|   | What you see here is 48 jars of ****flex and *****flex paint.  The ***** is supposed to be better than
the ****.  I've never seen much difference.  At an average cost of $2.50 per jar, you're looking at $120
here.  Most of it was spent a long time ago.  This little experiment began over 11 years ago.  You can't say I haven't tried.  I even painted one
really nice model with the 5-star stuff, and narrowly averted disaster.  I always said the blues and reds and
oxides worked the best, the whites, grays, and black - especially "super gloss", the worst. | 
|   | A few months back
I tried a fairly old bottle of Santa Fe blue and found it intact, and it worked well enough to use as a base
dark blue for the handrails on my SD45 (over gray delrin).  I actually went and bought a fresh new bottle
of Santa Fe blue for next time, not knowing when it would be.  This evening, I wanted to paint over the BN green handrails that came with my P2K U28B.  I got out the Santa
Fe blue, and wouldn't you know, it was dried rock solid in the bottle.  Well, it has been a while, so no
biggie.  Good thing I got that extra bottle!  Found it.  Waitaminnit, it's also hard as a rock. | 
|   | So I figured, the color doesn't matter - I'm going to paint over it anyway with Scalecoat blue.  So I found
a brand new unopened bottle of "dark tuscan oxide".  Sounds promising.  The paint stirred up just fine.  I didn't 
thin it, just put a little in the color cup of my Millenium VL.  Dum de dum, let's try spraying a little on the
handrails.  Oh look, salad dressing.  Oil and vinegar.  Oh joy.  Into the bathroom for a quick spray of Windex.
I decided that this experiment has gone on long enough.  I could really make other use of the shelf space and
that nice 99 cent plastic tub. | 
|   | I'm sure I'll get the usual comments about "user error".  Hey, you know - you could be right.  Then again, a 
wise man once said "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results".  I believe
in giving something a fair chance, but no sense being bloody stupid about it.  I just wasn't meant to be
the poster child for **** or ***** or even @!^#% if it ends in "flex".  Don't cry over lost paint, most of it
was dried up anyway.  I can't believe I actually carried the stuff out here when I moved.  I feel better now! |