Durable Paint for Alum. Lightsabers?

[cayman shen]

I have a few fan made sabers and I'm trying to raise their self-esteem. See, I'm scared they'll feel inadequate next to my snazzy MR sabers. So I'm looking for a durable black satin/semi-gloss paint that will at least pass the finger-nail test, but preferably be even more durable, and basically give a nice, professional finish (barring operator error, of course.). The sabers will be lightly weathered using liquid mask, if that matters, and I won't be using any primer.

I have one lousy elite edition saber and it's so damn nice I have to slave to make everything else look right beside it. I'm half-tempted just to ditch it, but since I stayed up literally all night to win the auction, I feel like it owns a little piece of my heart. We've been through something...bonded.

Anyhoo, paint options?

 

[SmilingOtter]

Ryan at Randomsabers uses some sort of epoxy paint.

 

[Mr_Creepy]

Most hardware stores carry epoxy "Appliance" paint--all I've ever seen are black, white and almond.

Tricky stuff, I've only ever messed with it once...with bad results. To be fair, it was on a keychain sized phaser, so there wasn't much to painting it

Not sure how it would take weathering--the keychain piece I tried needed areas taped off and that was were I had problems. Too wet, and the paint smudged; too dry and the paint stuck to the tape and ripped up with it.

 

[xwingband]

Ditto on the appliance epoxy paint. Somewhat difficult to use, but if you have any painting experience and practice good prep work it will work great.

 

[cayman shen]

I was wondering about that. It looks similar to what MR uses in terms of finish, and I KNOW it's tough. May I ask what specifically is difficult about it? Is it hard to get an even coat, is it gloppy, what? Also, can it be removed if I ginch it up?

 

[xwingband]

I think the most difficulty is when to peel it if you need to tape anything off. Like the other poster said, if you wait too late it wants to peel, and if you do it too early the line is ruined.

It's a fine line, but I've heard from plenty of pro painters that that issue is normal for any painting.

It's easy enough to remove. I had to use some nastier than normal paint remover, but it came of fine. I also once had a Luke ROTJ like grip I taped off the ends, spray painted the whole grip and just sanded the tops off. Worked wonderful.

 

[cayman shen]

Can you apply it in a relatively thin coat, or does it come right out pretty heavy? When I think of stoves, etc, it seems the coating is very thick, and the idea of sanding through it makes me want to hurl.

 

[xwingband]

I had no trouble applying it in light coats as all paints should be. I believe stoves are baked on with a clear enamel coat also. That would account for them being tough as nails.

 

[Korbanth]

I am getting my second R2D2 powder coated. for those who have no idea what that is...think of your washer and dryer? those are powder coated with heat, and look excellent for R2 white and blue..