Enamel or Acrylic

[Guest]

Please could someone advise me on the following. I make floats for fishing and thought that model makers would have the best knowledge on fine detail painting.

My floats are made from either balsa wood or a high density closed cell foam (the foam does not take on water)

What paint would you recommend Acrylic or enamel. The paint will be airbrushed on but need it to be robust. There will be a final coat of varnish after painted.

Thanks

[Ian M]

Dont know about the foam ones but Balsa just needs a good sealer, a light rubdown and give it large with the enamels. I have about 50 odd floats I made a few (10)years ago and they still work. Well they float!

Did you know that the rushes that grow around lakes make very good wagglers. Just cut them and let them dry, cut to length, eye one end and an insert in t'other.

Ian M

[yak face]

Hi sniper , id imagine enamel would be a better bet due to it being oil based and quite a bit tougher than acrylic, which i think would suffer from repeated immersion in water. cheers tony

[Guest]

I would go with acrylic and finish wit Polyurethane varnish. Not sure if poly varnish will spray though. Maybe set up a line and just dip them in the varnish and leave them hanging so the excess can drain off.

[stona]

As an aside porcupine quills make good wagglers and you don't need to paint them LOL.

Regarding your original query,wouldn't the final varnish be more important for the durability than the type of paint used?

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies. If I use acrylic with an overcoat of yacht varnish, would the acrylic paint be durable enough.

[stona]

I think it should be protected by a couple of coats of varnish. I imagine that a yacht varnish would be a fairly tough coating. I speak as one who has never been on a yacht and who feels a bit queasy looking at any kind of wave which couldn't be accurately characterised as a ripple.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Yacht varnish is extreemly durable stuff and can be put over the top of acrylic or enamel so basically your choice of paint is down to ease of application and colour. If you are painting balsa though I would seal it first otherwise it is going to take a lot of acrylic paint to prevent it soaking in.