Tips & Video

• Painting Tips

  
  Resin Casting Painting
  Click here to get a Adobe download on the painting instructions.
  
  Well it is time I update this page after all the requests for 'How do you paint those castings and make them look real?'. First I'm not a painting guru, I just have my own style and stick with it. There are plenty of DVD's on the market that will show basics and different painting and weathering methods. Checkout Darryl Huffman he has some great DVD's on painting and weathering. And Darryl is a great help and resource for many other projects.
  
  Well lets get started
  
  I would like to say I do not have set ways that I paint a casting I try different methods every time. So it is hard for me to say exactly how painted a casting.
  
  First you will need to check the casting over and see if you need to do any cleanup. Remove any excess material or mold marks. Next I do not wash the casting but spray the casting with a spray paint made by Rust-Oleum called Camouflage and the color is Khaki. You can find this paint at Wal-Mart. Comes out as a gray color which is good for old wood. Use the Indian ink wash and you are done. This gives you a nice primer coat for your paint to bond too.
  
  Second the questions is what kind of paint do I use. I buy cheap bottle of acrylic paint at Michael craft store about a buck a bottle. Colors like Burnt Sienna (makes a great rust wash). Then to make the Indian ink wash I take real Indian ink and mix with denatured alcohol. Remember go light on the amount of ink you can always make it darker. Also a great source of washes and weathering paints is Dr. Bens check them out at www.drbens.com I also purchase cheap brushes from Michael's craft store. My favorite weathering chalks are from Bragdon http://www.bragdonent.com/weather.htm
  
  This is the point of personal choice some people just get their paints out and start painting. What I do is if the casting is suppose to be wood I spray the casting with Model Masters Dark Tan Part #1942 to get that overall wood color. Then I take out my alcohol and Indian Ink mixture and brush this on until I get the effect I'm looking for. Then hit it with Bragdon Weathering chalks. Check out the example.
  
  
  
  As you can see it fills the cracks and crannies nicely. In fact most people have to look twice to see that is not wood. Then of course you can use shoe dye and alcohol washes or chalks which are another one I really like to use.
  
  I hope this helps.