Arrow Making.....From Mild To Wild!.....How To Added

[TRAP]

Outstanding  

Trap

[Dirtybird]

Very nice

[jcar315]

Been getting PM's with questions......don't give up guys! It really is easy just keep after it.

Few answers for all:
1. In my experience I've never had to add any thinner to the paint. Few drops right out of the bottle. Once the drops are there, all floating on top, gently site them up.

2. Once the paint is stirred I put the shaft straight down through the paint into the water. I usually twist the arrow around from side to side just to maximize the swirling affect.

Hope this helps but if not please letme know. Happy to help.

Good Luck!

[Dirtybird]

I can't wait to get off work now to try this.  Thank you John your arrows look amazing.

[alaninoz]

How about a video, or a crest-along?

[Buemaker]

Far out, cool.  Is it Testors enamel you have been using? Bue--.

[jcar315]

Guys, Here is a build along on how to marble crown dip your arrows. Really is easy to do and looks pretty cool.

I will make every effort to show and explain how I do the marble dipping but I am sure there are other ways and little twists....please share them.

To start with I use an arrow that has been stained and crown dipped twice in Bohning white. As shown before using a carbon arrow that was spray painted white was used in the earlier set.

Here is the subject:

 

[jcar315]

You need some sort of container to hold the water and ultimately the paint. I use an empty iced tea bottle with only the top portion cut off.

 

Mine is about 9 inches tall. You can use any size you like but remember the depth of the container will be the max you can marble dip your arrows. This works pretty well for me but at times one a little deeper would be handy.

Fill it up with clean water but not to the very top. Leave a little room.

[jcar315]

Quick pic of how much room I leave.

 

Next I put the whole thing into a tupperware container which provides a little more stability and some protection if any splashing would occur.

 

[jcar315]

Next thing we need is the paint we will be using for our marble dip. I use Testors enamel model paint. I get mine at the local hobby store. Easy to use and most importantly just the right consistency.

 

I don't know if other type of paints would work as I haven't tried them. If you do please let me know.

Now we need something to dip the Testors out of the bottle just a drop at a time. I use q-tips with one end cut off. Seem to work pretty well and they are cheap generic ones.

 

[jcar315]

Now for something to "stir" the paint with once we drip a few drops in the water. I found these long wooden sticks at the grocery store. Good length for this process and they work great.

 

Another instance where you could probbably use just about anything. I find that these work great so I haven't tried anything else. Keep in mind that we will need to wipe these down between arrows and at the end I just throw them away.

[jcar315]

Now the fun part!

This is where you can let your creativity flow. Pick the colors you want to use on your particular arrow. I try to think about what colors I like in my fletching and what purpose the arrow will fill.

A hunting arrow will be a little brighter. Target arrows....anything goes!

This one will start with blue. I am going to dip my q-tip in the paint and drop about 2 or 3 drops of blue in the water. Don't touch your q-tip to the water. Get the paint on the end and shake it until you have the amount of paint you want.

 

[jcar315]

Here is what it looks like in the water.

 

Now we add two drops of orange and one drop of red.

 

This is where some experience helps. Some Testors colors seem to be more "powerful" than others and only need a very small amount to show up alot on the arrow.

Testors red is very strong indeed. Blue and orange less strong and with yellow you can put quite a bit in. My best advice is to experiment. Try different amounts and see how they turn out.

[jcar315]

Important step here: take your stick and very GENTLY stir the paint to mix it. The paint should stay on the very top only of the water.

 

And after stirring it up:

 

It is imperative that you don't stir the paint and water to vigirously. You don't want any "air bubbles" floating on the top as these will show up on the final product.

Mix them together nice and slow and in an irregular fashion. This gives you a nice mixed up paint to dip the arrow in. Think about how you want the arrow to look before you dip.

[jcar315]

Here it goes!

As I dip the arrow in I turn the it around and back in forth as it goes in the solution. This gives you a nice final product that is all mixed up.

 

 

 

Look at how much less paint is on the top of the water in the last picture.

Now pull the arrow straight out.......

 

And there it is!

At this step there will be some water sitting on top of the paint. Just take your arrow by the point end and give it a few good shakes.

Trust me! The paint won't go anywhere as just the water will go flying. Now, I would not do this in the dining room but in the basement you won't hurt anything.

[jcar315]

Another pic of the completed marble crown dipped arrow.

 

I normally let these air dry for several days. Once dry I start my cresting, then sealing, and finally fletch them up.

[jcar315]

Now on to the next arrow!

First we have to clean up the water so we can do the next one. This is what it looks like after the arrow comes out.

 

Easy to clean up believe it or not. Just take your stick and gently stir it around in the water. The paint is floating just on the top and it will stick to the stir stick.

 

 

 

I use some handy paper towels to "wipe" this stick off to remove the excess paint sticking to it.

Now we're ready for the next one. I use the same water for a whole batch of arrows. Unless the water get some "stuff" floating in it I will use if for quite a few. If it looks like pieces of stuff are floating in the water....change it. That stuff will stick to the arrow and won't allow the paint to.

[jcar315]

Just a couple of others to show you how much paint it takes for my set up to make an arrow that looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jcar315]

That really is all there is to it. No secret step that wasn't shown.....just jump in and try a few.

Might want to try a few "extra" shafts first just to get the hang of it before moving on to the top shelf ones!

With out a doubt there are other ways to do this and lots of little things you can change to suit your own tastes. View this as a potential starting point but experiment....but please share your results.

Good Luck!

[steadman]

 very well done!!