jwar wrote:Taylor you are KILLING these finishes man! Just killing it! Do you use an air brush? I'm looking into an artist one but it's like 300 bucks! LOL. So nice dude!!!
Thanks Jwar, I really appreciate it!
For these, the airbrush was involved but not really critical to the copper application. Basically, I applied a clear coat with an HVLP gun, then dusted the copper powder on while the clear was wet. Once dry, I laid black over the copper and rubbed it back with steel wool. The black paint in this case was just to accentuate the texture and the text labeling (it doesn't get touched as much by the steel wool because it's recessed, same concept as with painting an etched box and sanding it back). Then it got a final layer of clear coat to keep the copper from oxidizing.
So I used the clear coat like a binder for the copper powder, because that's what I'm tooled up for, and because the clear coat I use is much less nasty to work with (VOC-free) than the resin binder that I was originally going to use with the copper. But if I didn't already have this setup, I'd probably have come up with a different way to do it. I definitely would not actually mix the copper powder with the paint and try to shoot it through the HVLP gun or airbrush, as that would probably mess up either tool beyond repair.
Regarding airbrushes, I'm currently using a Badger model 155. It's about $100. I have used some cheaper ones and found them to be such a huge pain to work with that it's a false economy situation. So far this one has been working well for me, easy to maintain and clean, and it can shoot very finely or widely without tip changes or other fiddly stuff. So far I haven't run into a reason to upgrade any further.