wakajawaka

If your oil paint comes in a tube and is a solid consistency , you will never be able to thin it enough to swirl. What you want is oil based paint.The other posters are right.The most recommended paint on the forums is Humbrol. You can get this stuff at any hobby shop. Despite what the tutorial on the project guitar forum says i also have used testors with pretty fair results.The tutorial guy uses PLasti kote. Remember whatever hobby paint you do buy, there are sub catagories, gloss, matt,metallic,each one will have different properties and react differently in the water and with other each other. This is the tedium of the art. Also keep in mind certain colors are going to be thicker and thinner etc so you will need to have paint thinner or mineral spirits. W

thanks for the feedback guys, i found some interesting models masters paint in the hobby shop and some florescent orange sign paint,i am going to try next. with new paint comes more expirimentation to get the right consistency. swirlslave: i used the armor coat flourescent yellow like you were planning to.The pics i posted showed the guitars with one coat on it.Since i'm swirling over it i think i'll only need 1 coat.In person they are very yellow,in the pics they look at little duller.I think if you were going to do a flat color with this type of paint multiple coats would be the way to go,also i found in my tests the color became darker the closer i held the can to the wood. i hope to have some new swirls to show sunday night!! W

ok the pics are up,not much to show yet but will will be swirling this weekend.BTW they look way more yellow in person. http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/

ok i'm back in business. Its been a long month!. I just got in from the shop from spraying my next 2 projects.I will post pics tomorrow. I bought a little fender squier bullet for 50 bucks a few weeks ago. The owner had tried to paint it black over a foam green color.It didn't work out so well so he sold it to me.It is now my guinea pig. I stripped it down along with the body of my trusty old beat up RG750 (Metallic Red). I sprayed them both neon yellow,while i was at the store i found some neon green paint similar to the LNG, i want to try as well.I need another body now!! dam! I am going to swirl over top the neon yellow base coat. green,pink,and orange. I tested 2 more pallets tonight and the first one was pretty good the other was not. It was too late to get pics but i'll get them ASAP.I want to do a few more tests because i have not worked with newer paint as much. W

I just stripped an rg 750 in metallic red paint down to the bare wood, with an electric palm sander and 2 sheets of 60 grit sandpaper.It took about 3 hours over the course of a couple of days.The problem is always on the inside horns,you goto do them by hand or get a small contour sander in there. they actually took longer than the rest of the guitar.You have to be careful not to sand too much or you'll get grooves in the wood. They are for me are the only reason id use heat or chemicals. If you do sand it keep moving around,you always goto make sure you aren't sanding too far into the wood especially on the edges. As for filling the strap button cavity, the best method i have found is to get some wood or carpenters glue and some wood (sanding) shavings. Mix them together and pack them into the hole until it is flush to the top.It will dry rock hard. I have never had one fail on me.

Hi everyone Does anyone know of any oil based paint brands availble in Canada that make bright florescent colors?. I have been looking everywhere i can think of, hardware stores,hobby shops, sign makers/print shops,with no luck. Apparently Testors used to make some but they were discontinued.(if anyone has some,let me know ill buy it from you). They still make florescent paint in Laquer,which i tried to swirl with ,but when i put it in the water it dried instantly.Is there any way to keep it from drying?.Would paint extender work on Laquer?. If anyone has any ideas i'd appreciate hering em, thanks. W

hmm.... i suppose you could do that, though i think you get more smudges than swirls. I was trying to imagine about what effect you were wanting to achive.Correct me if i'm wrong but i think you want a guitar body that would be a solid color from the top horn to the mid section then a swirl effect over the pickup area then a solid color from about the tem cavity down?on both sides? You could paint your solid colors first then mask them off and swirl the middle. Also i disovered by accident, (and plan to expiriment more with this technique). When you get a swirl in the bucket you like take a piece of thick paper (cardboard is even better) and lay it on top of the water. The paint/swirl will stick perfectly to the paper. You then lay the paper down on the guitar swirl side down ,dont let it slide around,lay it down and take someting flat and rub in up and down strokes all across the paper,lift carefully and voila you will have a swirl transfer!.You have to do this quick before the the paint dries on the paper though.this would work for situations where you wan a swirl in a small or defined area. If what you are asking is how to do a swirl with out the bucket and water, take the paint and mix it around on a piece of paper and try the transfer technique. Let me know how it works if you try it. Good Luck W

