Subj : Re: Painting models
To   : MIKE POWELL
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Sun Dec 10 2023 02:05:00

MP>I bought an airbrush in 1999.  That was a severe drought year.  Worked
  >great because our relative humidity was WAY down.  I tried using it several
  >times in the following years.  Despite use of air (and paint) filters and
  >other do-dads that are supposed to cut down on the affects of humidity, the
  >results were worse looking than with spray cans.

MP>Despite what the experts say, I have been firmly in the spray can camp ever
  >since.

In my misspent youth I got into custom painting motorcycles. I had a couple of
air brushes but I wasn't enough a a free-hand artist to get full use out of
them, but the quality of most canned paints is much better than what is in
spray cans.

I used to buy a lot of clear laquer, and candy apple prime colours so I could
mix the exact colour I wanted and spray it over metalflake or pearl or white
or silver base coats to get the end result I wanted. At the time developing
colour pigments for plastics was my full time job which gave me access to some
usefull goodies, like dry powdered pearl and metalic flake in silver and gold.

Mostly I got into painting bikes because I couldn't afford to pay what the
professionals were charging so I taught myself, and then people who saw my
bikes started paying me to do theirs. I was getting, in todays dollars, about
$700 to paint a gas tank and fenders, more if there were any fairings. That
helped pay to keep my Harley on the road without spending household money that
needed to go for other things.

Funny, I also had a dirt bike at the time which I would custom paint and it
would freak out the other riders since you destroy a paint job pretty quick
crashing through the dirt, and it looked like mine had a $700 paint job.. B)
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 * SLMR Rob  * Where Am I? What Conference Is This? Who are you people?
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