Hey! So, I decided to inventory my paints. I have a few friends that are about to embark on a painting journey, and I wanted to evaluate how much help I could be before committing.

Up to the attic I went, to grab the giant box of paints and resin and miscellany. Of course, this is my story… So you know it didn’t end with me just counting them and smiling. No, I found a giant dramatic mess when I got there. It started with a strange smell when I opened the box. One of the boxes of resin looked greasy and was sticky. I was concerned, but it didn’t look like it was too bad. I just moved those boxes and got to the sweet, sweet paints that I knew were in the bottom.

Looks innocent, right? Nothing to see here. Except, there was. You see, resin is clear. And uncured (like only one part of the two-part resin) is super, duper sticky. I turned the box on its side to see if maybe I could salvage the paints without having to clean resin off of every single paint in there.

Looks like it’s been leaking for a while, huh? (Also, protip: always put a box in your box so you only have to throw away the inside box instead of the whole outside box. Don’t ask how I already had this knowledge….)

These are the paints that I couldn’t salvage. Apparently two-part epoxy still hardens (somehow) over time when it’s just lying there in a puddle. Everything else was salvageable, but let’s have a moment of silence for these fallen soldiers.

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So, then I got to cleaning the affected (but not destroyed) paints. FYI: 1:1 mix of vinegar and water will take uncured resin right off, but it can also take off the label. So know what you’re working with before you take it off. Or else you will have mystery paint.

Excuse the messy office, I share it with the Great Bearded One, and we have a toddler. Everything that must be protected goes here, so it’s a bit of a disaster area. Those are the paints that I was able to clean and save. The entire minitaire line, some GW washes and stuff, and a bunch of reaper paints. After all of that, I was finally able to actually do the job I had set out to do: inventory.

Added to the pile in the first two pictures, are these two. I had found a file on the forums that had labels for (most) of the MSP lines, so I started there. After everything, not counting duplicates, I have over 500 individual paint colors between Vallejo, Scale75, GW, and Reaper paints. So, I have a few. lol. I think I can help out with a few friends, and I found that I have a Leather white obsession (5 bottles), and a dearth of Black Primer (on the end of the only bottle I have). So, that was fun, and I feel like I have a much better handle on what I actually own now. I’ll spend the next few weeks going through everything and deciding what I want where on my desk and getting another order together.

Which brings me to the (sadly) discontinued HD line. My favorite paint color of all time is Spruce Green. It has been discontinued, and not reintroduced into the Pathfinder paint line. I know, I looked. So I went about finding a replacement or a way to produce one. The following are my findings.

I can say, with pretty fair confidence, that I have found a workaround with the 2:1 Tian Xia Jade: Oceanic blue combination. I haven’t gotten to making bright turquoise yet, but it’s my next project. If anyone else is a Spruce Green fanatic, there you go. 🙂

Lastly, before the minis I actually painted(!!), I have a cool story. We have a very small clump of clover in our yard that our Tiny Overlord likes to play in. We are aware that it’s invasive and can kill our grass, but we leave this one little patch for him. When we decided to go ahead and pull it up yesterday, we were playing in it and I decided to take a look for any four-leaf clovers (because I’m 12). Lo, and behold! I found THIRTEEN 4-leaf clovers in that tiny little patch!!!!! I subsequently picked all the flowers off and plan to try and grow them to see if I can get all 4-leaf clover batches. Just call me Mendel. lol. I was just amazed! It was so cool! They’re all drying in a book currently. 🙂

Alright! I painted some stuff! There’s going to be a Sophie-only piece of Reapercon this year, so I decided to grab a few and play around. I will probably not take these specific ones, but we’ll see. I was just kind of enjoying painting something quickly, for fun. I hope y’all enjoy the WIP shots.

I’m gonna keep working on them throughout this week. This month looks pretty rough with clinicals, but I’m almost there!!!

Let me know what y’all think!!

 

-marinealRose