painting tubes

[ahoiberg]

after my first acrylic, i noticed the need to paint the tubes. so with the next two i did, i painted one set of tubes white for a white pen i did and another black for a blueish, relatively clear acrylic.

i used some plastic paint for the white, seemed to work pretty well. but for the black, i didn't have anything sitting around so i used a sharpie. bad idea. it looks terrible beneath the blank. it pooled up from the ca i guess and got stripped off most of the tube.

so, can anyone offer any tips on what kinds of paint work well for painting tubes and should something other than CA be used to glue them with? also, does the inside of the blank need painted also?

thanks!

 

[gerryr]

I prefer to paint the blanks rather than the tube. I've found that almost any black paint or fingernail polish will work great. Other colors, particularly metallics and pearls don't work as well. I use 15 minute epoxy to glue tubes into any blank that's been painted. Even thick CA doesn't give me as much working time as I want. The other advantage of epoxy is that I can also mix some pigment into it for additional insurance.

 

[Ligget]

I use nail varnish on my tubes, bought a box of 50 mixed colours on ebay. I mostly use 2 part epoxy glue now for painted tubes because if you use CA accelerant it turns the CA white which can be evident when turning translucent acrylics.

 

[alamocdc]

When coloring my tubes, I use Sharpies, but I only use epoxy and haven't had a problem. For the less opaque acrylics, I paint the inside of the blanks using everything to spray paint to model paint to acrylic paints to fingernail polish. All has worked well for me.

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

I paint the inside of the blank with Testers model paint. I use a sharpie on the tube. I use epoxy that has a drop or two of Testers model paint mixed in with it. So far (knock wood) I have had no reported problems.

 

[airrat]

I use metal paint I picked up at Michaels.