Desktop Paint Recovery

The weather today has been excellent for painting with bright skies for a change. I managed to grab an hour to start some new figures which look to be turning out really well. I always start by painting the hands and faces using my trusty pot of Plaka 52 Rotbraun as a base coat for the flesh.

Imagine my horror when the white plastic top began to crumble with age as I replaced it. My first thought was that I haven't had the paint that long. My second was that I most certainly had. On reflection the pot, of still serviceable paint, is over 15 years old. Admittedly it's one of the larger pots.

Anyway, I was distraught at the thought of losing such a useful paint and a little concerned about transferring it to another jar. You'll be pleased to learn that I have now rescued the paint and it only took ten minutes.

Once I'd found a jar the right size I decanted the thin liquor into the new jar before scooping out the glutinous layer left behind. As this represent the most usable portion of the paint I was worried I'd be at it for hours but the glutinous layer was so "dry", almost like Plasticine, I was able to transfer it all in under 30 seconds leaving almost nothing behind.



I then gave the transferred paint two 8 minute bursts in my ultrasonic bath leaving me with a perfectly dispersed paint. I know that the layer will eventually reform but I'm used to using it that way.

Not only have I rescued my trusty flesh base-coat but it couldn't have been easier.