new' dried pots in preparing this piece.

 

Very nice article, I was ready to be cynical but you've made me consider the newer pots with a slightly better outlook. I still think a softer cap to the current pots may be a good idea, mind you. :P

 

If you could do an article on the various competing paint ranges, that'd be a godsend. :)

 

You may well be right on the cap front.

I'd love to do more articles, but in this instance I've very nearly talked about all the miniature paint I've ever used. Going and buying new paint isn't an issue, but finding out how long it remains fresh would be, and given my low rate of painting (the need to 'field test' the pots is now obvious) any further guide on my part would be impracticable to produce.

 

Personally I'm skeptical about the whole sealing issue, yes the inks could leak, but so can Windsor & Newtons. I don't believe the paint could dry out that fast with the minuscule amount of air coming through the screw (especially since the common problem of paint on the screw would have worked like plumbers mait), as far as I'm concerned they must have deliberately designed the paint to dry out quickly to drive up paint sales then when they managed to sink their monopoly they decided to change the formula and changed the pots as a PR move rather than admit they'd been shafting their customers.

 

My natural inclination, and how I maintain my sunny disposition, is to assume incompetence over malice wherever I can, so I'm not going to immediately jump on this thought train. At the same time though, I have to admit that all the acrylics I own for canvases are still usable despite their screw-caps, and I've had some of those as long as my longest miniature paint.

Sadly I'm not informed enough to discuss whether the smaller aperture of tubes makes a difference or if the nature of constantly forcing paint to the front, reducing the space for air, is a factor.

 

You're right about the mait, but it occurs to me that that might only work the first few times. After you've forced the pot open again the rungs are now covered with torn paint, which would definitely make for a poor seal against a hard cap - unless you then deliberately coat the rungs with paint or another suitable sealer

 

I did once have a screw-top pot that was pretty good though. I picked it up at a random convention I was passing through, and it was composed of glass with a plastic cap (It was an old Coat D'arms pot btw. I just can't get away from those guys). I used this pot for ages, because it had loads of paint in it, but eventually it dried up too. Now either I was scrupulous in keeping it clean (I wasn't) and the pot wasn't good enough or eventually too much paint got on the rungs and the seal was ruined, despite the maiting effect of paint. Still, it held out a good long while and when I eventually looked at it there was a staggering amount of paint on the rungs, cap etc.. so I probably could have kept it going if I'd been more attentive.

 

I really hate the current GW pots. Not only are they harder to open (seriously, to open some of my Foundation paints I have to pry so hard it starts to hurt), they don't stay open nicely like the last pots do. I would sacrifice several firstborn children to convince GW to return to that style.

 

I've found the pots to be fairly uniform in pain of opening, (which is to say they all hurt) but I'm certainly not going to tell you to feel differently. Did you try any of the ones with the locking bit, or were they no good either?

 

I loved all the hard-plastic tops, the screws (Mk3) and the flips (Mk4). I think both are vastly superior to the Mk5 and Mk6, as they never dry out on me, whereas some of my new foundation paint is already dying out. The 3-4 will continue to serve me long into the next versions with a far better performance track than anything newer.

 

I particularly hate how the Mk6 pots will not stay open. There's no locking mechanism so they just close on me and make a mess. Oh well.

 

I'm genuinely surprised to hear about your experience, because it's diametrically opposed to my own. Not a one of my Mk.3's survived and I haven't a single mk.4 that doesn't need some amount of rehydrating, and more than a few have dried entirely because of, what I would consider to be, a tiny amount of paint on the rim. I purchased a lot of them at the same time as my foundations, and the foundations are as good as they ever were.

 

I was hoping I could chalk such a discrepancy down to climate, but I note you're in North Illinois which I believe is similar to good ol' blighty. Of course almost everything I know about the state was gleaned from Due South , which I understand was filmed in Toronto, so what do I know?

 

The removal of the locking bit seems really anti-consumer though.

 

...when I did get paint on the runners it was pretty easy to open still. Plastic-paint-plastic is a very weak bond; try metal-paint-glass. THAT needs clamps and strength to get off. Not that I complained about that either, since I figured it was just part of the hobby experience.

 

Man, I have to use pliers to open some of (most of?) my tiny tubes of paint now they've been well used. I needed to manufacture a tool out of polycaprolactone to get some of my MK3's open in the end. Please tell me you're an enormous man with forearms as thick as my thigh, or I'm going to have to completely re-evaluate my self-image as a rugged person of action.

