It's weirdly satisfying to open the pots and take paint out, like preparing some magical potion. But other than that I really wish they had the normal paints in dropper bottles haha. :D For the washes, the pots are amazing.
From my experience paint quality really varies depending on the company and the color itself. Citadel has garbage white and dry paints, but the shades are very usable. The containers are very wasteful and a nightmare to use for anyone that even thinks of using an airbrush. Vallejo has great colours all around, but the shades have way too much pigment to use undiluted and the metallics are not the best (except for mecha, game air and metal color variants). Army Painters paint quality is not the best and I would recommend Vallejo every time instead (no opinion on speedpaint though). Pro Acryl, although expensive, has more paint per bottle, is very good and titanium white is the bottle to get no matter what other companies you buy from.
For dried out gw paint the tamiya x-20a thinner works miracles and will rescue most gw paints. It can even sometimes work on one's that appear to be dead
Great tip! Thank you, I still have some old GW paint that are some of my favorite colors and they're just a damp paste. BTW, this paint is over 20 years old, but it's dying.
The paints are great, they're basically all I use, but the pots are so bad. If you use your good brushes to take paint out of them to put on your palette that's a good way to ruin them. You do you though if you get along with the pots fine, it does seem like a lot of extra maintenance though to keep them usable compared to the time spent changing to another bottle. Transferring to droppers doesn't take very long and I just do it as and when I need a color that's in a GW pot still. Takes a couple of mins max. Contrast paints and washes transfer without needing anything else and a few drops of distilled water is enough for most of the base and layer paints and then they're pre-thinned to layer consistency as a bonus. Droppers take up less space as well, maybe half as much. Hadn't realised how chunky GW pots were until then. Only real issue with droppers is they can occasionally clog slightly, but if you notice no paint coming out don't squeeze harder, just take a paperclip and run it through the nozzle and you're back in business. But if you do stick with GW pots these are good tips to keep them usable.
I only used GW paints, both old and new, old are all rock solid despite being perfectly sealed, new are a mixed bag after a year or so, some are still ok, some dried up and some completely separated, also lot of paint dried on the lid "tongue" thing of all of them, except for the old ones
Or you can just buy paint from a company that doesn't use terrible packaging. I don't have to do any of this stuff for any brand I have other than citadel. I don't need to make excuses for pro acryl or is or Vallejo or even army painter ( Even though they suck for other reasons).
So in late 2016, I bought GW's last "Ultimate Paint Set" - they used to be an annual thing for the holidays, but they stopped doing them after 2016. It's basically every paint in the range, 189 pots. It's now over five years on, and I've had one pot dry out on me, and that was Ceramite White which was even worse than Corax White. Now admittedly I don't check them all every month so maybe a few more have "gone bad" but I do use a lot of different colours for a lot of different things - I've been painting all the Warhammer Underworlds warbands using the tutorials GW provides. I've not done anything special to look after them either - an agitator in each pot and if I notice a lid won't close properly I'll clean it out a bit. But that's also rare. I've got paints that are fine despite loads of paint around the rim, I think in part because it effectively creates a second seal. Maybe it's temperature or climate (I'm in the UK, and the paints are stored out of direct sunlight) but I had a right panic when I first bought that set and read all the stories, only for it to turn out to be no problem at all.
I use them mostly because they're available, and it was quite a pain to get some brands in Ireland, especially since so many shops shut for lockdowns. Why I dislike them; the base/layer thing just baffles me, the paint is too thick in the first place and then 'base' paints are like custard. I've no real problem with the current pots, the oldest types did keep paint better (round Citadel and hexagonal pots) but they're nothing compared to the ones with black lids... first the screw on version and then the same pot but with a hinge so you needn't unscrew. Both versions dried within a few months of opening, less time if you used them a lot. To be honest you still get a buildup on dropper bottles, it's just not as much as the GW pots.
I had a few of the screw top hexagonal pots and remember them being murder! The black top flip lid post were better but I definitely have a soft spot for them because they were what I used when I first started.
