Spin Painting

Disclaimer: This should only be attempted by professionals!

Today (actually this morning before it got too hot) I decided to try and paint the pine trees that I had prepped.  By prepped I mean I have applied two coats of Dick's fine pine bark and applied the sisal twine.

When I got the trees out most of the sisal twine had fallen off.  (It has been over a year and a half since it was applied.)  So I reapplied the sisal twine then got ready for the spin painting.

Why spin painting?  I could not find a spray color that I thought matched the pine trees in my back yard so I went to Lowe's and selected a color and got a gallon of it.  But since I didn't have a spray gun I needed an alternate solution.  Enter Spin Painting.  To spin paint you just fill a 1.5 gallon container with the thinned paint, place this container inside a 5 gallon container, place the tree armature in a drill, dip the tree in the paint, remove and squeeze the trigger on the drill.  Presto, spin painting.  O yeah, keep the tree armature below the lip of the 5 gallon container while spinning.

This process is not for the faint of heart and again should only be attempted by professionals!

Now for the results.

I actually managed to do this and keep the paint spray inside the 5 gallon bucket.  But the paint dissolved the Aqua Net Super Extra Hold hair spray and the sisal twine ended up matted against the tree trunk or spun out against the 5 gallon bucket.  (Caution ladies don't rely on Aqua Net Super Extra Hold on very humid or rainy days!)

So a new approach is needed.  I either need to spin paint the armatures before applying the sisal twine or get a paint sprayer.  If I spin paint before applying the sisal twine then I will need to highlight the twine with black which might be good.  Unfortunately I don't have any more sisal twine free armatures prepared with Dick's fine pine bark.  I do have more of Dick's fine pine bark but no cheap small throw away brushes to apply the white glue.  It's always something.

After a quick Internet search I decided to purchase an airless cup spray gun and see how that goes with the trees that already have the sisal twine applied.

Once I get some more armatures prepped with Dick's fine pine bark, I will try the spin painting and black highlighting to see which looks best.

Stayed tuned for more details.