I have a problem *possibly; I hope not*... I bought 2 bottles of ModelFlex paint, and they accidently sat in the truck overnite, and the temps dropped to below freezing. I know MF is waterbased, will my paint be compromised? I have no place/booth to use it now, so it'll sit a few more months.. *unopened* Help?
If the bottles didn't break, it may not have gotten as cold inside the truck as it was outside. There would be no wind chill factor, and ice chrystals may not have formed enough to curdle the casein. Its like Elmers glue, if the casein hasn't separated from the gelatin, the glue will still stick. Best try a tooth pic smear on scrap paper and see if it separates, or gets like jello, or gets powdery, etc. If you can't get it to mix well in the bottle, and the clear milky liquid allows the vehicle to stay in the bottom like a sludge, its gone. Kaput.
Excellent advice, Watash! I noted you mentioned ModelFlex going powdery. I have/had (it's due for binning) a bottle of reefer white that dried powdery. We have nowhere near the low temps you guys endure, here, but would high temps cause this to happen? This particular bottle of reefer white is the only one to have suffered this problem. Gary.
hemi there shouldn't be any problem. i have a few bottles that endured last years winter by mistake in my garage, and they are fine just make sure you mixthem up very well. modelflex is the only paint i use except for polly s silver and have never had any trouble with it since they changed their formula 5 years ago.my only problem is the ability to get it since my local shops won't carry it since they got burned when they had their drying in the bottle problem and some won't even special order it.
Alen, my understanding of what has happened to a number of the tiny "model Airplane" size paint bottles when water based paints first started, was brought on by the way the paints were handled. The water base expands and shrinks more than lacquer thinner. The changes in pressure would loosen the gasket sealing air out of the bottle. As the air excaped from elevated temperature, some of the volitales making up the vehicle, or binder, also excaped leaving water and powder pigment. As the pigment settled into the bottome of the bottle, the water evaporated leaving the powdery residue. New clear "varnish" could have been poured in on the pigment, add two to four B-B's and put the bottle on a paint mixer to re-mix to original color, fill bottle with distilled water, re-mix and you would have new paint as before. There is usually only 6 to 8 drops of binder per 1 oz bottle. Reefer white used to be sodium perborate of lead, absolutely pure white, and would never yellow. Today's, cheap paints white is pulverized chalk. The more expensive white paints have to use titanium oxide which is not quite as white, and will turn color in sunlight and some flourescent lights. But I don't know all there is to know, that is just what the lab told me.
