Hi i’m very intrested in glassing a surfboard with a nice resin swirl a lot like the picture are there any tips or tricks I should know before having a go at it myself
There’s a lot of info in the archives. Kinda hard to answer such a wide open question, especially since I don’t know you or your skill level, or experience. But look up the past threads on colors, tints, pigments, swirls, etc.
I am assuming that you already know how to laminate a surfboard using resin tints/pigments and cutlaps. To do a swirl you need to mix up different batches of resin using whatever colors you desire. For your first swirl its good idea to keep it to 3 colors or less. Mix each batch of colored resin, catalyze each batch sperately and then pour two of your colors into the bucket of your primary color in a swirling motion.( The board in the pic looks like they mixed a small batch of white and a little bit of grey and poured those two colors into a primary or larger batch of blue.) Then take your bucket with the swirled resins of different colors and pour it over the fiberglass in a swirling pattern of your choice. Whatever color hits the glass first will show up. It is a good idea to use more resin for a swirl than if you were doing a regular tinted or clear lam. You want to cover the majority of the fiberglass with resin before you even start squueggeeing the resin around on the board and over the falls to saturate the laps. This will produce a more defined swirl and wont cause the colors to get muddied up, unless you are going for that. Then squuggee nose to tail to removing all that excess resin. Wipe your squeegee between each pass so that your colors stay crisp. Look up videos on youtube of Austin Surfboards (no longer building boards) to watch the process of mixing multiple colors into one bucket and then swirling it ver the fiberglass. Good luck
Everything that Surfer O said. For your first, I would suggest a bucket of your favorite primary color and two small glasses of white and black. After catalysing separately the three batches, pour the white and then the black into the larger batch (in no specific order, you may pour the black first). Pouring from the highest distance from the bucket will help colored resin to reach the bottom of the larger batch. Once both have been poured, gently stir a whip 2 or 3 times (not more or you will mix all colors together); Pour the mix onto the glass randomly but trying to cover most of the surface. Let the resin saturate the cloth and get to the foam then start squeegeeing (yes, wiping your squeegee between each pass). Don’t be afraid, it’s much easier than you think and it can look gorgeous.