Mica powder experiment

Bill Newcomer
I viewed a You Tube video on mixing mica powders as paint (pigment) into clear.
I also thought it might be useful for flocking carpet.
63 10g jars for $40 USD.
Also, a little goes a long way.
I have a quart of clear enamel on the way.
If I can get it to work, it will be quite an economical way to get lot of color on the cheap.

Spanjaard
curious about this one 🙂

Bill Newcomer
I took my $40 worth of 10g 63 color mica powders and mixed a few of them with my $20 can of clear lacquer and got some mostly good results.
The mica powders are generally very fine but some of the flake colors have larger flecks.
The fine ones spray nice and look like like 1/25 scale OEM metallic paints.
The medium fine ones come out like scale bass boat glitter.
However the larger flecks affect the smoothness of the finish.
Sanding and/or overcoating clear could minimize this.
There a 3-4 colors in the box which would be downright race car "gold leaf" effect.
As a trial, I just mixed "close enough" ratios of powder, thick clear lacquer and leveling thinner to get some color tests done.
My ratios gave me a satin to semigloss sheen which could easily be manipulated.
Over all I am quite pleased with how many colors AND how far $60 worth of paint will go.
It is just about a lifetime supply of 1/25 car body paint.

I settled on 1/8 teaspoon of powder to 2ml of thinner to 2ml of clear lacquer.
I shot is through a 0.5mm airbrush at 20 psi.
It is very tolerant of runs and can be laid in multiple passes with 15-20 seconds between passes.
You can build color level very gradually.
Be advised the pics show the colors darker than they are in person.
The pic of the red pearl does not look as nice as is does in person.
The pearl has a nice pink high light with a light green aura.

I had earlier tried to use Future as a carrier. It was a total failure as the powders did not want to stay suspended in Future/Pledge's water based acrylic.
I may need to experiment more with some type of solvent.

Spanjaard
pretty good results.

James C
Really interesting and some great, vibrant looking colours! 👍