discussion How do you organise your paint collection?

[pjgtech]

As I now have a half decent paint collection, I am starting to ponder how to better organise them, so I'm not searching around for the correct one!
A bit like the old Vinyl record collection quandry? Do you sort them alphabetically, or by decade, or by artist, or by genre, etc, etc...

Same with paint, how do you sort yours?
EG: by manufacturer, by type, eg: acrylic, enamel, laquer, or by colour, or by container size/shape, etc, etc.

Do you have your thinners and cleaners separate? Do you have your varnishes separate?
What about your washes and weathering paints?
Questions, questions....

 

[Tim Marlow]

By manufacturer. Vallejo model colour by the colour chart in bench racks, so I don’t buy them twice, everything else in separate boxes (Mostly and Mr colour) or Vallejo model air and game ranges on wall racks. Records/CDs are stored Alphabetical, with classical having its own case, by the way…….ive got a couple of thousand collected over the last fifty years

 

[Jim R]

How do you organise your paint collection? - sadly the answer is "not very well. I keep mine in drawers sorted by manufacturer. So all my Vallejo Model Color is together, all my MRP lacquers are together. I also have a load of odds and sods jumbled up in a drawer. The odds and sods are from the days when I thought every new paint out was the answer to all my prayers and i'd buy some - not sensible. Now I have settled on MRP for airbrushing and Vallejo for brush painting. I do have a list of the paints I have and also a few colour charts.
Thinners, varnishes etc each have a drawer. For washes and weathering I stick to oils and pigments..

 

[Valeron]

For me, the majority of my paints of Vallejo Model colour and Air. I keep these in a visible rack and like Tim in the order of the Vallejo colour charts.

For thinners, mediums, washes, pigments and a few oils I have, these are hidden in a draw, in separate container boxes per type.

 

[PaulTRose]

I just have a couple of storage boxes......big enough to hold about 60 vallejo bottles......1 is for vallejo/ak/humbrol/anyone else that uses that tyoe of bottle......1 is for revell aqua tubs.....1 is for odds n sods, enamels, etc.......1 is for stuff like thinners/oils/etc

when i start a new project i go thro and pull out what i need.....when i finish a project i always have a big tidy up including putting away all the paint..

.....you never need many so why have them all on show and accessible?.....just takes up room for that i do use all the time

Thats my method anyway

 

[Valeron]

My method too. Only have the paints I needed.

 

[pjgtech]

Cheers peeps, so various methods.....
I tend to store them together, in there own manufacturers groups, eg: Ammo, Vellejo, Revell, Tamiya, Etc, and I have glues/adhesives all together, varnishes all together, weathering and pigments all together, etc.
As above, when I start a new kit I pick out the colours I will need (and buy any that I don't yet have) and keep them out until the model is completed.

Regarding records/music, I switched to digital many years ago, have about 2000 albums and mostly let the pc sort them however, as you can just search for any album, track, artist or song and it will find it for you. I did keep about 50 old vinyl albums and 12"s from the 80s. My fave ones. I do still have a record player somewhere too, Lol.....

 

[rtfoe]

I don't, except I separate the enamels, acrylics and lacquers depending on bottle sizes. That's all. I test my memory of where I last placed the colours and usually get surprises of paint I've had for ages.
I don't use a colour specifically and tend to mix what I don't have to the shade appropriately needed. This has helped me understand how certain shades can be gotten from these experiments. When I paint I try not to do just one flat shade but vary the shades over the surfaces. The only part that stays one color is the underside. So no need for systematic storage for me.
Perhaps that's why I take so long to complete a kit.

Cheers,
Wabble

 

[LeytonO]

Now only use Vallejo, so at least its not multiple makes.
Stored randomly in the little laser cut hardboard type stuff racks.
I record them on a spreadsheet to avoid duplicate purchases and knowing what I have

 

[PaulinKendal]

I have a couple of wall racks of Vallejo Game Colour, Model Colour, Inks and metallics. Regular Vallejo paints are sorted into groups of reds, yellows, blues, greens, etc. Some wrestling with the crossover points (VMC Dark Sea Blue looks more green than blue to me, so it goes with the greens). Metallics all together, inks all together, 'additives' all together (mainly flow improver, retarder, thinner and varnishes).

BUT - I just switched to using oils, and I have no idea how to sort and store them. Currently they're in two boxes, one with the more opaque colours, the other the more translucent ones. I'd like a way to store them that eliminates rummaging in these boxes, but nothing has been arrived at as yet.

Massive vinyl and CD collection remains completely unsorted, with good reason. I do keep the LPs all together, the 12" singles all together and the CDs all together, but apart from that, no sorting! That way, when I'm looking for a particular piece of music I have to flip through the collection and stumble on all sorts of stuff that takes my fancy.

If it was all sorted neatly I'd go straight to what I wanted to hear, and completely forget about some music, with no chance of coming across something interesting I've not thought of listening to in years.

Works for me.