Arrow crown painting

[Sam McMichael]

I don't exactly know how to word this question, but here goes. I see a lot of really cool looking arrows that have the crown done in "mottled" color combinations instead of a solid crown dip. Is mottled the correct description? This looks especially good in a camo type color combo. How do you get this effect?

[snag]

Sam, do you mean “marbled”? If so, some guys put Two colors of paint in a container and swirl them then dip. I don’t do this. But I’m sure others can give you a better explanation...or YouTube

[Gdpolk]

Marbled arrow cresting is done by:

• crown dipping the arrow for your background color
• filling a bucket or tube with water
• floating the colors you want to marble on top of the water
• lightly swirling them together without making them dissolve or sink below the water surface
• slowly submerging the arrow into the marbled paint
• swishing the arrow around gently to clear the paint away from the shaft so you can remove it but WITHOUT knocking the wet marbled paint off of your crown dip underneath the water
• let it dry while starting the previous steps over again for the next shaft
• apply a clear coat to keep it from rubbing off as easily over time

Here is a link showing someone else's method with some photos:
http://tradrag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7464

[Sam McMichael]

Yes, marbeled is the word I was looking for. Thanks. GDPolk, is the paint used in this process oil, acrylic, or water based? My current project isn't looking as good as I hoped, so maybe I'll give this a try.

[Gdpolk]

Your welcome.  Use only oil based paints as oil floats on water and won't mix with it. 

[Slickhead]

Testors paint is good
a few youtube videos on it

[wooddamon1]

Mike Vines did a great tutorial "how to make some cool looking arrows" a while back, should be in the how-to section. I've always used oil-based paints and swirled 2 or 3 colors together gently with a tooth pick. These are some of my latest, old aluminum arrows restored:

To this:

[Sam McMichael]

Bigjohnmissalot sent me a video that covers most of what I need to know. Apparently, I have been overthinking this to some degree. It looks pretty simple after seeing somebody else do it. Even if I screw it up, my deer target will not be offended by being shot with less than stellar arrow styling.