Yes, I know there is some info on “colour mnatching” in the archives, which I have already read (I think :). But I found myself wondering the other day…
Funny thing, when your ding repair skills start to improve an inexhaustable supply of friends’ boards appear to practice on So I start looking at a friend’s board the other day, mentally figuring out how I’ll start on the various cracks and dings (ex-rental) - preparing for the day he asks me “would it be a hassle for you to…”. Then I notice that one of the dings is close to a textured pattern. But probably far enough away that I should be OK.
But now I start thinking - how would you match up something like a resin swirl or complex pattern? I guess you could image it using a scanner and then use photoshop to make corrections. Then do a gloss print on rice paper, trim it up and…
But would that work? Has anyone on here had experience with this or similar?
Obviously this would be more expensive if you were charging money for it! Out of idle interest (I am not up to this kind of repair yet), how would you decide how much more it was going to cost? Would you estimate up front? Or add an hourly fee and charge T&M?
she shows repair scenarios to match straight up colors and also a spectacular acrylic hand paint fill in to match the cloth inlay repair. Be prepared to be in awe at her artistic and functional repair abilities.
Color matching and invisible repairs are the cornerstone for pricing repairs. Every case is different, but I generally price it according to how large, how invisible, and who else in the area could do it and their price. Invisible to me means 90%, or you can’t see it from 2 feet away. I most often color my fillers and then clear lam over that. For repairs on tints, I use a translucent filler (cabosil + a bit of sil-cell, very thick). You have to vary the tint intensity depending on the fill depth (deeper will be darker). On clear boards I use the same translucent filler but with more sil-cell to make it whiter. On old clear boards with yellowing I add a tiny pin drop of opaque tan pigment until I get the right shade. Some repairs on painted foam/painted hotcoats are better airbrushed. For matching opaque resin colors and paints, get one of those color mixing wheels from an art store. Start collecting a lot of pigment colors and acrylic paints. Use the wheel to get you close then fine tune by adding pigment and/or tints. Color some of your filler and test on the board until you see it blend in (uncatalyzed and wipe it off). Get the right lighting and remember that paint colors will darken under clear resin. For repairing swirls, color the filler using the background color of the swirl and match the other colors in pigmented lam. Clear lam over the filler and streak the swirl colors in the wet cloth, lightly brush or squeegee to blend. Patterns, minor logo touch ups, pinlines, etc I paint by hand with a brush or mask and airbrush if big.
That’s really interesting. I already figured I was gonna have to start a pigment collection The colour wheel is a great idea (why didn’t I think of that?). Good to hear your opinion on “what is invisible” (anyone have a differing opinion? doc?), I was wondering about that.
Seems the consensus response on touching up logos, complex patterns, etc is “hand touchup with acrylic paint”. Out of idle interest, has anyone tried other approachs (successful or unsuccessful)?
As usual “price” seem to be relative, based on a whole bunch of stuff.
For repairing swirls we take the main color and do the fill then on the cover glass add the accents. Usually this does the trick. We don’t charge anymore for swirl boards only for color matching. On the repair form it states that “Color match is not guaranteed”
Me, I score pigments from the local paint store, the ones that do custom blended ‘we can match your existing paint’ stuff.
But you already have your colors. Right on the board, in that wee bit of foam that stuck to the glass when the foam underneath got squashed. An airbrushed board especially. That is exactly the right color and you’ll never come closer.
I try to salvage as much as possible, fill behind it and then glass over it with clear. A wee sliver of white filler is something I can live with.
It’s as Pete says, you can only come so close and beyond that it’s just not gonna work out, you’ll make yourself crazy.
De nada, and if you can snag a few clean glass baby food jars, with lids, they are really good for pigments. Not only do they keep the pigments nice and clean in a shop environment, you can see what’s in 'em without having to open the thing.
Those little plastic thingies that you get cole slaw in, with your fish and chips, with covers; they will work, temporarily. And make nice mixing pots besides.
So I start looking at a friend’s board the other day, mentally figuring out how I’ll start on the various cracks and dings (ex-rental) - preparing for the day he asks me “would it be a hassle for you to…”. Then I notice that one of the dings is close to a textured pattern. But probably far enough away that I should be OK.