@@BenjisHobbies The only thing the screw on lids were good for was making some sort of jet engine 😄 And since they dry up so quickly you did end up with plenty of them.
Back when GW was slightly less terrible about 10 years ago, I bought a $150 ultramarine paint set and then a dozen extra other individual pots so that I could paint any chapter I wanted. This was 2013 and have seen inconsistent use over the years. Three out of my 50- something inventory have dried out. Well it's just one, but the other two separated and won't mix again. The rest I've been able to shake or add some water and then use as if they're new. I still want cheaper alternatives for a few that I'm low on or a couple colors I still need (I'm ready to try an Imperial Fist/yellow armor now).
So we just need to do a couple of extra steps to avoid a problem GW could fix if they wanted to but would lose revenue due to people not replacing them every couple months? I'm just avoiding them if I can and transfer then if I happen to pick some up
Honestly, with all the advice on how to deal with the design flaws of pots in this video, it more or less felt like a case of Stockholm Syndrome the more it went on lol
I wanted to make a comprehensive video going through the whole process. I could have stopped after cleaning the lid after opening - it’s what I do with all my paints and I very rarely have to do the full clean. It’s frustrating making a video just to get someone in the comments go ‘yeh, well what about…’ so I had to go in to more depth 🤷🏼♂️
Thank you , Benji . The Pot's , I still use the old Hexagonal pots ,(The old ones that are tall , 80-90's, they ok,) the new little Pots , are gross ,(IMO). The dropper bottles ,(Vallejo, ) They ok . The way to keep your paints is to look after them ,clean the pots , I also put a drop of Medium and or water in to the pot after use , 40 years and still using the same paints , must be doing something right , 🐺
Sounds like some solid advice, especially if you’ve had pots going for that long! Suggests to me that you might need to do more painting if your pots are lasting you that long 😉😜
I don't have a problem with pots and I airbrush in every single project. I have citadel pots over 15 years old that I still use, I also have paints from the 90s still in use... They aren't designed to dry out people just need to learn how to look after their things
Never ever had a problem with Citadel or Games Workshop paints. I also find it therapeutic to scrape the paint from the lid. I use Vallejo, Army Painter and Darkstar (very shiney metallic paints) paints. Except, and i mean with this with all my heart - Corax White. That one can go to hell in a hand basket and burn - Forever. As for the paint drying out, keep the lids clean, close them properly and away you go.
Oh my God this video helped me out so much and I agree I am used to buying & using ( Citadel Paints) not because I think they are the best paints out there but because it is what I started with and I'm so used to painting with them I'm scared to try anything else but I will agree the forms the pot comes in it's weird and paint gets all over the lip and makes it hard to close them all the way and open them but after watching this video I got to say it never been easier closing up and opening them and putting them away plus taking the time before each paint project to chip away the dry paint from the lip is just so satisfying and help me prep myself for the project ahead thank you so much for your videos and in site because without your videos I would have fallen out of this hobby long ago please keep making videos ❤
I've had a lot of the old black lid pots dry out on me. Not so much for the new paint pots. I still prefer dropper bottles for layer paint, though. Ironically for washes and contrast paint, I prefer the pots.
Never had any problems with GW paints and it baffles me that people do. I don’t even do what you’ve suggested, I just shake, open, use and close. It isn’t rocket science but people make it out to be 🤷♂️
Haha! Exactly! This is why I made the video. I see people complaining about them but I literally don’t have the same problems as anyone else. I just don’t know what other people are doing wrong!
@@BenjisHobbies I don't have the general issues either. I was happy with most citadel paints I've used so far, although I have a few that have a special place of hatred in my heart. Mainly Corax White because honestly I doubt there is anyone who has tried and doesn't hate it and I am not a fan of Rakarth flesh. It looks nice when applied but when I've used it I felt like I was on a timer because it's just dying to split like a melon under a truck and after leaving it on a wet palette over night I could for the life of me not get it uniformly mixed again.