thanks for the feedback, its interesting you mentioned liking the backs better i found that the back turned out better on every attempt. All the photos are actually the same body that i sanded down each time and repainted. I think you're right , if i get a bigger bucket that should help, because i have very little room to move the body around in the water. I am also thinking about the angle of the body and possibly dunking it sideways etc.The other thing that was a huge problem was that i used silcone from a tube to seal the screw holes,which as i discovered to my great embarrassment from talking to others is apparently the single stupidest thing i coulda used.SLICONE REPELS PAINT!!.I'm an idiot!! anyhow i know that this musta had an effect on the finished swirl.I know that if i use a different body it will make a difference. I am currently sanding down a 750 body , and i have my jem replacement waiting inline, i cant wait to get settled and get back at it. W

Ok it has been awhile. I've been busy at work, and i'm getting ready to move very soon so these will be my last swirls until i get settled again. I have been productive though, i've been checking out other swirlers work, taking notes and studying techniques colors etc, doing more tests. I have made some inquiries into auto paint. I will go further into that when i have some tests done. I wanted to get the trusty old jackson body 1 more dunk before packing up my painting stuff. I sanded it own from the last swirl attempt shown on photobucket as #25 & 26. I really liked the blue but clearly the red was a problem. So i prepped the body again. I have been paying more attention to using rubber gloves when handling the body and making sure its clean etc. I have been using mainly testers enamel, green and blue. I'm not having much sucess with humbrol yet, but still trying. My first attempt tonight again was disapointing (shown in pics as second last atempt) The back was not bad but the front again had issues. The blue looked bad and i had the little dimples all over the front of the body. I was really pi***d off so i sanded it down fast and dunked it again using blue, green and red, so fast in fact that if you look closely at the back pic you can see the old swirl in the cavities...whoops, oh well i wanted 1 swirl that looked somewhat useable before i had to pack it in. The end result was pics labeled as "my latest attempt". As always any suggestions advice or comments good and bad are welcome. http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/ thanks W

I appreciate feedback from anyone everyone,but particularly from those that have gone throught the process. I vastly underestimated the technique.Ya the concept is simple but......LOL I'm still at the stage of figuring out that i don't know anything!! *Bows Down to all pros* "i'm not worthy" On saturday I started another prepping batch.I went to local hobby store and bought the humbrol paints, man those tins are tiny!. The problem was they didn't have a good selection of colors(Mostly darker shades)I bought some metallic and gloss, of the blue red green and a really ugly yellow. This time i wanted a lighter base to swirl on, so i bought some white BIN wood sealer in rattle cans. I figured when i eventually get to the point of trying bodies (ive got 3 in the wings waiting) im gonna ned to seal em right? so i wanted to see how the paint would react to the new surface.Not good at first. My first three the paint just slide right off the pallett.So i wiped it off let it dry,and sanded them really good and that seemed to do the trick. I found that the metallic colors didnt work at all.Overall I got alot brighter results but the yellow i chose was way too thick and ran. Today i found a real obscure shop in the city and found some awesome colors i cant wait to try. My next step is to seal then prime or base coat a pallette to see how the paint reacts to that. Does anyone have any rattle can brand suggestions for a base coat? Or any thing to lookout for when buying some?.(im in canada) I have a rattlecan of Canadas Pride "true blue" enamel in the garage would that work? Until next time W ok round three I have moved on to humbrol and testers as per the suggestions of other members with mixed results. The paint is definitly more vibrant, but I'm having trouble getting the paint to move in the tub when there are more than 2 colors in the water. I am pretty sure i have all my mixes right cause im not getting the dripping nearly as much now, The first 1 or two move really well but any more and they seem to sit and glob. And when i attempt to swirl i get these annying little paint "dots" all over.(In the water). By the time i have all my paint in the water and ready to swirl it mixes into a big soup.(no definition between the paints) I got anxious and a bit over excited one night and dipped an old jackson body i had around. I had previously primed it white.The front turned out really bad, but the back and sides went very well as a test, not perfect but looks like a swirl. I sanded it off and will try again. I uploaded the photos as well as my next batch of test pallets all are primed with an oil based shallac sealer. I think i have improved my sense of color!, but still have a long way to go. I am geting a bit frustrated at the fact that they all tend to look the same. I know that it will require some more expirimentation with dipping, and how my paint is going in the water. But if anyone sees any glaring errors/or comments or suggestions i'd appreciate a heads up!!. thanks W W http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/ 2nd attempt at jackson body ok heres my 2nd attempt at the jackson body, again the back seemed to work out better than the front. It woulda been nice to get some more yellow in there the red blobbed and ran and there are spots where it looks like the paint didn't take at all. I'm not sure if thats the sealer or poor body prep. I was happy with the coverage of the blue though. Hard to miss the red landmine on the bottom right part under the tone hole grrr!!. http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/

