Beyond Shelf life Storage of SRC Paint
Signature RC paints are not exempt from certain amounts of evaporation nor settling. Although we bottle our products
carefully and professionally, there are times when maybe a lid seal hasn’t seated entirely properly. There is no real way
for us to check this but all care is taken before our products leave the factory. All in all, SRC’s products have a great
quality control system in place.
What I would like to talk with you all about today is “observation”, “prevention” and “revitalise” of SRC’s paints. This is all part of our
continued customer support and update procedures that SRC pride ourselves in.
OBSERVATION
Any paint that sits, un-moved for a lengthy period settles in its container. This is more noticeable in clear containers where you
can see it readily. The longer it sits, the more it separates into its respective components like water, binders and pigment.
Pigment, being the heaviest. Being able to tell how long its been sitting in storage can be very difficult to work out but an
easy ball park kind of guess is by looking to see how much the different components that make up the paint visually separate
themselves from each other.. So, the sharper the difference between components the longer it has been sitting. The gradual
blending kind of look is somewhere in between and a fully mixed paint will show completely mixed in most cases. This is just
a guideline. The combination of all these stages does not mean your product is unsatisfactory and unusable. It just gives you some
reference to go by.
PREVENTION
To battle excessive settling as described above, then certain storage practices should be considered:
• Store your paint in a cool, dry place out of sunlight and extremely warm places.
• Shake your paint periodically to keep it mixed.
• Ensure the lid is secure
It really doesn’t take much to keep your paint in great condition.
SRC PAINTS
Water based and Thinners based
All SRC paints have between 2 to 4 small agitator balls in each bottle depending on their size, whether 30ml or 50ml.
These really assist with colour mixing of all the components that make up our paints. Very much like rattle cans and
some nail polishes, these little agitators thoroughly mix your product to a useable consistency and this leads to
optimum performance. If your SRC paint has been sitting for quite some time, then you’ll find these agitators will
stick in the pigment at the bottom so you will need to shake them loose and then carry on mixing till all colour is mixed.
REVITALISE
As mentioned earlier, there may be a little settling in your product over time so the best thing to do is add a little water
to it and in the case of a thinners based paint, add a little thinner. The water component in our paint will be pretty much
the first thing to evaporate as will thinners based paint will too. Another thing you can do is strain your paint with some
stocking. This will get rid of any little dried pieces of paint that might be floating around. This will also stop little pieces
clogging your airbrush eventually. None of these processes outlined in the “revitalise” section here, will substantially diminish
the SRC’s product performance to unusable nor end result quality, unless it is notably apparent that the paint is actually solid
and dried up in the bottom and that would just be unusable, end of story.
On a final note:
SRC hope you enjoy using our products and as a continual support of our paints, services and products, welcomes you to feel
absolutely at ease in contacting us with any concerns or enquiries you may have.
Currently we are working on a batch number system that will easily identify our paints manufacture date and volume. This inturn
will avert any confusion to the age of our products and improve with quality control.
Any paint you may by from todays date, 15/04/2011 and back, is more than likely a year old. It by no means, means it’s no good,
but please be aware, that SRC paint guidelines suggest only a year shelf life.
SRC only mix enough paint as needed for our orders with some backup to ensure freshness at all times when it leaves our premises.
We heavily believe in rotation of our products to achieve this.
In addition to this, SRC would like to give you some buying tips when browsing our paint line.
• If you see settling of our product while on display at your local hobby shop. Ask the assistant or manager “how long has this been on the shelf?”
(if no visible batch number is displayed on the bottle)
• Always shake the bottles contents to thoroughly mix and see its true colour but please refrain from opening the sealed lid unnecessarily.
Regards
Corbin Styles
Developer and Artist
2011 brings Signature RC another step forward with our soon to be released MetalX - PearlZ range! We are currently testing 5 pearl colours (green, blue, purple, red & white) with further colours to be added to the range shortly. These water based PearlZ display their best colours when backed with KolorFX Black, and have been formulated to spray and work with the same ease as the rest of the SRC paint range.