Grey Matter

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jttheclockman

jttheclockman

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Feb 22, 2005
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Those that cast colored blanks, eventually I am going to need some grey blanks. Plain grey blanks. Is it as simple as just combining black and white colorant or is there a secret formula??? You do not see much grey these days. I would like to change this:biggrin: Grey does matter:):):)
 
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I know what you're talking about. I needed some grey ones a while back and I finally found some. Let me see if I can't scrounge up the website.
 
Oh....Sorry folks, I missed what forum this was posted in. You're looking to make grey blanks. On that subject I can't help.
 
Hey John, yep b&w....but make sure to add tiny amounts of black to white, and I mean tiny, till you get your colour right. You will never make grey. By adding white to black.
Good luck
 
skiprat said:
Hey John, yep b&w....but make sure to add tiny amounts of black to white, and I mean tiny, till you get your colour right. You will never make grey. By adding white to black.
Good luck ��
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This is great advice. I should have mentioned that too.

And US Composits makes a grey dye. I've never used it though. But I have used most of their other dyes, so it should work fine.
 
D.Oliver said:
Oh....Sorry folks, I missed what forum this was posted in. You're looking to make grey blanks. On that subject I can't help.
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Derek, don't be sorry. It is a viable option. I never see straight grey blanks and your source has them. If i have to make them I have that ability and now I am getting good advice in that area as well.


skiprat said:
Hey John, yep b&w....but make sure to add tiny amounts of black to white, and I mean tiny, till you get your colour right. You will never make grey. By adding white to black.
Good luck ��
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Skip i never would have thought that. Great advice.

le_skieur said:
Pearl Ex does a nice carbon grey: PEARL EX PIGMENTS
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May have to look into this also because as of right now I am not sure if I want a pearled blank. I am waiting on the watch dials to see what exact colors they are. I do know I will need various shades of grey. I better keep records :)

Thanks all for the great info. For some reason I had in the back of my thick skull you needed to add red. :)
 
If you want a lot of options on different shades of gray you might want to consider mixing primary colors to get there instead of black and white. By mixing Red, Yellow and Blue (instead of black) you can greatly expand the range of gray tones you can create. You will have an infinite range of gray tones (which can be good or bad depending on how you are prepared to deal with infinite possible outcomes).

Here's a youtube video that illustrates the concept:

Mixing Gray From Primaries

Ed
 
John,
It look like you are going to cast a watch dial in a colored acrylic?

WOW! I can imagine it will be awesome!
 
Ed McDonnell said:
If you want a lot of options on different shades of gray you might want to consider mixing primary colors to get there instead of black and white. By mixing Red, Yellow and Blue (instead of black) you can greatly expand the range of gray tones you can create. You will have an infinite range of gray tones (which can be good or bad depending on how you are prepared to deal with infinite possible outcomes).

Here's a youtube video that illustrates the concept:

Mixing Gray From Primaries

Ed
Click to expand...


See there is something to the way I was thinking. It is not all grey matter left in this brain:)

le_skieur said:
John,
It look like you are going to cast a watch dial in a colored acrylic?

WOW! I can imagine it will be awesome!
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That is one of my projects I have in mind, yes. I have so many projects that I am going to need some more kits eventually:) If i can pull off some of what I have in mind it will make for some discussion here. Nothing earth shattering but taking bits and pieces of ideas from past projects. Will see.
 
79spitfire said:
There are many shades of grey....

But if you want a quick solid grey color, TAP plastics sells a grey pigment that is intended for coloring fiberglass resin, which of course is a type of polyester resin, and it works very well.

http://www.tapplastics.com/product/fiberglass/resin_fillers_dyes/tap_premium_pigments/50
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Thanks. I have a lot of options now. I just got the watch dials and they did not turn out to be what I was hoping. The picture they shown was much different than what I got for color wise. They must have had a bright light on the dials when they took the photos. Will have to see what else I can come up with.

Thanks everyone.
 
John; When I want to make a color that is not a stock on the shelf item, I use acrylic paint in small bottles from the local Hobby Shop. I use a sheet of wax paper to blend my colors together until the color I am looking for is found. Use a note book to keep track of the amounts of drops used to obtain the color so if you ever want to repeat this somewhere down the line you can. Skiprat is correct, Don't add white to black in order to achieve gray. I would start out with about 10 drops of white and add 1 drop of black. Mix well and see what you have. Now you know if you want a lighter shade of gray (add one drop of white at a time), or a darker shade (add 1 drop of black). You could also pick out a shade of gray you like and just add that to your casting. Powders may be hard to repeat if not measured properly. Same with dyes you are mixing. Paint is cheap when you are experementing with color mixing. Jim S
 
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These were the watch dials I was going to play off of. But when I got them the black and grey were almost the same color, black. Little disappointed because I had an idea I wanted to try. As they say buyer be ware :) May still do something with my idea but without the dials.

s-l1600.jpg
 
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