Paint mixers

[Craig]

I'm looking at vortex paint mixers on eBay and I'm wondering if anyone here has tried them. Do they do the job or are they a waste of money? I have lots of pots that have been sitting untouched for over a year and some (metallic especially) that have separated quite badly and even with a lot of shaking by hand don't want to mix properly.

[nilsh]

I've been looking at the vortex mixers (I think that's their name) but haven't bought one yet. The seem kinda pricey in my opinion but maybe they're worth it.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Vortex Mixer.

 

Amazon One - More expensive.

 

I have the one above I bought from Aliexpress over 2 years ago.... Its solid and very weighty. Worth every penny.

 

 

[Craig]

Not sure I'd spend £60 on one. The ones I see on eBay are around £20.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

6 minutes ago, Craig said:

Not sure I'd spend £60 on one. The ones I see on eBay are around £20.

 

Yeah I seen that one (All black one?). I was going to but I was recommended the 4E's one its just built much better.

[Ironwulf]

They DO work! I've had this model for almost 3 years, and it's still going strong. This one may be a bit more expensive than others, but the motor hasn't shown any signs of burning out on me.

https://a.co/d/7LIGmo0

 

If you are using Contrast Paints, it mixes them up quick!  For most of my Citadel contrast paints, I've moved them to dropper bottles and added an agitator ball. Those paints with a lot of white pigment, that tends to settle to the bottom- Those are completely mixed up and ready to go in seconds with a vortex mixer! Works great on metallics, or other acrylic paints as well.

 

Of course, there are some paints that are just too thick to be stirred/shaken in this manner.

[pawl]

They most certainly work, and can be had fairly cheap. I wrote a little review of mine here. =]

[Craig]

Thanks pawl, that's exactly what I wanted.

[Arkhanist]

Just another thumbs up for a vortex mixer here; getting old and creaky sucks, but mixing paint is trivial with a mixer. I've GW metallics that have *never* been fully mixed until I vortex'd em. Adding a paint-safe mixer ball of some sort will speed things up for tricky (contrast) or thick paints. I posted these over 2 years ago, and it's working just as well as it was then.

 

before:

 

after ~15 seconds on mixer:

 

The four E's mixer is one a lot of people have as it was almost the only option in that size for a good while, but it's basically science lab equipment hence the price. The much cheaper alternative ones should be fine too, as long as they're similar e.g. about 5000 RPM; the build quality may be lower, but the 4E is built like a tank which is probably overkill given we're not using the thing for hours a day.

 

As always, if your paint has dried out a bit and is too thick to easily mix, adding in a few drops of medium, e.g. contrast medium or lahmian medium (plus a mixer ball) will help it to liquify and mix much more easily, without affecting coverage as thinning the pot with just water can. I tend to do it from the get go with base paint thickness equivalents.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Arkhanist

[Muskie]

I just got one. It whines and it works best on the dropper bottles. It doesn't like the old GW pots with the flat lids round or hexagon, but I have less of those every year, but Wargames Foundry and others still make paint in pots like GW did back in the day. But they definitely work, putting the metal ball in was good, but this is obviously better.