I think there's some rose tinted glasses for those black capped pots. They were terrible, all of mine dried up in no time. The taller pots from before them were great though. I still have some of those that are usable after around 25 years.
I love pro acryl paints, but I have to replace the glue twist style top lids with proper screw off dropper lids. I find the original lids get messy and don't always seal as well.
Oooh! What caps did you replace them with? Very interested in this! A lot of paint does come out of them and there is definitely some waste around the nozzle.
@@BenjisHobbies On Monument Hobbies' website, they are listed as "Pro Acryl Alternate Bottle Lid Set - Dropper". They come in packs of 10 and replace the default lids. I've replaced all of my bottles (50+).
I did the same with my pro acryl because I personally have a bad habit of setting down glue without closing it first, with a flip lid I do not have this habit.
the secrect to gw paints lasting longer: dropper bottles. funnel paint in, add a drop or two of flowaid and retardent, add one or two agitator balls, shake, and they last until used up.
I've still got some of the old round and hex flip top (white lids) citadel paints, some of them are 15 + years old and still usable, the newer screw tops/flip tops (clear hex and black lid) were quite bad and the newest incarnation I don't find too bad at all.
I like to use a combination of citadel and Vallejo. Citadel pots definitely have their pros but they are awful for airbrush. To that end I’m 100% Vallejo air, I tried citadel air and they didn’t float my boat and STILL came in a pot. I now need to show my wife your video so she stops clogging up all the citadel pot hinges when she paints!
I use Games Workshop, Tamiya, Revell, Humbrol and even some very old DBI (De Bens Industry) glass jars. Provided you look after your paint pots, of any brand, they will look after you. Yes, cleaning is important - on all brands. My paint tips are here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TDj5tawHQc8.html My tips include - acrylic thinners, de-ionised water and stainless steel ball bearings. Note also that I use porcelain or ceramic plates as palettes. Warspite the wargamer
I got back and forth on my preference. When I opened my p3 pots after 10 years in storage, they were still good as new. And some of my Vallejo droppers are all caked and clogged to hell.
I've only ever knocked one pot over (So far....) and of course it was Nuln Oil right in the middle of COVID so all my local shops were out of it and it took 3 weeks in the post..... Lesson learnt.
I mainly use Contrast paint and the pots are useful, but even a couple of them have ill fitting lids due to paint build up. I want to try the new AP speed paints, but to be honest the dropper bottles are putting me off. I had to buy a vortex mixer for my AP metallics. Thanks for the take the oid off advice.. awesome I can now get the graph hound orange lit cleaned out without checking expensive liquid everywhere.
Citadel paints just work best for me. Army Painter has nice bottles but even with plenty of shaking (with a machine) and ball bearings, they come up more like a wash. Far too watery. Citadel pots are bad, but like you said they don't dry up that often. Corax White is awful though..
@@BenjisHobbies @TheONeGreenMan If you still have AP paints that you don't want to use you can send them my way. I have only two paints that're too watery from them so my experience is pretty good with them. I'm willing to try out others paints from them to see if I'm lucky. ;)
Started transferring my 100+ citadel paints to dropper bottles, around half way done, it's a pain, but liking the results, smaller more convenient bottles, also using medium for the thicker (generally older paints) and popping in mixing balls so they should all now be good. on the downside I've spilled a few pots (losing some paint) and I now have a slightly stained carpet. :P
I live in a really dry climate so the struggle to keep all of my paints drying out is real. If I crank up the humidifier while I paint it helps avoid drying out, I also found that putting my Citadel paint pots in a weighted holder helped stop the constant knocking over and spilling of paint my clumsy self dealt with nonstop. Another thing that helps is if I actually fully close the lids when I’m done🤦🏻♀️
I don't have much experience with other brands and have only been in the hobby about a year but my two cents on this is that anything you have to be told *very precisely* how to use for it to work properly is poorly designed. The idea is good (open up, pick up a bit of paint, close it again) but it's poorly executed (have a panic attack trying to open pot with out spilling anything, pick out the freshest, non-coagulated bit of paint you can find, knock it over by breathing on it because it's so top heavy, break your thumb trying to close again because of the build up in the seal) especially since there's a positive feedback loop of paint gets in seal, paint gets goopy, more paint gets in seal... No one has to tell you how to use a dropper bottle for it to work as intended. Anyways, having said all that, I prefer GW paints to vallejo. The pots are a minor inconvenience at worst
Appreciate the tips. However, if you need to take extra steps to maintain your paint pots to prevent them becoming unusable, surely that's just poor design?
