Hand Painted Enclosures...Lets see 'em !

[drk]

wooww!! wish i could do something like that too!

[fluoreszenz]

MXR ZW Distortion, first time i used enamel paint... and yes, i know, kindergarten-painting-style 

[liquids]

I've done the standard spray paint finished box, but this is a different beast...

Are all you guys using enamel paints?  I'm no artist, but an artist friend of mine has agreed to paint some of my boxes, and I'd like to know how you guys work with this...I was even going to e-mail Laura Bennett about it.


I figure it just makes sense to sand, clean, and etch-prime, but then what?  What kind of paint?  Can you toaster bake it or must you let it air dry?  How long?  If enamel, what kind of drying time?  What kind of finish?  Any info that can be offered would be really appreciated from those who have already traveled down this road.   

[jayp5150]

I sand, then prime, then my wife uses acrylic. I clear coat with Krylon Crystal Clear.

She usually has some texture to her work, so I really don't try to get a glassy-smooth finish, I just get a few good coats on, then I let it cure for a day or so, and hit it with some Meguiar's polish (yup... the stuff for cars. Step 2 of their 3 step wax system).

That smooths out any clear coat boogers, and I leave it at that.

Some of these other guys have some BEAUTIFUL finishes, though, and I imagine they will give you MUCH better insight (and a more detailed how-to) than I could.

[Dragonfly]

Well, of course all the swirlies are hand painted, but since I'm guessing you're looking for something other than that, here are a couple i did a while back -

[R.G.]

By the way, there was a booth at NAMM with swirl-painted finishes too.

[Purple People Eater]

I didn't paint it, but I like THIS ONE.

[phaseman]

[carrejans]

By the way, there was a booth at NAMM with swirl-painted finishes too.

I read somewhere that Andy (Dragonfly) did a series of swirl pedals for a company. I forgot the name.

[Cliff Schecht]

I missed NAMM this year, but hopefully will be showing off products at the next one. I still haven't been to one .

[mikemaddux]

More info?

[cloudscapes]

hand painted:





a few on here:



hand painted but with decals 

[John Lyons]

No paint involved but I copper plated these with a small brush and a few chemicals.





Guts...? why not?





This one I painted two different colors and sanded through in spots.

[cpnyc23]

I would love to hear about the techniques used for people's work that's been hosted here...

-chris

[Brushthrower]

Gorilla Fuzz!!!

Dragonfly's vero version of the Colorsound One Knob Fuzz Re-Issue

[mills]

I kinda like some of these, but there's lots of places that they should be better too.  I usually try something different each time I'm painting a pedal, so I never really get practiced enough to have very refined results.  They're all a little rough around the edges, but for my first few hand painted (well... hand spray painted) enclosures I'm happy enough with them.

Tim E's Simple square wave shaper.



CE-2 Vibrato





Going to be a knob free distortion (bunch of mosfet boosters style... obsidian inspired) with a lowpassed clean blend for the bass.  (this one was a disaster to paint.  One coat of a different type that wouldn't stick to the first coat.  A big bubbly mess that actually cleaned up allright all things considered.  The faded bits in the background were wiped off to try to hide some of the horrible looking bits.)



Rangemaster

[knealebrown]

I went for a trippy sixties/Zvex look, turned out ok i think.
not as good as some of the work on here but hey! its my first attempt!

[Paul Marossy]

I'm almost embarrassed to show this one off in light of all the great stuff shown here, but here is one I did a couple of years ago.

[Derringer]

excellent work

one of my absolute favorite albums, "THE" definitive thrash album imo.

what circuit is inside?

[mr.adambeck]

Has anyone used enamel paints for handpainting?  From poking around on the Zvex site (specifically: http://zvex.com/artists.html), it's clear that they use testors enamel paints http://www.testors.com/category/136643/Enamel_Paint_Sets...  I have a friend who's going to handpaint one of my boxes http://www.dethpsun.com as a favor for me, but I want to be sure I'm having him doing it in the most durable way possible...  So I'm trying to figure out exactly what the best way to do it is...

Thanks