Golden Paints Interference colors

talon · Post by **talon** » Sat Dec 11, 2010 1:37 pm

N/M - This was related to the refit as I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was actually interference paint used. I've read through Paul Olsen's site and it was definitely pearl, so again, n/m...

These are not the droids you are looking for...

Thomas E. Johnson · Post by **Thomas E. Johnson** » Sat Dec 11, 2010 10:06 pm

Interference pearls, or opalescent pearls as sometimes called. I can fix you up with the exact colors if you like.

talon · Post by **talon** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:27 pm

Okay, ordered these yesterday and figured I'd give it a shot. First up will be a sample aztec on a sheet of styrene. If that turns out well I'll make a second go on the 1:1000 using the templates by Aztec Dummy. If those look as good as I hope then I'll bump up to the 1:350 refit. I'll post pics along the way in the Trek board. Almost ready for painting on the 1:350 cargo bay so it wont be too long before I'm on the main build on that kit.

talon · Post by **talon** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:36 pm

The paint came in. Amazing stuff. If you're familiar with color theory, a complimentary color is a color that appears on the opposite side of the color wheel.

So the blue flips to gold. The paint is transparent, and on white it flips to its other color, so the paint appears yellowish, like a piece of paper thats just starting to change. Then the light hits it and the blue lights up brilliantly. Its pretty amazing stuff.

So the Green flips to a red, the Red to a green, and the Gold to blue. So you always are flipping back and forth between the same 4 colors. Also the flipped color is dull, so it appears flat looking, and then the main color pops in and is vibrant and almost glossy looking.

I haven't run my test yet, this is just from the bottles of paint. During the bottling process a brush paints a test across the front of the label to demonstrate the paint inside. I will try to run a test friday or saturday after they've had time to warm up.

WarpeD · Post by **WarpeD** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:38 pm

http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/co ... inter1.php

talon · Post by **talon** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 7:55 pm

Those are the ones. I got 1 oz of each color, plus 8oz of the airbrush medium. It says to mix 1:1 with the airbrush medium so I figure I have about 2oz of paint per color, and since they are only supposed to go on in light coats over white I think that 2oz should be more than enough to get the PL kit done.

Underlord · Post by **Underlord** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:32 am

I just picked up the zinc white and Iridescent Pearl with some airbrush medium to test out. I plan on mixing them instead of using the pearl streight. The effect was a bit much. I was planning on using the decal aztec, but the Interference Blue, green and perhaps red might look really good shot over the pearl white. Let us know how if you like it! I'm hoping to get away from the enamals I've been using, and start using airbrush medium acrylics. A.C. Moore and other artist supply stores have a much better selection of these. Besides, my LHS gets $4/bottle for Testors! *cringe*

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 12:08 pm

Underlord wrote:I just picked up the zinc white and Iridescent Pearl with some airbrush medium to test out. I plan on mixing them instead of using the pearl streight. The effect was a bit much. I was planning on using the decal aztec, but the Interference Blue, green and perhaps red might look really good shot over the pearl white. Let us know how if you like it! I'm hoping to get away from the enamals I've been using, and start using airbrush medium acrylics. A.C. Moore and other artist supply stores have a much better selection of these. Besides, my LHS gets $4/bottle for Testors! *cringe*

If you thin the Pearl with the Airbrush Medium (which is pretty much just clear coat) then you should be able to spray lighter coats of the pearl. I'm not sure how well the pearl and zinc white would mix. At least they are from the fluid line so it cant be worst case scenario. The threads here in the finishing section have many recommendations for alternate acrylics instead of "hobby paint" like Testors, Tamiya, etc. They are getting expensive. Apple Barrel (i think) is one of the ones I hear most. Its Apple something at least. I'd stick to artist colors though, because they are less likely to fade and have more resistance to UV.

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:52 pm

I started my paint test today. As with everything, surface prep is most important. Currently applying coats of white primer and I will be wetsanding down to 1500. According to Paul Olsen they went down to wetsanding with 1200, but I dont have 1200 so 1500 should be just as good.

I'm still somewhat worried about mica flakes pulling up, however, because the airbrush medium acts as its own clear coat I think it should be okay as long as it doesn't get too tacky of tape put down.

I cut a long strip of 1mm sheet stock about 8 inches long and 2 1/2 -3 inches wide. I'm going to do the surface prep on the entire peice, and then mask off 2/3s of it. My first test will be multiple coats, plus masking using some scrap Aztek Dummy masks without clear coating between each layer. My hope is that the masking will not pull up excessive mica flakes like it does with Metallizer paints. I hope to get the base coat of a thin coat of blue, masks, and the second thin coat of green on today, then pull off the masking and see whats there.

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:40 pm

Just sprayed the first coat - interference blue.

I found a set of bottom saucer masks from my 1:350 Refit set made by Aztek Dummy from years ago where I messed up mid paint and scrapped it. I'll use those so we can all get a good sense of how they will look.

My first impressions so far:

While in the bottle the reflections of the blue look like they could potentially be too strong of a shift. On plastic: So far it looks exactly like screen grabs I've seen of the ship in the movies. Its the perfect shade of blue when it catches the light, and shifts into a pale gold when not. For the rest of this I'm going to call the blue shift "on" and the flip dull color "off."

In the off state the paint looks white with a hint of just-starting to yellow paint. Like a slightly yellowed decal sheet. As you get closer to the on-state it neutralizes leaving plain white, and then it hits the on-state and it looks like a very weak reflection of sky, like on a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky partly reflecting off a white object. Its still white, but its just blue enough I know its blue. My main interest will be how the other colors react on top of the blue. Will the green on-off states be counter to the blue like they -appear- to be in the film? Stay tuned.

