The Secret to Making GW Paints Last Longer

By Greg Warwick | February 20th, 2020 | Categories: Hobby Hacks, How To Tutorial

Check out this secret hobby tech to make your Games Workshop Citadel paints last longer, and let you work with them better!

When I got back into the hobby in 2012 I watched a lot of YouTube painting tutorials. One thing I did take away from the hours and hours of videos I watched was the hate for Games Workshop Paints, the main problem being that they seem to dry out very quickly.

So, as a result, I bought a lot of Vallejo Paints and used them for a while. For anyone that does not know Vallejo paints come in a dropper bottle. Dropper bottles are great compared to Games Workshop’s pots as they have screw tops so they close properly and take much longer to dry out. You also have more control to measure out exact amounts of paint for mixing and adding to your palette or airbrush.

Best Mixer Shaker for Wargames Miniatures Paints: Vortex

Then Games Workshop released a new paint line. I was excited by some of the colours so I started replacing my Vallejo paints, but I still wanted dropper bottles so I transferred all of these new paints into dropper style bottles (decanting) to save money by increasing their life and so that I wasted less paint.

Here’s a step by step guide of how I did it.

The Secret to Making GW Paints Last Longer (Decanting)

Step 1: Buy a load of dropper bottles from eBay. I believe I got 50 20ml bottles for £20 at the time. The cheapest at the moment appear to be 50 30ml for £7.60

Editors Note: Here in the US you can scoop some up from Amazon Prime

15ml Dropper Bottles

Step 2: Pour by hand the majority of the paint from the Games Workshop pot to the dropper.

Step 3: After the paint has stopped freely pouring add a few drops of water, ideally from a pipette to the Games Workshop pot and give it a shake. Then continue to pour. This was made easier by blue tacking the pot to a tube of Pringles and letting it rest for 10 minutes.

Step4: Scrape out the inside of the pot to maximize the amount of paint you transfer.

Step 5: Carefully cut off the label on the Games Workshop pot with a scalpel and add it to the dropper (there is enough sticky residue left on the label to put it back on).