Anyone who has leaned into a bunker that has been shot at all day and ends up with half their body dripping in oil can relate to the complaint that oil-based paintballs can get too messy. Oily paint smears on goggles, sticks to clothes, permanently coats obstacles and makes AstroTurf feel like an ice-skating rink. The simple solution to this oily mess is to create a water-based paint. Unfortunately, the gelatin used to make the shells simply doesn't mix well with water-based paints.
Rumor has it, though, that a new company - HydroTec Paintball - is coming out with a water-based paintball. The company plans on debuting the paint early this fall and claims its product will help to "reinvigorate the industry." I'm somewhat skeptical that any paintball improvement (other than free or nearly-free paintballs) will reinvigorate the industry, but I am interested in whether a water-based paintball will actually work better than the traditional oil-based variety. The worst-case scenario is that the paintballs are awful and everyone keeps using the paint they currently shoot, but the best-case scenario means a cheaper, better paintball might be on the horizon. I'm excited to find out.
Comments
“I’m somewhat skeptical that any paintball improvement (other than free or nearly-free paintballs) will reinvigorate the industry”
Do you see any possibility that free paintballs might negatively affect paintball participation overall (not so much tourney or other high volume genres)?
I don’t feel virtually free paintballs will help at the root level of our game. With the amount of paintballs in the air that would result from such a scenario, I’m quite sure we would limit our demographics to only those that like extreme activities, which leaves out most of the population.
Reiner makes a point, with private sites closing everyday, not even the big corperate franchises will be able to keep up the momentum should paint become almost free.
However, the most likely factor should water based paint make it into the industry is that there will be 1. a strengthening of the industry as the fatcats sell water based for near enough the same price as oil based
2. there becomes segregation in the sport, as i cannot see any field let alone competitions using a mixture of different paints.
On another note, “Oily paint smears on goggles, sticks to clothes, permanently coats obstacles and makes AstroTurf feel like an ice-skating rink.” Here lie the advantages of chalk based balls.
In response to Reiner:
I definitely think there would be negative effects if paintballs became super cheap to nearly free. There would be benefits such as poorer players being able to play more often and there would be problems as many players would shoot a case a game.
The question, though, is somewhat of a moot point because even if manufacturers could make paintballs at almost no cost, they would still sell them at the rate the market could support them.
My comment about reinvigorating the sport was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment on how the industry won’t be reinvigorated simply by making new paintballs. The way to reinvigorate paintball is to focus on the sport as a whole and how it is presented and understood by the public, not by improving a piece of equipment.
I would welcome the chance to try out some water based paintballs. Hopefully they work as well as what we currently have.
My question is this – will they be more environmentally friendly than the oil based? I know the current ones aren’t bad, especially compaired to the nightmare called ‘airsoft.’
The reason I play paintball over airsoft is significantly about the litter. I hate to see airsoft on my field. Those little pellets everywhere make both us and airsoft look bad because non-players often lump us together.
I hope the water based paint will bring more players to the sport and that some of them are ex-airsoft players.