Other comments about the paint. The grain is too small to see unless you're an inch or two away. I'm completely unconcerned about this issue in regards to painting the 1:1000 Refit, and it will of course work just fine on the 1:350 kit. I mentioned before that it had settled, and it took a few minutes of mixing to fully reintegrate and suspend in the medium again. Drying time seems to be longer than typical acrylics. I waited 10 minutes which is usually fine with most acrylics to handle it and it smudged slightly. I'm going to go check on it in an hour, but my instinct is to leave it to dry for at least an hour or two before putting masks on. I'll probably leave it to dry for a few hours then apply the masks and spray a coat of the green before bed and let them dry overnight.

I'm going to photograph each before and after state as I go through it, so when I go to paint the green, I'll shoot an image before I mask and paint, and then after. I'll also get shots with it in daylight, and in roomlight, because that is supposed to have an effect on interference paints. Okay in regular light, much greater effect in daylight.

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:02 pm

Okay, I know, I know, I got impatient because I was excited about seeing the results. And because of that, some problems came up. The paint was still soft in some places and lifted up. If this had been a model it'd have been ruined. Give it at least 2-3 hours to dry between coats, or longer. I think when I start on the kit I'll wait a day between each coat just to play it safe.

Here's a sample of it though. Its fantastic.

http://www.3dretreat.com/talon/models/3 ... t_test.jpg

It matches everything I've seen from the B&W photos of the TMP paint, just in color. The On state is stronger in contrast, the Off state is low contrast, but still clearly defined with one shade being lighter, one darker. And those flip also. In the On state the green is "bright" while the blue is "dark" and in the Off state the blue is "bright" and the green is "dark." And while in transition between those two states, the paint is almost entirely invisible. Additionally the sample is overall a white in all states.

I want to run another test before I paint the model kits. I want to paint with a green base and then blue on top and see if the blue pops more. In the screengrabs I've seen it looks like the blue is more predominant and so I want to see if layer order affects that. In Paul Olsen's comments relayed on HobbyTalk he says he painted blue first then green, but its always possible he mixed it up, which he says is possible, or the writer mixed it up relaying the comments, or his paint reacted to each other differently than mine. And this is why we test

EDIT: B&W shot, no significant manipulation (other than the fact its converting a color shot).
http://www.3dretreat.com/talon/models/3 ... est_BW.jpg

Underlord · Post by **Underlord** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:04 am

This looks absolutely awesome! I'll pick up the interference blue next time I'm there! Thanks!!

talon · Post by **talon** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:03 pm

Finished another test today. (no pics in this update)

This time I tried Green then Blue. Now it definitely looks like there's no "bite" in the primer I've been using. I'm using the white Sandable primer from Duplicolor. I've noticed others having an issue with this primer using the Wilco interference pearl colors but I was hoping that it was just that brand of paints. Its looking like its the same for me. So for use with these paints, stay away from the Sandable duplicolor primer. I'm going to try the Plasticote primer for the next series of tests. It appears that its a problem with the paint adhesion to the primer when using the duplicolor sandable primer. When masks are placed, and I didn't press down too hard, did reduce the tack ala face-oil. but nothing worked.

NOW, about the color layers themselves. With the green as the base, and the blue over that, it leaves the green at 100% intensity, and it looks overly green, like a spring yellow-green, while the blue becomes more of a lavenderish color; even the off-state looks odd. Long story short, I'm not going to use this order of color. Blue THEN green wins. I'll post some photos to compare when I complete the next test. about 40% of the green layer pulled up when I lifted the masks. And this time it had 6 full hours to dry, and for those who say I should have waited longer, there was more pull-up this time than during the first test when I only waited about an hour.

The next tests I want to do will test a clear coat of future over the paint to determine how it will affect the light interaction with the paint, plus a test of dullcoat over half of the gloss and then I will compare the primers, and then the look with the secondary patterns on them, with additional squares of blue, green, gold, and red.

Thomas E. Johnson · Post by **Thomas E. Johnson** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:44 pm

Try the Duplicolor Self Etching Primer. Its green. I find it bites into the surface extremely well.

talon · Post by **talon** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:48 pm

Thomas E. Johnson wrote:Try the Duplicolor Self Etching Primer. Its green. I find it bites into the surface extremely well.

I have some. The problem is its green. it tints any paint going over it and I dont want to apply 5 coats of white to knock it down.

matthall1701 · Post by **matthall1701** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:48 pm

Hey talon, I was wondering if there were any updates on your efforts with the interference paint and any more pictures? I'm going to start building mine this summer with an end goal of beginning the painting process next spring so I wanted to start planning. Based on your tests, I'm rather excited.

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:41 pm

The stalling factor is the primer. Duplicolor Sandable White Primer is no good. The paint lifts right off of it. I'm going to try Mr Surfacer 1000 White next. I have a can on the way.

Disillusionist · Post by **Disillusionist** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:22 pm

Yup. Here's what happened when I used Duplicolor sandable white primer. The pearls are an automotive lacquer, and they still couldn't bite into it enough to hold. The problem went away when I switched to Plasticote.

Duplicolor

talon · Post by **talon** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:50 pm

Disillusionist wrote:Yup. Here's what happened when I used Duplicolor sandable white primer. The pearls are an automotive lacquer, and they still couldn't bite into it enough to hold. The problem went away when I switched to Plasticote.

Duplicolor

Which is really funny since the Duplicolor Primer is an automotive primer, just about anything should be able to bite into it, especially auto lacquers.