Painting enclosures - Marbling, crackle, metallics - an option to oil based

[Electric_Death]

I recently tried some Plaid craft paint from the Walmart craft section for some crackle painting and am thoroughly impressed.
It's water based, non-toxic but in fact an acrylic enamel and if you read the bottles, plenty of them are indoor/outdoor.
This came after the failure of a water based crackle medium which I suspected wouldn't work due to the enamels I tested it with being oil based.

You can actually get a nice smooth texture using a sponge brush, it dries incredibly fast, you can clear coat it with oil based polyurethane and best of all, it's water based so there aren't toxic fumes. It's also a great option to paint baking since water based dries so incredibly fast.
There's marbling medium, crackling medium, metallics, textured and of course a plethora of colors.

I'll check back in and let everyone know how it fairs with my compressor driven spray gun. My assumption is it will work just fine but, being water based means running some rubbing alcohol through the sprayer after giving it a couple flushes with water.

[John Lyons]

Pics?

[Electric_Death]

Right now I'm repainting my first guitar with it, a Fender Strat which I converted into a semi-hollowbody and will slap a clear pickguard on so you can see how clever I am

I'll post pics of that though if you'd like..or even the cardboard I tested it on
Other than that, my current pedal project's finish is very hush hush until it's been completed

[Electric_Death]

Ok here we go, my highly modified Fender Strat. Bear in mind I cut a section out because hey, if I ever have my own custom signature model, I'm sure as he!! not sharing it with some goober like Jack White who stumbles across this pic and decides to rip it off and pass it off as his own. This will kick butt for enclosures!


Walmart water base enamel craft paint and what a joy it was to work with. I didn't need to thin it, it dried incredibly fast and while it looks like a million bucks, that's a 5 dollar paint job guys...with paint to spare. That cost excludes the oil based polyurethane gloss I finished it with of course. Nice heavy coats and from the red base coat to crackle medium to gloss black top coat and finally the urethane, you can be done in an hour and a half.
My only regret is putting on such a heavy coat of black. The heavier the top coat, the larger the cracks are and of course, the thinner the top coat the tinier the cracks are. The little cracks look a lot more wicked but, good thing I have another guitar and an enclosure to paint tomorrow.

[jonathan perez]

what do you mean, goober?

[ambulancevoice]

probably another word for prick

[bancika]

you're being paranoid, besides there's already guitar like that.don't remember the brand, maybe jackson. I saw the photo in the catalog

[jonathan perez]

yessshh! jackson already beat you to the punch. i had a green/black crackle jackson when i was a kid...it got ripped off, but i didnt think much of it anyways