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One with paint in it?

I don't really care, as long as my paint is usable.

Easy answer; quality and best delivery = Vallejo. Dropper application and amazing quality paints.

No contest. Eyedroppers. I actually bought a bulk order of dropper bottles from US Plastics to store my Games Workshops paints in when I was still buying them. The paint lasts longer since it doesn't dry out as fast, you waste less of it since you get it a drop at a time, and - this might not be a concern for everyone, but it is for me - you don't spill it when you knock over an open bottle with your stupid, clumsy ham hands.

I've since transitioned to Vallejo, but make my own custom washes with Les Burseley's recipe, so the bottles remain very handy.

PS you can also get those dropper bottles from a Chinese e-bayer for half the price of US Plastics? Don't. I did both, the Chinese ones are awful, the quality on them is just terrible. I did get some pipettes from a friend from the same chinese ebayer and those were pretty good though. I don't use pipettes.

Dropper bottle without question.

Dropper bottles. No doubt. I would love it if GW swapped to droppers as I love some of their paints. I will admit that textures and dry paints would not work but I have found I don't like them much anyways.

Just started using Badger Minitaire paints with my airbrush and I am LOVING them.

 Rabid Ferret wrote:
I would love it if GW swapped to droppers as I love some of their paints.

Amen to that.

i preferred the old screw-off top citadel paint bottles.

neukd wrote:
i preferred the old screw-off top citadel paint bottles.

Seriously?

I use flip-top paint pots because I don't like mixing paints.
I can never get the color consistent and the paint dries out before I manage to paint anything with it, but I somehow stil waste a lot of paint doing it.
I have all the color nuances that I need, so I dip my brush and close the pot after each time so the paint doesn't dry out. I clean my brushes throughly and keep separate rinsing water for both metalic and regular colors so I don't mix the paint in the pots.

Bonde it may be worth painting with a wet palette.

Flip top paint pots.
As you can control the amount of paint your taking. Unlike with
squeeze bottles were you could take too much.

Flip top GW paint all the way!

Most of the people who voted flip top have never used a dropper bottle or are bat-gak crazy.

^ Not neccessarily.

Had a bottle of vallejo explode on me the other week.

If the dropper piece is loose, then squeezing the bottle can sometimes force the the dropper piece loose (instead of dropping paint out), and then the entire contents of the pot gush out everywhere.

HMG/p3-style fliptops can be a bit hard on the thumb to open, but they don't dry out ever. I have some 20 year old ones still liquid (the old GW ones).

I mostly use droppers these days because that's what Army Painter paints come in, and I like those. There are some distinct design flaws though, mainly the nozzle requiring unblocking and the risk of loose dropper piece causing the whole thing to explode when squeezed.

Ideally, the dropper piece should click or clip into place rather than being loose enough to force out with pressure.

 Far Seer wrote:
Definitely a dropper style bottle. I used to be a staunch believer in the flip top bottles myself, but once I made the transition from GW to Vallejo...

My god these are amazing! I've always had a problem with the flip top bottles where the paint would spill around the lip of the hole, and it would dry up. Plus the paint inside these bottles tend to have a habit of drying up, as I've recently discovered with my Shining Gold paint.

As an added bonus, dropper bottles are so much easier to put on a palette.

I had the same problem with GW's new pot design, although I really liked the old black top ones that had a wider rim so that if paint dried, it was easy to clean. If they brought those back I'd buy more GW paint. For now though I stick with dropper bottles like Americana or Vallejo because seriously the new bottle design is terrible. I can never get all the dried paint out of the top, which means it wont close all the way and let air in. Lost about four bottles that way.

Eye dropper. If I need to mix paints to get a specific color, it makes measuring out amounts easier. Also, I find the smaller openings prevent the paint from drying out as quickly - I've got Citadel Paints purchased in the last month that I'm watering down every use, while I've got craft store purchased paints that have been opened repeatedly over years with no sign of drying out. Course, problem I run into is different sized openings for paints from different companies, so measuring can be a bit tricky straight from the bottle, but still easier than pulling out a pipette and dipping into an open pot.

I've chosen flip top style because I've only ever used GW paints. But I do top up with de-ionised water to counteract evaporative losses and add my own ball bearings to aid mixing.