hmmm interesting i do dip pretty fast i guess, i have 3 more pallets to do, i'll try to slow down. I am basically copying the tutorial video. But i think my problems are more to do with mixing paint. This may not make any sense, but when i look at the paint in my tub right before i swirl, the colors don't look independant enough.When you look at a pro swirl you can see that their paint looked identical on the water. i.e vibrant solid independant waves of color. Maby i need a bigger tub, I'm using a rubbermaid garbage tub, 22 inches high 19 inches in diam. W

I appreciate feedback from anyone everyone,but particularly from those that have gone throught the process. I vastly underestimated the technique.Ya the concept is simple but......LOL I'm still at the stage of figuring out that i don't know anything!! *Bows Down to all pros* "i'm not worthy" On saturday I started another prepping batch.I went to local hobby store and bought the humbrol paints, man those tins are tiny!. The problem was they didn't have a good selection of colors(Mostly darker shades)I bought some metallic and gloss, of the blue red green and a really ugly yellow. This time i wanted a lighter base to swirl on, so i bought some white BIN wood sealer in rattle cans. I figured when i eventually get to the point of trying bodies (ive got 3 in the wings waiting) im gonna ned to seal em right? so i wanted to see how the paint would react to the new surface.Not good at first. My first three the paint just slide right off the pallett.So i wiped it off let it dry,and sanded them really good and that seemed to do the trick. I found that the metallic colors didnt work at all.Overall I got alot brighter results but the yellow i chose was way too thick and ran. Today i found a real obscure shop in the city and found some awesome colors i cant wait to try. My next step is to seal then prime or base coat a pallette to see how the paint reacts to that. Does anyone have any rattle can brand suggestions for a base coat? Or any thing to lookout for when buying some?.(im in canada) I have a rattlecan of Canadas Pride "true blue" enamel in the garage would that work? Until next time W ok round three I have moved on to humbrol and testers as per the suggestions of other members with mixed results. The paint is definitly more vibrant, but I'm having trouble getting the paint to move in the tub when there are more than 2 colors in the water. I am pretty sure i have all my mixes right cause im not getting the dripping nearly as much now, The first 1 or two move really well but any more and they seem to sit and glob. And when i attempt to swirl i get these annying little paint "dots" all over.(In the water). By the time i have all my paint in the water and ready to swirl it mixes into a big soup.(no definition between the paints) I got anxious and a bit over excited one night and dipped an old jackson body i had around. I had previously primed it white.The front turned out really bad, but the back and sides went very well as a test, not perfect but looks like a swirl. I sanded it off and will try again. I uploaded the photos as well as my next batch of test pallets all are primed with an oil based shallac sealer. I think i have improved my sense of color!, but still have a long way to go. I am geting a bit frustrated at the fact that they all tend to look the same. I know that it will require some more expirimentation with dipping, and how my paint is going in the water. But if anyone sees any glaring errors/or comments or suggestions i'd appreciate a heads up!!. thanks W W http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/

just curious to know what kinda paint you used for swirl? Im expirimenting right now, with a bunch of types.

