Hey all, Following up on a post recently, I worked out a swirl finish on a mic. If anybody wants I will put up the gory details on how to do it. I am thinking mojokane might appreciate the aesthetics :-)
it is actually pretty rough to dig up the details online, so here it is.
Remove hardware from shell, strip old paint, rough up with steel wool, wipe clean. Use some bluetac or something to protect the screw holes, you don't want to fill them with stuff. Tape off all holes from inside the shell, masking tape is fine, you are going to dip it and don't want it to fill up with junk.
Prime with 2 coats of white krylon spray primer. At this time also prime the bottom of a bunch of plastic cups that are about the same size as the shell for practice.
Put a gallon of warmish water (warm room temperature water) in a bucket and mix in 1.5 tablespoons of borax.
Drip in paint and swirl (this is where the youtubes help you figure out what is going on).
I tried a couple of types of paint and did not have good success, they either dried too fast, sank, or did not mix well between colors. I ended up using Magic Marble paints from art for happiness. They were the right consistency, have a dripper top, and worked really well. They were very prompt, though it certainly costs more than model enamels. The auto paint model enamel route never worked for me.
Working quickly after you start dripping and swirling, you submerge the item to be coated, have somebody brush away the rest of the paint on the water surface, move the object to the area without paint and pull it out. Let the water dry off and then let paint dry over night. This is the part where the cups come in. Practice a bunch of times to get the swirl working the way you want, it is a pain to re-strip the mic shell and start over again.
After the shell has dried make a stand so it can hang over some newspaper supported inside the shell, mix some envirotex lite high gloss finish (you can get 4-8 oz of this at hardware or hobby shop). Pour the finish over the mic, using a bit of paper or something to push it around and make sure all surfaces are coated. Read directions about bubbles, after about 5 minutes you kiss the stuff with a torch to get out any bubbles. After a few more minutes dry to wipe of any drips on the bottom you want to get rid of (but do not touch any of the finish on the shell where you want it to stay). You can sand later, so not too much worry about getting every drip now. Do not breathe or touch the undried product, protect your eyes, it will mess them up if it gets in them.
Put a cardboard box over the shell and let it dry for a week. If you are a hurry you can speed things up with a light bulb in the box or a junk toaster oven on low if you are in a real hurry. The stuff stays sticky a long time and the box, if you touch it when wet it will leave a mark that will need to be sanded out. patience is the best way. I used a grinding wheel on a dremmel, worked great.
After the shell has dried, sand off the extra drips of finish (do not cut or they might flake off). Clean out screw holes and remove tape inside.
You are ready to go.
Last Edited by on May 29, 2012 4:13 PM
Last Edited by on May 29, 2012 10:17 AM