Mini Vortex paint Mixer - Best Paint Mixer or Shaker for Miniatures & Wargames Models
28K views
Nov 30, 2022
Read more for Product Links See more of our work at https://www.fauxhammer.com See the best paint mixers at https://www.fauxhammer.com/featured/best-paint-mixers-shakers-for-miniatures-and-wargames-model-paints-2019/ Vortex Mixer Links UK - https://amzn.to/2WK0ITx US - https://amzn.to/2KjLmDu Canada - https://amzn.to/2KYicci Stainless Steel Shakers Links UK - https://amzn.to/2XPuWWu US - https://amzn.to/2Ih8mk9 Canada - https://amzn.to/2XbvUPR
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi guys, Fauxhammer here and welcome to my first ever YouTube video. I know that a lot of people
0:13
out there have been really interested in finding the best device for mixing and shaping their
0:19
different bottles of paint. Now I've been doing a lot of paint brand reviews recently and this
0:26
This has really encouraged me to find a way of saving both time and my arm when shaking
0:31
the different bottles. These army painter paints for example have been quite medium heavy so when you're trying
0:38
to get through a review and shaking lots of them it really hurts your arms
0:42
There are DIY options out there such as a jigsaw which is attached to a G-clamp which essentially
0:48
shakes the bottle up and down really really fast and if you've got an agitator then this
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will mix your paints for you. Now I've been using that same DIY method for quite a while
1:00
but I have been eager to treat myself to something a little bit more professional that gets the
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job done better. Now initially I looked online for something that would shake these bottles
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and rest my arms not have to hold on to a jigsaw and there are a number of options out there
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there's the robot paint shaker which essentially lets you strap the paint to
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it you can get a battery powered version or a mains powered version what this
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will do is this will you just turn it on and it shakes your paint for you now
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this device here is very interesting this is actually a mini vortex mixer
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it's not made for paint per se it's actually made as lab equipment and the
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point is you get a test tube and this test tube you place in the top and it'll actually mix the
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contents of that test tube. It's really simple to operate. The device just sits on the desk and all
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you do is you put a test tube in the top and then the device inside will spin at 3000 RPM causing
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the fluid inside to mix and I'll show an example of this in a few moments. Now before committing
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to buy this I actually had a look online for some alternatives and here we have what is essentially
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a budget nail polish shaker that you obviously use for nail polish and the paint sits in the top
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there like this Vallejo does and it shapes it side to side. That's pretty good, it does the job
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you just turn it on and it shakes the paint. There is an alternative version that's made specifically
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four miniature paints this is the robot paint shaker and from what I understand it is essentially
2:44
a more robust version of the same thing the robot paint shaker comes in both battery and mains
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powered version and the batteries doesn't shake it quite as well and the mains powered version
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will shake it a lot more vigorously so that's really the version you want to go for if there's
3:03
there's a mains adapter available in your country. This budget version however
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was less than half the price of the robot here, and it actually comes with both mains and battery built in
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The problem with it however, is that as soon as I received it
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put some batteries in, I know these batteries work because they were recently charged
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they're EniLoop batteries, really good batteries, just been in charge, they work in my children's toys without a problem
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and that didn turn on it simply didn work So you do get what you paying for with these things which is why I thought okay I step up to a robot paint shaker but in the UK they not available so then I had a look
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online for what else was available and here we have the mains powered and the mains adapters
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are available in a variety of countries but the mains powered vortex mixer so the vortex
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Vortex Mixers themselves actually rotate the paint at incredibly rapid speed. So unlike shaking it up and down, which really does help if you've got an agitator, what
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I'm going to go through now will show you how the Vortex Mixer works
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So this is thinned Drakenoff Nightshade and to get it work you just press it down, give
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it a second because you need to find the right space, but press it down on the top and then
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device will force the paint to rotate and as you can see as you press it down the paint inside is
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rotated very rapidly and this helps to loosen up any clogged pigment and the paint itself will shoot
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up the side mixing with the medium and give you a nice consistent mix. So as you press the paint
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down onto the pressure pad that will actually cause the device inside to quickly shape the
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paint around the inside of the bottle. This should loosen up any loose pigment. Another thing to do
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I like to flip them upside down for some of the more resistant things which will shoot the medium
5:01
up into the pigment that's settled at the bottom and clean it out. So let's have a look at what we
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can do with an actual paint where the medium and the pigment have clearly separated. So here we have
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Spore Crusher Brass. As you can see here there's some clear separation between the medium and the
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pigment so the medium itself is in the middle, it's got a slightly orange hue, the pigment itself
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is at the bottom and that's your silvery gold colour. And what we need to do is mix these back
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together so that we've got a nice consistent paint. What I'm going to go through here is I'm just going
5:39
to before I've mixed it I haven't used this in a year so I'm going to squeeze out a couple of drops
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on this paper to the side. And as you can see it's mainly colorized medium and that's what we've got
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So we will get that a bit better with a bit of a shake. It's got an agitator
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inside. The agitator itself should help to mix the pigment back with the medium
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and this is how you would normally shape the paint or what things like the paint shakers would do for you. So let's have a look how this is mixed
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Slight improvement, it's a bit thicker but we've still got mainly an orangey colour. So
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let's try it out on the vortex mixer. So as I said just press it to the vortex mixer. There is
6:34
a pressure pad in there you've got to make sure you hit it it's a little bit sensitive
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but here we are and it's shaking it. Now you can just about see around the center line where the
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agitator is actually running around the center. So that line there is the agitator itself being
6:52
run around the inside of the bottle several times. Now I was hoping that this would show
6:58
a change in color on the outside. The only thing with these dropper bottles is the paint pigment
7:04
and the medium will actually dye the bottle on the inside anyway
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So I'm confident here through experience using it that the paint inside is mixing consistently but we not seeing on the outside A bit disappointing I always like to see that change It there slightly but unfortunately we can see it
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Now I like to put them upside down as well because when you've got them upside down the actual medium
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itself gets shot up to the opposite side of the bottle so it spins up so if you've got any really
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stubborn pigment down at the base of the bottle then that shooting the liquid
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medium up there will will clear that out for you. So here we go here's the drop
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and as you can see that is a perfectly mixed paint that is exactly what Skull
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Crusher brush should look like perfect. So here is some Balthazar gold that I
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mixed up as well, gave it a bit of a shake and again we've got another
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perfectly mixed paint. So this is great for Citadel, I've moved my Citadel into
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dropper bottles, it works with all kinds of dropper bottles, we've got Darkstar here
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these are another really great metallic paint, they don't settle as much but it's
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good, we've got some scale colour unfortunately, this is quite well mixed
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so it doesn't show it too well. We've also here got the primer again from Army Painter
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Again, quite a thick paint with it being primer, just a quick touch on there will keep it nice and clean
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So here's a good example. This is some Tamiya Chrome Silver X11, and this hasn't actually been opened for over 10 years
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As you can see there, it's pretty much medium on top, all the pigments at the bottom, and the pigment itself has actually turned quite chunky and thick
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So this is the sort of paint that would be really great to easily recover
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Obviously it's still quite fluid, if it wasn't fluid I'd probably get some extra medium in there and get a Dremel with a wire brush
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But what we'll do, we'll just mix it up on the Vortex Mixer and we'll see how this looks after the mix
9:18
So here we are after the mix and as we can see, no longer medium sat on top, it's almost perfectly mixed
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It could probably do with a little bit more time, but as you should be able to see here in just a second, the actual consistency of the paint in the medium is a lot thinner
9:35
So now it operates more like a consistent paint. Here we are using it on P3's gold
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As you can see, there's quite clear separation there between the medium and the pigment itself
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So what I'm going to do, I'm going to speed up this video so we can see the difference before and after
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So bear with me a second while I stick you on fast forward. So as you can see here as we are mixing it still we now have a perfectly consistent gold all the way up the side of the bottle
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So I'm confident now that this paint is mixed and it would have taken a lot longer if we just mixed it back
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So a really good example here is a paint that everyone's going to be familiar with or at least the brand
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This is Citadel's Rockwell Fletch. Now this is a great example. It's a brand new bottle. It's been sat on my shelf
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I think I've got it as part of Warhammer conquest but it's just been lying around
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I got my oil in a dropper bottle But this is clearly separated so we got all the pigment at the bottom the medium which is quite clear not really colourised in the middle So let
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see what we can do with this by sticking it on the Vortex Mixer
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And there you have it
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In less than a minute we've now got a perfectly mixed rough-off flush
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Now, we haven't opened this before, as you can see it's sealed, so we'll just take a look inside and we have an absolutely perfect mix of it
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So this is an absolutely great device to have. Is it a necessity? No, not at all
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You can get away with shaking, you can get a cheaper model, but if you've got a lot of paint or you've got some really pigment heavy paint
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then this is an absolutely fantastic tool to have in your armory
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You'll find them many places online. Some different countries have them under different brands
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Now, this one's 4X, but they do actually come as different named models
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You'll know if it's the right thing because you'll have a look online and it will essentially look like this
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You've got the blue top, you've got the semi-opaque center with the swirls
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and then you've got a solid metal grey base. So the mixer itself is weighted on the bottom and is approximately around 5 kilos
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The feet underneath are rubber, so I'll show an example in just a second
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This helps to absorb any of the vibration that the unit causes
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It's generally quite quiet, you will hear it, but nothing any greater than your average hairdryer on medium
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So the shaking itself doesn't affect your desk as I was saying
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Here for example is a mini stood next to it and as we mix this turbo door colour we can see that the mini itself is unaffected even though it's right next to it
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Here for example is a shield mounted to a cork next to wet paint and I'm quite confident that even the cork itself and how light it is it's not going to wobble over and fall into the paint
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This really is a great luxury item for any miniature painter to own
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No matter what brand you've got, no matter what bottles you've got, just a couple of seconds with your paint on top of the Vortex mixer and you will have perfectly mixed paint every time
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So that about wraps up my first ever YouTube video. I'm going to apologise right now for the quality
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I have no intention right now of making any kind of YouTube channel
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I'm focused on delivering great content and lots of product reviews on Fauxhammer.com
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so please just understand this is just a supporting video for Fauxhammer.com
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if you're not familiar with Fauxhammer or any of the things that I do
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