I appreciate feedback from anyone everyone,but particularly from those that have gone throught the process. I vastly underestimated the technique.Ya the concept is simple but......LOL I'm still at the stage of figuring out that i don't know anything!! *Bows Down to all pros* "i'm not worthy" On saturday I started another prepping batch.I went to local hobby store and bought the humbrol paints, man those tins are tiny!. The problem was they didn't have a good selection of colors(Mostly darker shades)I bought some metallic and gloss, of the blue red green and a really ugly yellow. This time i wanted a lighter base to swirl on, so i bought some white BIN wood sealer in rattle cans. I figured when i eventually get to the point of trying bodies (ive got 3 in the wings waiting) im gonna ned to seal em right? so i wanted to see how the paint would react to the new surface.Not good at first. My first three the paint just slide right off the pallett.So i wiped it off let it dry,and sanded them really good and that seemed to do the trick. I found that the metallic colors didnt work at all.Overall I got alot brighter results but the yellow i chose was way too thick and ran. Today i found a real obscure shop in the city and found some awesome colors i cant wait to try. My next step is to seal then prime or base coat a pallette to see how the paint reacts to that. Does anyone have any rattle can brand suggestions for a base coat? Or any thing to lookout for when buying some?.(im in canada) I have a rattlecan of Canadas Pride "true blue" enamel in the garage would that work? Until next time W

Sorry man, not that great..either too busy or and not bright enough, though i don't blame your skills..just the materials used. My tips: Use better paints, oil based paints (Humbrol model paint works well) Don't use black as a base coat. (Stick to light colours, such as pastel greens and whatnot.) Once you have done this, practice controlling your swirls, with a bit of practice you can get the paint to go where you want it and to do what you want it to do. I appreciate the feedback, I've only been at it for 7 days now, so im really posting to see if im on the right track.I definitly want to try better paint. Is Humbrol sold outside the UK? Is there a similar paint available in Canada/US?/Ebay?. Is regular paint thinner what most people use or is it extender to dilute the paint? thanks again W

I just finished my first batch of swirls,and would appreciate some feedback I uploaded the ones that didn't fail miserably,of which there were many.As you can see, i have along way to go, and as i sit typing this i realise the advice that everyone on the forum gives is practice practice practice ,and then practice some more, is appropriate!. To begin I primed black and scuff sanded 10 scrap pallets. 3 only on one side,I wanted to see the difference the base coat made.Photo Labeled #3 is the swirl on raw wood. for the strawberry shake swirl I used Benjamin Moore Alkyd Enamel red , yellow/cream and grey All puchased as mis tints from a local paint store, and a garden variety paint thinner to dilute. (I know that the tutorial says to use paint time extender,but doesnt that just delay the drying time? not actually thin the paint?) I had major problems with the yellow and grey being too heavy and running off the pallet when i pulled it out of the water. But the red worked perfectly. I mixed the red and yellow to get pink and that worked perfectly the first time. After the first batch of the Strawberry swirl i never got the light colors to work again. After that I bought a pint of Blue Varathane plastic enamel.I wanted to do a blue red, purple swirl, however Even as I write this i still cant get the blue to work on its own.I started thing maby the borax mix was wrong for the plastic enamel, but when I mixed it with the red the purple is a monster. I am still getting streaks, and i still don't think the paint is vibrant enough. I assume this has to do with the type of paint? or the finish? not sure if anyone knows i'd appreciate any insight. so its back to the drawing board for now,I will post more when i do my next batch.I want to get some more colors and try priming a solid white.I also have an old jackson body laying around i am itching to dunk then the Jem replacement body!! http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s153/shrly2/ W