Best Paint For Freehand Designs Under Clearcoat?

[Mr. Preston Swift]

whats good,

I'm about to start a lapsteel project that includes giving it to my art-major friend to paint some crazy stuff on it. He's going to be doing this with the standard brush some i'm concerned about the levelness once it drys and how it will affect the clear coat going on top of it. Which paint would you recommend for this kind of task? which will ultimately provide a smoother, more professional looking finish? I've not decided on the type of clear i want on it. I'm willing to adjust just so it can work well with the paint underneath.

-mps

[Kammo1]

What I would do is firstly find out what clear you have decided to use "THEN" find paints that will not be affected by the clear coat. If you use Createx or Auto Air Colours these will almost definately not be affected by urethane clears or automotive clears, if you decide to use an acrylic or watrebased clear e-mail the tech dept to see what paint they would recommend to use under their product. I have used Createx and Autoair products without any problems under a automotive clearcoat as they are waterbased so technically they are somewhat inert to most finishes "BUT" don't take my word on this its just what I pressume. The thing with autoair or Createx paints they "MUST" be dry before tou move onto the next colour, I use a hairdryer to set the paint then I paint away again repeating the step until I'm done. Don't wory about how you put the paint on whether its with a brush or an airbrush as the amount of clear that you'll put on will bury the artwork good and proper and if again you're using a urethane clear 2-3 coats allowed to dry for 48 hours in a tenp contolled room then a quick fallting down with 800 grit paper will provide a good flat coat to put on further coats to get that almost glass like flatness to what you need. I generally put on at least 7-10 coats of urethane on a guitar body then allow 7-14 days to allow it to properly harden the cut back with 1200-2500 grit the to polish and the results are a finish that looks a mile deep. Most people will give their opinions on what works and what doesn't but after 30 years doing this I have a system that exceeds most finishes on the market, hope this helps.

[cSuttle]

I use a lot of different kinds of paints and have never had a problem. BUT ... I always do a seal coat before I start the finish. What I mean by that is I lay the guitar flat and then spary a VERY light coat and let that cure before I continue. I also make sure that the paint is completely cured too. If the light coat starts to blend with the paint, the coat is so light it has little effect.

In the piece below, I used three different types of stain and three diffent types of paint. This isn't the finished picture (I have finished it, I just haven't talken picture yet) and everything turned out ok. The robot and the planet are inlay, but the rest of it is paint or stain.

Edited May 15, 2011 by cSuttle