Thursday, March 13, 2008

Pink telephone


Pink telephone
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
OK, so not all my projects are desperately serious. My sister announced that she had bought an old fashioned telephone. But it was cream and she wanted pink.

"What sort of paint should I use on my phone", she asked. The inference of course is, "Will you take my telephone and paint it pink for me."

So I took the thing to bits - something you can do with proper old equipment like this. The plastic was wiped down with some degreaser found under the kitchen sink. It still looked shiny so I primed it with grey car aerosol.

A trip to Castle Trains found me with some Tentacle Pink paint from Games Workshop and a can of Humbrol gloss varnish.

The paint sprayed well from the airbrush. It needed a little thinning with water but coverage was excellent although I needed a full pot for the job.

The varnish took longer. Spraying a pots worth over the phone wasn't enough. It dried strangely matt and rough too. Another tinlet went on after the first was smoothed down with the fined emery cloth to hand.

This was better but to get a really smooth finish I had to put so much on it tinted the pink slightly yellow. Even then I still didn't get an even enough coat.

In desperation I polished the whole lot with T-cut - which did the job. The varnish smoothed off nicely and the shine was restored. Next time I'll try something different. Not that I have any urge to paint another phone !

No comments: