The Army Painter Hydropack Bundle Stay Wet Palette for Acrylic Painting - Acrylic Paint Palette, 50 Pcs Wet Palette Paper, and 2 Wet Pallet Sponges

The Good: Paper and sponge work well together, paints are very well hydrated. Good value for the price with 50 sheets. The Bad: Pretty small, I was using a master series with parchment paper before, this is higher quality but I miss the extra space. I dont really think the brush holder layer is worth while, it doesnt securely hold brushes so they will slide up and down and ruin the tips if you traveled with it. This layer also makes it harder to cap close and reopen the pallet.

... is good!

Ive generally enjoyed using this wet palette, but...well, frankly, the hydro foam is much worse than standard paper towels and the hydro sheets are much worse than standard parchment paper. The case is super nifty though. See, the problem with the hydro garbage this is designed to use: given a day or two, Army Painter paints bleed back through the hydro-sheets into the hydro-foam. Youd think theyd have tested this with their own paints at least! But it doesnt seem so. To make things even more odd, the pattern (pictured) doesnt even correspond with the paints I was using! The purple on the right-hand side? I wasnt painting with purple. The only yellow I was painting with was on the lower left, but it seems to have migrated everywhere. Same with the orange. Even worse, it seems like it has also become a bit of a petri dish for something or another--this hardly seems antimicrobial! I have to wonder if the colors here are even from the paints or if some weird bacteria or mold is actually producing pigment inside of the foam. (But perhaps its just different pigments in the same paint migrating at different rates, like in chromatography.) And, worse, I havent a clue how to clean out this stinking foam! All-in-all, this is a great little wet palette case, but the foam and sheets are really not up to the task. Im going to have to see if I cant make this baby work with something else, because I really like the case at least and would rather not go back to using my old tupperware wet palette.

Molds very easily.

Great item, it seems like good value too

It kinda small and doesnt seem to keep my paints wet for that long. The paintbrush holder is a bit too short for standard brushes, and they dont hold onto the brushes at all.

Pick you up a masterson sta-wet. Save yourself $10, or buy a bunch more replacement sponges for said wet palette. As for this palette, compared to one I made myself out of a plastic sandwich container, paper towels, two pennies, and food grade parchment paper, Id rather use the one I made myself. This palette is very professional-looking. It does not hold or even have a seal. Moisture condensed on the top lid of my palette. The paints I had on it overnight leaked into one another and turned a pale gray. Bought mine at my LGS, so I cant return it, though Ive not asked. Probably will ask em about in-store credit, see if I cant score some more minis out of it. Overall, save your money, go to the dollar store and pick up a nice big sandwich container of some sort, some paper towels and some parchment paper, layer it and get it nice and wet with some distilled or otherwise filtered water, call it good and start painting. Or pick up a masterson sta-wet. Either will provide you with more of a seal than the reviewed palette.

Good: The wet palette sponge/paper work so incredibly well it has changed the way I paint forever. Not so good: The center brush holder plate sits very low in the bottom section which holds your wet palette. So if you want to close and leave your paints protected from dust, etc. They cant be in any kind of glob or pile, or else they get squished all over the bottom of the brush holder portion. You might think to leave the brush holder out, but the top slides off of the bottom without the center plate. Really surprising, since one of its main claims to fame is storing paints for hours/days. Im not working in a clean room. Also, you need to use an elastic band to hold everything together. This looks great, but is clumsy in practice. A clasp or snapping system seems the far better choice ergonomically. Conclusion: Frankly the sponges and papers work so well that they overcome the confusing container design for me, but being an expensive setup by an established brand it is surprising how poorly it seems to be designed.

Helps keep the paints usable for an extended period of time.

Item works exactly as described. Keeps paint useable for days. No more wasting model paint.