what is better/easyer to paint a board?on the foam, on the hotcoat or put some tint on the lam??
Some help for beginners pleas!
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it really depends on what kind of thing your goin’ for. Are you looking to draw/paintpen/paint, or do you want to airbrush some design on it? Do you want to tint the resin to achieve a solid color or add different pigments and mix the resin for numerous colors? If your going for painting or drawing or paint penning, im pretty sure you can do it on the foam or lam…or hotcoat so long as you spray over it so it stays on. Also if your doing that, make sure that the medium your using for your colors or artwork doesnt run when you start lamming or hotcoating. If you airbrush, do it on the foam before you glass. I thought airbrushing was a piece of cake but there are alot of things you have to worry about. Get a solid coat but dont go too heavy because it affects the quality of your glass job. Try and keep the spray even by constantly moving and staying the same distance from the board [dont hold it too close] If you go for the resin tint, just mix up your lam like normal, and then add a small, small amount of the pigment of which color you want, mix it alot and then add your catalyst and lam like normal. If you want the stringer to not get colored, do it on the foam and have the stringer taped off. If you tint with more than one color [mixed] mix the lam in different cups and add the different colored pigments to each cup so you have numerous cups of lam each with a different color, mix the catalyst into each cup and then you can either dump all the cups into one large bucket, swirl once or not at all and then lam trying to do as few sweeps as possible to keep from muddying everything up, otherwise, just start lamming the board by doing each individual cup [havnt tried this way but have talked to others that have, personally, the all in one bucket thing after mixing catalysy in individual cups seems to work fin]
hope all that made sense, good luck
i’ll try to do something like te pic on the attachment…
i’d glassed one board before and i’d done somo mistakes and i guess that will be beter to do the art work in the hotcoat because it’ll cover all the mistakes that i probably will do…I’m thinkimg to glosscoat ouver the acrylic paint on the hotcoat…
Give me your opinion pls…
P.S:sorry about my englis, i’m portuguese and i dont write very well… 
romeublue,
The easiest way to paint a board like you have shown is to paint directly on the shaped blank(polyurethane) with acrylic paints. You can use a paint brush if you do not have an airbrush. Try not to get it too thick, though. Tape everything off and use high quality tape to avoid “blead throughs.” You can paint on a sanded hotcoat,but it will resemble a Surftech. Mike
you can paint foam using water-based ink or colors, using a bit of foam rubber, sponge or squeegee. No need brush!
For a basic design like yours, paint it on the blank. You’ll be glad you did when you repair minor dings on it.
Just my opinion (I’m fairly new to this myself), but from the pic you showed, I’d assume that the bottom of the board will match the rails (all red). I think the best results would come from doing a cutlap and tinting the resin. But if you’re just getting started, then I agree with the others that you should paint, because doing a cutlap can be tricky at first.
As a newbie to shaping to, I know what it’s like trying to work out a design and the best way (for your skill level) of applying it to a board, some ways may look better but be harder to achieve for someone with less experience, which can lead to a poor finish when mistakes are made, It really depends how fussy you are on the finished board and how many more you plan to produce, If just making one board, go simple but effective, paint straight onto the foam, but always run tests to see what the paint will do once glassed, some inks will lift into the resin.
If the board is for you its worth remembering that the paint finish won’t affect the board structurally or influence how it preforms ( go fast stripes won’t actually make it go faster) so experiment with harder but potentialy nicer finishes, but see it as a learning experience if it goes wrong.
You’ll only notice minor inperfections up close and once your in the water your spray job will probably be the last thing on your mind.
I’m thinking of doing a light green resin tint, top and bottom, heavier clour on rails due to lap, going to try a resin pinline, top and bottom, darker on top. pigment in gel and hotcoat.
can I paint the back of my rice paper decal and sandwitch it between hotcaot and clear gloss to stop it being coloured over when i do the rest of the board?
Soory dude not trying to hijack, bust as its on the same lines no point in a new post, hope this was helpful.
Hey PeteC (or anyone else),
If I wanted to paint a more detailed design than the stripes shown above (something more like an actual image), would painting the blank still be the best option?
"can I paint the back of my rice paper decal and sandwitch it between hotcaot and clear gloss to stop it being coloured over when i do the rest of the board? "
When I do a tint job I put the lam on after the tint ,, on the deck between the colored layer and the clear layer of glass, on the bottom I just resin it on after the lam and under the hot coat, just be carefull not to over sand
paint the blank
for detailed work do it on the hot coat