gonna do some cresting soon.. might be a dumb question but where do i get testors paint? thanks in advance gray
wal mart at one time, michaels , lot sof hobby shops .
Many hobby shops art supply stores will carry it.
Hobby shops seem to have the greatest choice of colors.
Ditto on your Hobby shops, many pawn shops double as such .
Hobby Lobby
Make sure you get the water based and not the regular enamels ! Much more compatible with other products used in arrow building. I had a heck of a time when I first started and used the regular enamels from testors. Hobby Lobby is where I get mine. You can go on the testors website and find a local store in your area too. Happy cresting bud !
NoCams advice is crucial.......trust him. The regular enamels dont cover as well, and may smear with the right poly. I found that high pigment artist paint is much better, and you get much more paint for the $$$$$$. Craft stores are full of it. Its fun to crest when it works out and looks good, can get frustrating if the paint doesnt cover well and doesnt look nice.
Pearl Drums..... frustrating is not the word for it when your pretty cresting runs after a poly overcoat dip !!! Ughhhhh !!! The clear overcoat dip is the final finish right before fletching and finishing a dozen. When you ruin them at that point in the process it is sickening ! I am using testors acryls and Daly's Profin with good results thanks to our bud, "snag " now. Learned all I know listening to him and all the other fine arrowsmiths on the gang.
As above, I get the stuff at Hobby Lobby.... I do use their regular enamel but my final coats are water based poly. I use Min Wax water based poly... 3-6 coats depending on how I apply it, with 0000 steel wool lightly between all coats after #2. I do not "dip" but rather use a rattle can or a sponge brush. Ya should likely have a "practice" shaft around and play with it a bit.
Also, the brushes at HL are great but as my wife, who is an art person says... Ya get what ya pay for" don't buy the cheap stuff... get the expensive ones... they work better.
Here are some I will be working on today:
Pics are not great. Took them with my phone. These are AD carbons soo... These are for a 45# MA
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/Huntschool/redwhiteblackarrow2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/Huntschool/Redblackwhitearrow.jpg)
These are for a 51# PLX
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/Huntschool/PLXarrow.jpg)
Bruce, glad you are able to make the testors enamel and Min Wax polycrylic clear top coat work for you.... I had very mixed results, especially with metallics like silver and gold. When dipping, as I do, it would cause them to run sometimes. I realize you are lightly brushing it on so that may be why it works better that way. If I let the metallic enamels dry for a week they would not run sometimes. It was so iffy and frustrating that I simply went to the testors acrylic enamels instead and I am a Happy Camper now ! JMHO
Jimmy:
I had the same problem early on. Did the longer dry time and that worked but now I use a heat gun... (careful here) to expedite the matter. I will still occasionally get a "bit of a run" with the metallic stuff only when brushing on. If I use an excess of metallic I use the spray on very lightly at first until I build a cover... Then I put it to em...
Brushes for your lines are the key....
Honestly, I can not find the acrylics here... where do you get yours? I thought about artist colors as per a suggestion from Marilyn but there are no metallic colors in artist colors soooo.... Same problem.
Did you folks get any ice out of last nights weather? We were looking at some possible acc but the temp line moved so we did not get as much. Main roads are already clean.
Have trouble with CA glued feathers adhering to testors paint.
QuoteOriginally posted by razorsharptokill:
Have trouble with CA glued feathers adhering to testors paint.
You need to have poly over the paint. Also, try fletch tape. That stuff seems to stick to about any surface.
Cool, thanks.
Yea, I should have said that. FLETCH TAPE...
It is more of a pliable membrane than a tape. Takes a little getting used to to work with it but its the Bomb....