 

 

I will reveal to you some cunningness from my older brother.

 

He has made a little block, from hi-density foam. Imagine an L-shape, in 3-D. Now the bottom of the L-shape has its base cut, sloping up & towards the upright part of the L.

 

The paint pot then sits on top of the previously horizontal part of the L. When paint drips from that inside lip of the lid, it falls into the pot, instead of onto the rim.

 

Hopefully I have explained it well enough ;)

 

To summarise, open a pot of paint. Tilt it away from the lid side. Now whatever paint drips from the lid falls neatly into the pot and nowhere else.

The L-shaped foam is to give it that tipping effect away from the lid side, and then provide something to stop the pot from falling forwards.

 

+++

 

With the foam-L, it doesn't matter how annoying the hinge mechanism is, even when the lid closes, all the paint will neatly go back into the pot.

 

Voila!

 

This is an interesting idea. If anyone wants to try this and feels too lazy to cut, I imagine bluetack or similar under the pot would work nearly as well.

 

---

 

I was going to amend the OP to reflect the new information form the thread, but I'm afraid it's past midnight here now so that'll have to wait. Similarly I've not done my usual two or three proofreading passes, so please forgive the inevitable typos and poorly articulated thoughts.

 

 

Tsuro

[Seahawk]

Man, I have to use pliers to open some of (most of?) my tiny tubes of paint now they've been well used. I needed to manufacture a tool out of polycaprolactone to get some of my MK3's open in the end. Please tell me you're an enormous man with forearms as thick as my thigh, or I'm going to have to completely re-evaluate my self-image as a rugged person of action.

While I'd like to think so...no I'm not. My simple trick is to soak it upside down in steaming hot water. This partially dissolves/loosens it up. Dry it off, knock it a couple times against a counter and presto it's open.

 

I only need to use that trick with the glass bottles from Testors though :P. GW plastic caps are quite easy to get off...

[Ironwrought Huw]

Interesting read. You've reminded me just how much I miss the Mk4s. I started with the screw-caps, and I found them better than the previous pots, as I rarely had crucial parts of the opening system snap on me.

I just don't like the new pots. Really uncomfortable to open and close, but that could be down to the operator, not the product...

 

One problem I've had, and it's really starting to annoy me now, is that the entire lid and rim piece separates from the pot. The entire bit (the white/black part depending on type of paint) just comes off from the rest of the paint pot. I've had 5 brand new pots of paint spill because of it. I've never had it on any other model of paint pot, or any other company's paints.

 

While I'm thinking about this, we know the foundation paints have a higher concentration of pigment, does it follow that they have a lower concentration of water, or are otherwise more susceptible to drying out?

I don't think so (on the drying out front). I've still got a "first generation" pot of solar orange, and aside from having to vigorously shake it before use (the thing splits in a flash), it's still very much liquid.

[Inquisitor Hexx]

Excellent post! It brought back memories seeing those old pots. I remember when you had to buy those mk 1s in sets, the Monster Colour Set, the Space Marine color set, etc. I had some of those pots for easily over 15 years without the paint drying out! The mk 3 pots on the other hand...I still hold a grudge against GW for those ridiculous screw on lids.

 

I will reveal to you some cunningness from my older brother.

 

He has made a little block, from hi-density foam. Imagine an L-shape, in 3-D. Now the bottom of the L-shape has its base cut, sloping up & towards the upright part of the L.

 

The paint pot then sits on top of the previously horizontal part of the L. When paint drips from that inside lip of the lid, it falls into the pot, instead of onto the rim.

 

Hopefully I have explained it well enough ;)

 

To summarise, open a pot of paint. Tilt it away from the lid side. Now whatever paint drips from the lid falls neatly into the pot and nowhere else.

The L-shaped foam is to give it that tipping effect away from the lid side, and then provide something to stop the pot from falling forwards.

 

+++

 

With the foam-L, it doesn't matter how annoying the hinge mechanism is, even when the lid closes, all the paint will neatly go back into the pot.

 

Voila!

 

I paint on a drafting table, which means I can tilt the entire table surface to whatever angle I choose between flat and about 65 degrees. I found that at a 20 degree angle I could comfortably rest my hands and forearms flat on the table holding my mini perfectly still and the added bonus was the paint would do just as you explained above! I definitely recommend keeping your pots at a bit of an angle, it really does seem to save paint! (I also recommend painting on a drafting table if you can. It's the most comfortable way I've tried :))