Testors square bottle paint quality

[ranma]

Over the last 6-7 years it seem's Testors square bottled paints have had quality issues such as some flat black bottles are to thined down while other colors tend to get either rock hard or rubber like. Case in point : I bought a bottle of saphire blue in May of this year, I only used it once , and went to use it today it was like rubber! In August I bought a old set of Testors paints That have a copyright from 1986, and yet the paint is still good! The paints from 1986 shake well/mix and is quite useable... while some of the "newer Rust O liuem " bottles go bad so quickly. 

Has any other members have this issue with the square bottled paint??????????

Edited September 23, 2023 by ranma

[Deathgoblin]

I run into bottles sometimes that harden on their own, once or twice without being opened.  I'm liking the Revell paints much better.  I wish they were more locally available.

[Bills72sj]

My supply is a bout 50/50 of 20+ year old paints and new. What I have been finding with the new ones are that the caps are not fully tight. I suggest to every one to crank 'em tight.

[TonyK]

Yes, I've had this experience too. It seems to vary with the colors for me.

[Skip]

What you are experiencing with the "old paints" lasting longer in the bottle than the new paints are the reformulation of the enamel paints to meet California air standards which the Federal EPA has adopted as well.  Sometime in the 80's or 90's almost all of the enamel paints were reformulated, first they removed the lead, next they tweaked with the formulas and even pigments. Which is why it takes more of the newer paints to cover properly than it did with the old stuff in the 19 cent Pactra and Tester's paint bottles. I would also suspect that Tester's has reformulated their enamels once more, now they start setting up as soon as air is introduced to the mix.

You also might be experiencing what Sign Painters refer to as "skinning" where the top of the enamel skins up in the container about 1/16" thick, if so, just cut through the skin, mix the paint below and use like normal. Worth a try to see if it works.

[TonyK]

The "skinning" happened to me this morning with a few month old bottle of Testors red. Broke through the layer and had some thick paint. What a waste.

I prefer Tamiya paints but I use Testors to match a spray I used for touch-up and it just gives me more choices.

[ranma]

58 minutes ago, TonyK said:

Broke through the layer

The bottle of saphire blue was like that top layer, but all the way to the bottom of the bottle. It came out like clumps of rubber when I dug it out of the bottle!

[Fat Brian]

Honestly, I've completely switched to Mr Color, Tamiya,  and Vallejo brush paints. They're just so much better it's  worth the expense. 

[tbill]

On 9/26/2023 at 12:38 PM, Fat Brian said:

Honestly, I've completely switched to Mr Color, Tamiya,  and Vallejo brush paints. They're just so much better it's  worth the expense. 

Same here, more so with the Tamiya line, but I find them way more user friendly than the testors bottle paints.