I could say the same for dropper bottles. What happens when they block (which they do)? What happens when you give the bottle a squeeze and the top pops off and you get paint everywhere (it’s happened to me)? What happens when it blobs too much on the wet palette (which happens)? As I said in the video the minor extra step of wiping the cap literally takes me a second each time I open a pot. It’s not really loads of extra steps and takes next to no time.
@@BenjisHobbies fair enough. I've only ever had a dropper block once as far as I remember and that was because the lid was cracked, and it dried up. Maybe I'm just lucky. I do love GW washes though, they are the best imo, but I always bluetack that open pot down to the desk! Haven't knocked one over yet 🤞
Great video, Benji! One thing that really turned me off GW, not necessarily their paints, was hearing from a game store manager in Ireland that when he tried to put Citadel and Vallejo paints in his store the GW rep threatened to pull all their stuff from his shop. Right. Classy. I still use Citadel paints, but primarily their washes & some of their nice bone colours. I think it's like you say- they're quite solid & beginner friendly but for those damn pots!!
That’s interesting! Never heard of that happening before and I’ve seen loads of shops selling different brands of paint. Does seem like some dodgy practices though…
@@BenjisHobbies Right- I sincerely hope this was because it was when they actively treated their fanbase with contempt, before Rountree took over and their stock was in the sewer. I guess we can call that era Before Duncan/Peachy lol I've been enjoying this era of positivity in the hobby, so I seriously hope those practices are gone!
When 50% of the video is focused on how to fix design flaws that pots have, you know they are keeping this design because they dont care about you as a customer.
Well, let me let you in on a little secret about RU-vid videos… People complain about EVERYTHING. ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ ‘Why didn’t you talk about that?’ So you have to try and second guess what people are going to say/ask/complain about. If you follow the first half of the video then the second half is irrelevant.
To be fair I think some people just want to complain because it's GW don't get me wrong there's a lot to complain about but when they do good they should get credit
I mostly use Citadel Paints and while all the issues are true, it’s never been enough of an issue that I’d swear them off for good. Lately I’ve been trying other brands like P3 and Army Painter and so far they’re fine too. I guess I’m not too picky, haha.
I find myself mostly using contrast paints these days. The GW pots are pretty good for thinner paints like contrast, washes etc. I'll use my wet palette for any normal paints and don't really mind using an old brush or a pipet to transfer paint to the palette.
Not all Citadel paints dry. I recently found 3 bottles I bought in the mid 1990s (that's the very old hexagonal tall bottles with white caps) that are still wet and have lived in the loft the best part of 20years. If I only had something to use them on 🤔 That said, those were stored in the loft with 9 citedel bottles like the one you showed (but with screw lids) and they are all dry and a bugger to reactivate. So I guess it's pot luck (pun intended) as to what happens.
I don’t have experience with a wide range of paints, just Citadel and Army Painter. I do like the toothiness of GW paint as it adheres well, things well, mixes well. The Army Painter has a gel like consistency that I find it difficult to make thin highlights.
I’ve always citadel paints purely because when I first started out in the hobby, I went to a Warhammer shop and bought their paints. They are more expensive but it takes so long for me to use a pot, I doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t use an airbrush but I can see the point about dropper bottles being better to use with an airbrush. Your also spot on about Corax white. It was the only citadel paint I’ve bought that has dried out and was rubbish but the little pot of Wraithbone I have does the job nicely for me. Nice tips in the video ! 👍🏻
1:24 out of 11 pots I can see 6 of them not properly closed, thats how you get them to dry. Not a fan of the pots, and don't really agree they're good for begginers because of the pots and the price
I m just saying, I have never once spilled a dropper bottle. I have on the other hand spilled Agrax Earthshade, and Mephiston Red, to disastrous result. I did just get a little 3d printed paint pot holder for my painting sessions so it hopefully doesn't happen anymore.
