Question on dryed paints

[The Neverborn]

So i'm going through my paint box and alot of them seem to have dried up. Typically these a GW paints, some i've put a couple of metal balls in to help with shaking. 

 

Typically i just add water, but not sure that would work with all the new fancy paints, especially the "Dry" paints and these tend to posses the biggest problem,

 

Any ideas? 

[Fajita Fan]

Dry paints were meant to be dry to start with but not completely dry.

 

Reconstituting dried out acrylic paint is next to impossible, these aren't oil based pigments and once the liquid in the paint cures it actually becomes like an acrylic resin.  If you add water to the paint you're technically breaking down the liquid medium and not actually regenerating it so to speak.  It'll flow but the paint pigment powder won't be suspended like it was when it was new. The stuff will slide around your models and the pigments won't lay flat the way they should and behave more like washes. 

 

In an effort to save money I started adding plastic jewelry beads to my paints and adding a couple of drops of Lahmian medium every couple of weeks to help keep them close to fresh, giving them a good shake like that and keeping the crust that forms along the lid off is a good way to extend their life but also a lot of effort.  I finally gave up and just buy new paints as they get too thick.

 

Contrast paints and shades can be transferred to dropper bottles very easily because they flow so well and that will save you some effort.

[m_r_parker]

If the paints have dried solid, then they're beyond help and need to be replaced. 

If they're the 'Dry' paints designed for drybrushing, I'm not sure whether there's anything that can be done. They're pretty solid to begin with...

If they're just really thick, then the best thing you can do is mix in Lahmian Medium. Water can work, but the Lahmian is the proper medium and gets a better result. It'll take some work as you'll need to mix it together (don't use anything wooden, as it'll dry up the paint again) but it should bring the paint back to life.

[Firedrake Cordova]

In an effort to save money I started adding plastic jewelry beads to my paints 

It probably depends on where you are, but AK Interactive's "stainless steel shakers" ball bearings (250/bottle) worked out cheaper than the jewellery beads for me. :)

 

If they're just really thick, then the best thing you can do is mix in Lahmian Medium. Water can work, but the Lahmian is the proper medium and gets a better result.

^ This. Tamiya make some paint stirrers, which are handy. If you're doing lots of paints, you could look at artist's acrylic medium e.g. Vallejo Thinning Medium (60ml) to save a bit of money. :)

[infyrana]

I've taken to cut out a chunk of my 20 year old dried up paints and work into a lather on a palette with acrylic medium. Not tried reworking the whole pot at all, but for a small section to either colour match or save buying a new pot for small amounts, it's worked a treat. Bleached bone was a paint I had to buy several of back in the day, all are dry as their bone colour would suggest, at least this way I didn't have to buy more.

[ranulf the revenant]

http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/auxiliary-paints/730-paint-revitalizer-60ml.html

Maybe this could help, but not if they're fully dried up.