NoCams, glad to hear you're arrowmaking is now rewarding! :thumbsup:
Snag.. Nah, it just gives him an excuse to keep Mason in arrows
Yes snag, arrowmaking is a lot like golf.... sometimes playing golf turns into misery rather than joy. You are supposed to be off work, having a good time and enjoying the course. However, if your swing or game is off it is torture. Same with arrowmaking..... especially when again, you are almost done with a eye popping dozen and then have your cresting run, Ughhh ! You helped me more than you will know snag, THANKS ! Did I mention how much I love these Doug Fir SureWoods you told me about ? Charcoal stained a new dozen 65-70's last night and checked them this evening..... still gun barrel straight which is more than I can say for my last dozen POC's. These are the most awesome shafts I have seen to date. Don't worry about being lonely out there in Oregon, these will be my first feather spliced dozen so I am sure I will be emailing you to death for help.
Bruce, go to Testors.com and the Acryls are under model paint. 3 pages of colors and they also have a retail locator where you type in your zip code. Surely you could find a dealer in Paducah or Marion ? You can also buy direct from the website I think and ship right to ya. Once you get on the water based Acryl wagon with the rest of us your troubles will be behind you ! No long wait for dry times and no compatibility issues.
I use a dip tube cause we make woodies. Noticed you are cresting carbons so I can see why you only brush over your crest and cap area. The Polycrylic is fine for that I am sure but not worth a crap for woodies and target burn. We shoot pretty hard targets that will burn that Polycrylic right off in about 20 shots. Snag hooked us on the Daly's Profin and it is the cat's pajamas ! Hear what you say about the Fletchtape too, best thing out there for a poor guy like me who cannot afford a table full of fletching jigs and waiting on glue to dry. I can fletch a dozen with the tape in an hour or less.
We got about a 1/2" of ice last night but as the night went on the temp actually went up ! That warm Gulf air saved our butts. Up to 55 today so we got a 30 degree rise in a 18 hr period. Our tracking snow is gone now, ughhhhh ! Mason has been lucky enough to get two deer in the past two years in what little snow we do get. We love huntin in the snow, it is so much fun. Only wished we got more here.
I can relate to the golf analogy....haha, "a walk in the park ruined" I believe is how Mark Twain described golf...haha
But now that's over with.
There's some good tutorials about splicing too. If I can help just let me know.
Thanks man. I'll check the site but if acrylic works that good I will try some of Marilyns artist colors or get some at Hobby Lobby.
I have made a goodly bunch of wood shafts back when I could get Lodge Pole..
Where did ya get the SureWood shafts from and do they do a taper on them and footing? I have a taper jig and can do it myself but.... time.
We never got above 30 all day. The ice got off the roads quick this morning but between here and Harrisburg the "Fog" kept building a bit more on the trees. Not heavy enough to be bad... just there. I would have "killed" for 55 deg today....
If ya need help splicing I may be able to help also.
Spray bomb your clear coat. A real fine light coat an then a little heavier for the final coat.
Stick the arrow in your cresting lathe and spray away.
Mornin' Bruce,
Bought my Surewoods direct but several sponsors on here sell them. I think Braveheart offers them tapered as well ? I tell ya Bruce, these Surewoods are simply awesome compared to POC that I have tried to use. I wanted to use POC due to tradition but it was hit or miss for me. I made Mason a dozen and after a little straightening they were okay. The next dozen for me were pitiful ! I had to straighten them 3 times and finally got them decent. Every time I did something to them they would go crooked again. Straightened them when they arrived, again after stain, again after cap dipping, again right before cresting just so I could get a decent small pin stripe, and still not straight enough. By the way.... these were Rose City Premiums purchased direct. I am done with POC, nothing but Surewoods for me going forward. Straighter, much straighter, heavy and durable. I asked for shafts around 400 grains and got exactly what I wanted from Surewood. I simply did not know how bad my POC was till my first dozen Surewoods. Don't spend too much at Hobby Lobby bud !
:thumbsup: :notworthy: Another one who sees the light! haha SUREWOOD SHAFTS all the way! But really, isn't it great to make an arrow out of straight wood? Like any project it make things so much smoother when you start out with good materials.
Jimmy:
Sounds good. My thing is getting them spined righ to shoot out of my Widows. I guess I am doing carbons because they are easier for me.
I really want to build some footed stuff to shoot out of my LB. Just think that would be cool. The Lodge Pole stuff was OK but man they were heavy for what I wanted. I can go with a 10-11gpp arrow but not much more for the way I shoot. I am not gonna build out my strike plate to use a lower spine arrow.
Its still totally cloud covered up here. Looks like it could do something any minute but the weather folks say just clouds. I would really like to see the sun and for the temps to get up in the upper 40's.
Think we kinds hijacked this thread.
I have always used testors regular enamel with water poly. I have only ever had a problem with smearing the crest one time. That was with the green, it was a hot and humid couple of days and I don't think I let it dry long enough(about 24 hrs)before dipping in the poly. I am always looking to improve thou. Are you guys saying that the difference between regular enamel and acrylic is faster drying time or is there other advantages? Time doesn't bother me, I'm in no hurry when making arrows, but if acrylic covers better, I would certainly be interested.
Woooops, Bruce is right, bout got off track there......
Okay John49 to get us back on track here....
I waited a week one time, yes it was summer and humid, probably what really caused the problem, and my silver outlines and blue metallic crest ran on me, ughhhh ! Another time my crest crackeled under the Min Wax Polycrylic. was told by another tradganger that is how they used to get antique crackeled look..... enamel or oil base under a top coat of something water based. I had so many problems with testors enamels I was afraid to touch an arrow.
To answer the question about testors enamels or any other paint for that matter.....yes, enamels are oil based and acrylics are water based. Dry time is not a issue for me with either cause I am going to let them dry for 24 hrs at least before the next step cause I am still gun shy !
John49:
This is long....
My wife is the art person so what I know about these types of paint come from her and my experience.
The enamels take more time to dry due to the oil base. They are affected by temp and hum. When I started building arrows she had me play around.. with her.. (NO, not that) ideas on some practice shafts. We found out a bunch about paint compatibility. I also read what had been posted here on TG about arrow cresting, dipping, etc.
So, here is what we came up with: I use a primer or base coat of some color. For carbons I almost always use a white or grey. These do not have to be "Primer" paints. I tape off my arrows and spray at least 2 coats allowing the coats to dry overnight in a very dry and temp stabilized atmosphere. The trick on carbons is surface prep. I clean the shafts with acetone really well before the base coats. I do not touch the paint areas with my fingers. I do the same thing on wood after applying the first stains, steel wool (OOOO) to achieve a very smooth base surface and then two coats (sometimes more depending on wood porosity) of some kind of poly. I have used a thinned oil base poly for this.
Then, on carbons, I am pretty much ready to go with cresting, caps and whatever else I am going to do. On wood, I will prep the surface by LIGHTLY and I mean LIGHTLY wiping with acetone again. This softens the surface and allows the enamels (spray or brush) to adhere to the surface coat. All cresting etc gets the same dry time for each operation but.... (both wood and carbon) I have found I can speed it up a bit by judiciously using a heat gun. Be very careful if you try this as those things can burn right through a shaft let alone the paint. A hair drier works well and generally produces lower heat levels but it is still "DRY" air.
OK, now here is where Cams and I differ, and Tree Rat and I agree.... I use a water based poly most times. I just LIGHTLY.. I mean LIGHTLY spray the work. Then let it dry 24 Hrs. I come back with another light coat 24 hrs later and let it dry. Now I steel wool (OOOO) the surface lightly and finish with 2-4 coats of the water based poly. Doing light coats in a controlled environment does not seem to affect the paint condition.
I have used two different poly finishes on the same shaft just to get a better tip finish. Oil for the tip end, and water based for the cresting etc. I just use a "penetration" band to cover the meeting place.
Cams, just a note, but to get that "crackled finish, I think you have to go non oil over oil or non sticky surface.
Here is a pick after work was done. This is a carbon.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/Huntschool/Redblackwhitearrow.jpg)
Hope this helps....