While GW have som great nuances in their paints I honestly just find the dropper bottles easier to use. Easy usage, more paint, and cheaper bottles is honestly the main reason I mostly use AK Interactive and Vallejo. Luckily my hobby store has a pretty great paint section :)
I use the citadel paints myself. I think they are fine and and have non dry on me in 18 months. Had a few crusty lids, but you’ll get that with anything with a liquid and a lid (look at the crusty milk you get between the cap and spout lol) I open my pots like you. Mostly. I shake the 3-4 colours ill be using first then set them angled on my table/cutting matt to help drip back into the pot. Fill up my water cups get the tissues out etc. Then when i open them there is very little left in the lids. I take my old ‘scooping paint’ brush and get paint from the back join of the little rim inserting part, not the scoopy insert part. To clean i usually just get my green stuff pointy tool and run it round the rim when its getting a little clogged. But ive cleaned each pot once at most. Possibly twice for the really common colours use. But the white is rubbish so i will be looking for others. Just to think and chunky from new i find.
@@BenjisHobbies yeh 100%. I think some people online see a bad review and write it off instantly. Not sure why the droppers get some crust too. Not as much but there not perfect haha
So for context I have spent most of my hobbying life 25 or so years at this point) using GW paints. Many of them have dried out to some extent and in most cases I have been able to ressurrect. These days I still happily use them, though am slowly phasing them out in favour of some other brands, mainly vallejo. With that in mind, a few thoughts from your points and my own experience. Some people are way too opinionated about paint brand. It doesn't make much difference in the grand acheme of things. Paint with what you like, in the way you like. Simple. That being said... Availability. I have found that all the larger brands have similar availability (notably gw, ap and vallejo). Especially true if you are willing to shop online. Quality and price. GW paints are generally decent quality, but so are their competitors. The difference is gw are more expensive. Pots vs bottles. Pots are convenient for anything you use without mixing. Mostly we are talking about translucent paints here (inks, washes, contrast etc). They are imo less convenient for airbrushing and anything involving mixing. The more I uee my wet pallette, the more I appreciate the convenience of a dropper bottle. Newbie friendly. While it is not universal, GW are not the only ones to employ a convention designed to make the process easier/more intuitive. Triad style systems have become relatively popular for instance. Fundamentally it seems to me that while citadel paints are perfectly decent, theae days I can go to a paint line by army painter, vallejo, ak, warcolours, green stuff world or any one of a large number of competitors and get a product of comparable (or sometimes better) quality at a lower price point. And so, there is not much reason for me to choose citadel products anymore. Anyway, nice discussion there, now keep using whatever product does it for you. 😊
I use Vallejo paints, mostly. For me, I really like the dropper bottles, they are very widely available and pretty cheap, too. Not to mention I like the opacity of some of them better than the GW alternatives. I do like (REALLY like!) the GW washes. Seraphim Sepia, Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade en Reikland fleshshade are a staple in my paint set. For those, the pots are not really an issue, as the wash doens't build up in the lid as much ar regular acrylics. For me, I guess the most important factors are price and availability. There are four hobbyshops in the neighbourhood, including one almost around the corner from where I live that have a huge selection of Vallejo paints, but not a lot of GW stuff, if even any. The nearest shop that sells a decent amount of GW's assortment is a GW store at least half an hour by car of train away, and to be fair, there are multiple options there, too, as there are three withing that distance. One of the benefits of living in one of the heaviest populated parts of the Netherlands, I guess. Also, I don't play Warhammer, so I'm not exaxtly 'locked in' to the GW ecosystem or anything like that
Ooooh I learned to not use boiling water on Citadel lids the hard way. I had some lids with kinks in them, and thought I’d used boiling water to smooth them out like you do with minis. Fail! The lids all shrunk and warped.
