Those of you who remember 1979 may remember this phrase from Apocalypse Now. I’ve been trying to spice up my coasters with paint for some time now, and ran into multiple problems with paint weeping under the tape and generally making a mess of things. I finally got it figured out and thought I’d share.
I prepared by cutting a 5" square out of thick PG draftboard, and gave it several coats of airbrushed orange (draftboard is thirsty stuff). Once it was painted, I found masking tape would not stick to it AT ALL. I followed up with two thin coats of acrylic clear coat, which the tape stuck to perfectly. Once it was taped, I used a cardboard backer and Jules’ alignment method found here to cut the 5" square into the cardboard and return to cutting.
Once the image was cut and the 4.5" circle cut out from the perfectly aligned 5" square blank, I used some paint called “Pro Color Fill.” I’m not trying to advocate one paint over another, but what I discovered is that this stuff is very thick - so thick it doesn’t wick under the masking type like everything I had tried previously. With that, I was finally able to get some clean edges and finish (and seal with more lacquer) the final product. I bet the acrylic paint that comes in the metal toothpaste-esque tubes would do the same job even (possibly) cheaper, but I’ll leave that to someone else to experiment with and hopefully share with us all.
, but that’s when 'production will restart, and I’m only too happy to share with the community here.