What to paint Exotic's "Ancient Mars" blank?

[Dan_F]

I have an Ancient Mars blank ready to reverse paint, wondering what color to go with. It's for an El Grande, which doesn't leave much PR on the tubes. What have you gone with that preserves the colors pretty much as they appear on the shiny side when the blank is whole? I haven't had much luck lately guessing how things will look after painting, turning and buffing. :frown:

Also waiting in the wings: Golden Dawn (don't like what white does to this one),
Cetacean Sea, Alchemy, and Burgundy Wine.

Any hints would be appreciated. Thanks.

Dan

 

[Curly]

The blanks are long enough to cut the end square on a table saw and paint with a colour you might like. Glue it to a sacrificial piece of wood a couple inches long, and then slice the wood off with a 1/16th or so of the blank left on it. You can then either buff it or chuck it in the lathe to sand and polish the blank bit to see the result. Keep the samples for future referencing. Unless you are making finials there should be enough blank to make at least 2 or 3 samples.

Pete

 

[workinforwood]

I would definitely use Blue on the Mars pen. It's a beautiful blank! I don't see it necessary to paint the inside of the blank for those. Spray the tubes blue, let them sit 24 hrs, then use some 5 min epoxy with just a touch of blue powder <ie pearlex> to tint the glue.

 

[Lenny]

Using pearlex to tint the glue is a great tip, Thanks Jeff!

I have mixed a drop of paint with epoxy before but there are concerns with using to much and weakening the glue. Seems like using a powder pigment might be less of a concern.

Dan you might find this thread interesting as well ....
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1110322&postcount=1

 

[Boz]

I recently made a Majestic with a Mars blank. I sprayed the inside of the blank flat black. The pen has great color. The darker color gives it great depth. Just my $0.02.

 

[alphageek]

Using pearlex to tint the glue is a great tip, Thanks Jeff!

I have mixed a drop of paint with epoxy before but there are concerns with using to much and weakening the glue. Seems like using a powder pigment might be less of a concern.

Dan you might find this thread interesting as well ....
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1110322&postcount=1

Although I've made most of Dawns blanks w/o painting, I have to say that link is an AWESOME idea and I think I need to try that!!! I missed that thread the first time it came around.

 

[workinforwood]

I don't know if paint weakens epoxy, but it certainly can do strange things, like make the epoxy almost instantly set up. Barely takes a drop of pearlex to color it and has absolutely no effects on the glue other than the color change.

 

[Dan_F]

Ooops, my computer put this in the wrong forum. :biggrin:

The problem with painting just the tubes, or tinting the glue, is that it doesn't help if you get bubbles in the glue, which is fairly common with epoxy, and you can see them through a thin blank.

Lenny --- Saw that thread a while ago, I tried turning a section without a tube, and it blew up. Maybe too heavy handed, but PR is more brittle than AA.

Tried cutting off thin slices on the bandsaw and applying them to a various backgrounds, but without being polished, it's pretty hard to predict the results.

Dan

 

[Dan_F]

After rescuing a discarded blank (long story), I left part of one painted white, another part black, re-drilled the other half to remove the white paint, painted half a fairly dark blue, the other half a mid-light pearl blue, and carefully turned them down without tubes. The winner was the pearl blue. White left the copper part looking too orange, black too dead, dark blue somewhat dead, and blue pearl left the most life in the blank.

Wish the kit allowed a little more thickness for the blank on these.

Dan