If you have painted with bronze powder, talk to me.

[cmjohnson]

One thing I do is make high quality reproduction front and back panels for Marshall amps made in the 60s and 70s, and I've been making many variants of metalface panels (late '69 and newer) for a while now, and they've sold well enough that I keep doing it.

But now I'm branching out into replica Plexi panels, and I'm not looking to get it CLOSE to correct, I'm looking to make them as exact and authentic as is humanly possible.

Recently I've found proof that at least in the earlier years, the gold paint used on them is bronze powder, as it turns green on some examples, particularly around edges and any damage spots, and starts to darken with age on most others.

So, I'm going to have to start exploring painting with bronze powder based paints.
I'll be using a very fine grained bright gold powder to start, as I think it's closest to the original type used.

If you've painted with bronze powder and mixed your own paint, adding powder to a binder or clear paint formulation, etc, please tell me what you used and how the results went.

I'm pretty sure that Marshall didn't use bronze powder based paint on ALL the plexi panels. At some point they changed to a lower cost metallic paint.

I have a good analog gold paint formulation already, not using bronze powder, but for the highest authenticity level for the most valuable vintage amp restorations, I'm going in all the way.

I don't see any reason to do this half-arsed. I aim to make the best product I possibly can. Why bother otherwise? There are already other sources for less authentic, less correct panels on the market.

I don't intend to compete with them, I intend to totally outclass them.

Here are some examples of early plexi type reissues I'm making. Some of these still have issues that require revision and remakes before I release them for sale. I'll scrap a whole batch if it turns out there's a significant error that a Marshall restoration specialist would catch. It's either right or it's not.

 

[LtDave32]

2 mounded teaspoons of Crescent #256 mixed in *edit, mistake* 16 oz of clear lacquer.

 

[cmjohnson]

Nice. What lacquer did you choose?

I've received my sample card from Crescent and found what looks like a perfect match, but the question is, will it still look like a perfect match when sprayed on one side of the plexiglas and looked at from the other?

I've found from experience that paint applied to one side of plexiglas can sometimes look totally different when viewed from the other side.

I'll have to try it and find out.

 

[LtDave32]

Nice. What lacquer did you choose?

I've received my sample card from Crescent and found what looks like a perfect match, but the question is, will it still look like a perfect match when sprayed on one side of the plexiglas and looked at from the other?

I've found from experience that paint applied to one side of plexiglas can sometimes look totally different when viewed from the other side.

I'll have to try it and find out.

Actually CM, I have done this as you said on the underside of plastic on several PGs, and it turned out superb. color and shimmer on both sides match.

I use Cardinal lacquer exclusively.

*Note this:

Crescent #256 has a bit of "black iron particle" appearance, specific to #256 and some others. Not all have it. It will show up in the mixing cup and on the target when it's wet. Do not be alarmed, it will disappear when dry. This alarmed me at first, and I was set to order some other stuff, thinking I had recieved the wrong stuff.

But it cleared up nicely upon drying. I am totally satisfied with the results of #256.

Crescent powder ain't cheap. $72.00 for a 1lb can.

Ask if they have small sample amounts.

For those who wish to shoot a gold top or a few gold PGs or other plastics, I might be willing to part with a few teaspoons; that's enough to mix into a pint mason jar ( I mistakenly said 8oz earlier. It's two teaspoons in a pint jar) and have plenty of gold spray lacquer mix for multiple projects.

 

[cmjohnson]

I've picked the matching shade and it's not 256, and while I'm not going to state which color is the match I'm after, I can say that the color sample from Crescent DISAPPEARS when viewed through a hole in an original panel so the match is dead perfect or close enough.

I'll order up a sample as a matter of caution, I don't want to find out that it's not as good a match as the sample shows, but if it does match up well, then I have no problems buying a pound can of the stuff. It's not really all that much. It's literally less than the price I sell a single plexi panel for. (There is a lot of labor involved in making them to the highest standards.)