Screw the negative comments! Sure if GW moved to a dropper it'd probably make life a bit easier but most of their colours are the best paints going around (yes I used plenty of other makes) so happy to pay for quality.
I like pots. I also like dropper bottles, and which one I prefer depends very much on the consistency of the paint. Games Workshop's pots however are terrible.
I still like your videos, but transfering paints to dropper as soon as you buy them, is better than going through your idea everytime your pots dry up, Ive done both ways on many of my pots and rescued many of my old paints, I'm sorry but I would rather transfer to dropper bottle than do it your way . Keep up with the video's though. It would be better if GW used the dropper bottles instead.
It’s all cool man, we can have a difference of opinion and still be friends 😊 In all honesty I just don’t get that much ‘crustiness’ in my pots so cleaning them is a once in a blue moon deal, so it doesn’t bother me too much.
@@BenjisHobbies of course most normal people will take these points on board and carry on. I have bigger problems then this, like how to start painting again and playing the game again.
Great video👍🏻 i just bought my first Army Painter bottles recently, so I’ve only used the ones from GW up until now. Based on my, rather limited, experience I agree with your statements😁
I still use predominantly GW paints, because I have so many and I've never had a pot dry on me, but then I'm much more pedantic when I use them. Droppers annoy me personally, but again it's all personal preference.
All that hassle just to keep the pot workable. All that time spending scraping off Paint from under that lit. No, ive made my descission the Day ingot back into the hobby. Dropper bottles all the way. Pro tip! Ive transfered 30+ citadel paints to high quality AK interactive 17ml bottles. Please dont go for the cheap bulk droppers you can get on Amazon, eBay. Those with the white caps. Rubbish cheap stuff. The ones from AK are Just as good as vallajo and dont bent at the neck part
I think you’ve missed the point. It DOESN’T take that much work to keep them workable if you just wipe the lid when you use them. It take literally half a second and then you DON’T need to clean the rims.
Point made mate, but i think im just too lazy to keep doing it everytime again, and again. I should also mention i have allot of Citadel shades and contrast paints and i dont transfer those. The contents are ofcourse allot thinner than the regular acrylics. This doenst cause the mentioned problems you have with the base/layer acrylics. The rubber pot holder they sell is very good and you just need it ;) We dont want no oh no Nuln Oil story's
Iv never had issues with the paint, I like and do use GW paints. The current pots I'm rly not a fan of, I do get the paint build up n do remove it, the waiting after shaking is a good tip I will follow, but my biggest issue iv found is the lid won't stay open on most of my paints, the wee nub at the back that "clicks" in to hold the lid open is often to soft or ever so slightly misshapen which means iv to awkwardly hold the pot and lid open in one hand as I get the paint with the brush in the other. The hexagonal pots with the black lids were good for staying open on there own, but I found they dried out much faster than the current ones. Of note, iv still got some really really old og paint, polished blue, glistening green and beaten copper, and to this day they are still like new paints.
Paints aren't terrible pots are. I never did spill any other companies aside of gw . And if you have time to clean leads and soak them in warm water you have time to transfer colors in drop bottles . And you will be surprised how easier is to use them that way . And price is factor for me. If i get more for less money what do you think that i will pick?
I feel like I should preface this with: I've not touched a GW paint since before you started using them! The hex pots before were the same design but had a horrific screw top, and that was enough for me to stop using them, also moving from Coat D'arms to another paint manufacturer did affect the paint quality. It's good to see a simple straightforward talk about the pots, as I know they are the most used paints out there. There is a lot of people who will find this useful and I hope that they help spreadt the word. Keep up the good work. Just for fun: I say Pro-acryl not Pro-Acryl
I had a few of the hex pots and I remember them being pretty terrible! I remember having to borrow a pair of pliers to open a lid because it had dried shut! Don’t you start on the Pro-Acryl, Pro-acryl debacle 😂 I’ve already had it out with Josh from the Pickle Jar about this! Pro-Acryl is short for ‘professional acrylic’ so it should be Pro-Acryl 😝
Yep, those screw top pots were horrific! I couldn't resist the Pro-Acryl comment, because you were expecting the Vallejo one and this was a better option 🤣 The Pro-Acryls are one of my go to ranges these days and I just like seeing the conversation mentioning them.