I've never used dropper bottles or a wet pallete so I have no idea what everyone is raving about but I'm thinking maybe I should try. I might try youtube to get someone to explain to me what I should be looking for in a wet pallete.

That being said, there are so many shades of most of the colours I need now I think I could probably get away with all my shading and highlighting for rank-and-file tabletop standard troops being done with no mixing, which has got to be preferable for dealing with hordes... (Orks)

i think gw paints are over priced n the little paint pots are not cost effective. it seems to me i am paying $3 for the bottle and $1 for paint. When i could be paying for a large tube of paint for $4.

Dropper all the way.

I can't mix consistently from flip lids, and because I feather, I need to mix intermediate colors.

Dropper bottle. Much easier to use and less mess.

I prefer the flip-top paints myself

Dropper bottles for me, no doubt about it.

I think dropper bottles are supperior to flip tops for the hobby. Paint lasts longer, easier to mix and to transfer paint on the palette, airbrush. Need 1, 2 or 3 drops no problem.
Spill proof.
I can't imagine going back.

Somebody forgot to include these...



..or these...



...or even these little guys...



I have 20 year old paint - in both glass bottles with metal caps and in plastic bottles with plastic caps - that is still pristine. That kinda means that these are pretty $#%?@&! good paint pots, and should be in the poll.

Well if i am filling a airbrush dropper style if i am using a brush flip top.
Kind of a unfair question in my opinion.

I'm using very diluted paint, and I also mix a lot of different colors on my palette, so Eye-dropper squeeze bottles are the best choice for me

My preference is eye dropper, I bought about a hundred bottles and stainless "nail polish mixer bearings" for each and am transferring my most used paints.

It creates less mess not using transfer brushes/sticks and drops for mix ratios help a lot.

One day I did not clean the lip of a flip lid properly and pushed it down and it sprayed paint on some nearby miniatures... never again on both counts.
The narrower bottles help for storage and less surface area for evaporation, plus less likely to dry anything out if you leave the cap off.
My only regret is the bottles I got the neck is too small for my tiny paint mixer

A nice "hybrid" I like is the Liquitex medium body paints come in a pot where it has a big flip-top lid but a tiny hole (~1/4" / 1cm) sealed by a plug on the top lip.
You squeeze the paint out like toothpaste (same consistency). This stuff seems to never dry out.

I'm accustomed to using the GW pots, and have developed a technique where I get the paint on the brush then thin it in my water cup, avoiding the use of a palette. This is because my wife and work are always interrupting me, and I often have to stop painting and quickly clean my brush. I'm wanting to try Vallejo paints in the future, and have some paper for a wet palette. I haven't had trouble with my pots drying out. Some have lasted over 3 years. And while the GW pots don't give you as much, they're still enough to last me a long time. GW was the only option at my FLGS, which is half an hour away. I may order some vallejo from amazon to try them out.

The poll is very lacking. I don't mind flip tops, I just hate GW's flip tops. I also don't mind screw tops as long as they don't jam up (like GW's screw tops used to).

I like droppers, but a blocked up dropper is far more annoying than a flip top, all the Reaper paints I've had have been clogged or partially clogged when I bought them and after clearing them they clog up again.

Each style has its problems.

I started with those old screw on Gdub pots, then their flip top, then when Gdub discontinued its paint line- started to shift to Vallajo bottle dropper but Ive been drifting back to Gdub.

Hey I like the Gdub metallics better. They seem brighter and have better coverage. Also, after years of using the thicker Gdub paint , its what I'm used to. Vallajo seemed way too watery for me and many of their colors seem off to me. Red looks pink...whatever.

I guess its quality of paint that matters to me. But I really hate the lids on the pots, they don't stay open!

I use flip tops and a palette. I always keep around warn out brushes, which I term female dog brushes, and use them to transfer from the pot to the palette. I have used dropper bottles as well, and they're great as well, though there's no stores around here that carry droppers. Most of my paints are either replenishing a single color or two that ran out, or impulse buys, so I tend to just use GW paints as that is what everyone in town stocks. I absolutely hated GW's old screw top pots. The paint inside is still good to this day, if you can get the lids off.