Good topic dude. I love the citadel pots for contrast and shades - saves messing with a pallet, which you don't often need for those paints. As for their normal paints, I quite enjoy a "paint peeling" session 😂 😂
Thanks man! It’s one of those things I see people complain about all the time and I just wonder what the hell they’re doing for their paints to be so awful!
Citadel base and layer paints are really good, it's too bad about the containers. I have the full scale color + fantasy range and still use citadel paints as my base coats. Or I blend them into the scale 75 colors to make them less transparent. Can't beat their coverage. People hate on GW in general and blow the crappy containers out of proportion. Citadel is known for making useless hobby products, but so is every other hobby brand (tamiya, trumpeter, etc). It's easy for people to see a "omg lol citadel paint pots amirite?" post on reddit and dogpile in. PS - dropper bottle transfer is a waste of time. Unless you get nice droppers like the ones army painter or scale color use, you end up wasting just as much paint as the citadel pots. The shitty amazon droppers build up paint inside the lid profusely. The nozzles split and clog all the time. They also let air in too easily and paint will dry out faster inthem, than in citadel pots.
Personally, I like dropper bottle that take a bit of squeezing to get out so you can easily manage the number of drops. Such as Warcolours. It allows me to mix the same number of drops each time. Only time I like pots is for washes because I almost never apply those to a wet pallet!
Can't say that I do think Games Workshop paints are terrible. I've used them for 30 years. Also not a fan boy as own plenty of other branded paints. Yes the bottle is crap but the paints are just as good as anybody else. The GW haters will always hate. It's a hobby in itself.
When you pop the lid off the GW pots, just turn the lid inside out and the dry paint will be super easy to pop off and wipe away. The pot is then as good as new.
The only real gripe that i have with gw pots is that they're harder to store then say dropper bottles and because of the domed cap, you can't stack them on top of each other. Are they expensive, ye sure. Do they cost more then what people are prepared to pay for them, nope! But yes, their whites does indeed s*ck! The only real bad pot design GW had. Was the clear ones you showed, but with a twist cap. Those did dry out, opened or not.
Nah, Benji, you're not weird for enjoying the paint-scraping, haha. It's very pleasing when the dried paint comes off in these long strips. I use some heavier tweezers for it. Other than that, Citadel Paints are alright, but to me they're not that much better than most other paint brands, except that they cost more. Some select paints are invaluable, imho, but the vast majority of it is just flatout more expensive than other ranges. One pot of Vallejo is 2,50€ for me at my run-of-the-mill hobby retailer, while one pot of Citadel clocks in at 3,20€ with metallics like Retributor Armour even clocking up to 4€ per pot. That's pretty spicy and sure for the individual paint it's not too expensive, but 10 paints that all cost ~1€ more is already 10€ more that I'm paying.. which in turn would be 5 more Vallejo Paints at 2,50€, so ya know.. economics, haha.
I still have the original Pots of MacCragge blue and Mephiston Red I bought back in 2018. Still going strong and did not dry on me. Also... it's easier to get a minimal amount of paint out of a pot... drops from dropper bottles are always more then I need... there you are right.
2018? That’s barely a few years. I have dozens of Vallejo paints that are older than that and none of them are detectably thicker than when bought. You’re right though about the drops from dropper bottles always being more than you need 👨🏼🎨👨🏼🎨👨🏼🎨.
I think you secretly enjoy the nasty comments 😜 no nasty ones here I say each to their own whatever works for you stick with it! The only citadel paints I use are the washes. Spend most of my time knocking them over though 🤦