Although there have been some excellent post on glow powder application, the information on glow paint is not as thoroughly discussed. I have tried to answer some of my own questions with a simple experiment.
I have painted glow paint from Ready Set Glo on a flat black surface. I painted the glow paint in multiple layers from one to eight. In some cases I started with a primer layer of white paint (bright white auto touch up paint) and I also varied the use of a clear coat finishing layer. The glow paint was "high commercial grade green glow paint".
There are three rows in the attached photo of the luminous samples taken in the dark, after charging the whole palette with light. The top row contains stripes of from one to eight layers of glow paint on the black surface with no white primer used. Only the samples with 5 to 8 layers of glow paint shine bright enough to be seen by my camera. The second row is of one to eight layers painted on a single layer of white primer. The bottom row has the same treatment, but all glow paint samples along the bottom row were covered with two layers of clear coat as a final layer.
Some observations:
1: The use of white primer has the most dramatic effect on the effectiveness of the luminous paint.
2: The use of clear coat has not noticeable effect, as the middle row (without clear coat) is very similaar to the bottom row (with clear coat).
3: The use of five layers seems to bring the luminous effect to a kind of plateau.(NB: these results might vary after a long period of time in the dark, but this is what I observed a few minutes after charging).
Although I mixed the paint very carefully and thoroughly before applying each coat, it was hard to control the thickness of each layer. This difference in layer application is apparent when comparing individual samples.
From now on I plan to always use a white primer layer, 5 layers of glow paint, and a clear coat to protect the luminous paint.
I have painted glow paint from Ready Set Glo on a flat black surface. I painted the glow paint in multiple layers from one to eight. In some cases I started with a primer layer of white paint (bright white auto touch up paint) and I also varied the use of a clear coat finishing layer. The glow paint was "high commercial grade green glow paint".
There are three rows in the attached photo of the luminous samples taken in the dark, after charging the whole palette with light. The top row contains stripes of from one to eight layers of glow paint on the black surface with no white primer used. Only the samples with 5 to 8 layers of glow paint shine bright enough to be seen by my camera. The second row is of one to eight layers painted on a single layer of white primer. The bottom row has the same treatment, but all glow paint samples along the bottom row were covered with two layers of clear coat as a final layer.
Some observations:
1: The use of white primer has the most dramatic effect on the effectiveness of the luminous paint.
2: The use of clear coat has not noticeable effect, as the middle row (without clear coat) is very similaar to the bottom row (with clear coat).
3: The use of five layers seems to bring the luminous effect to a kind of plateau.(NB: these results might vary after a long period of time in the dark, but this is what I observed a few minutes after charging).
Although I mixed the paint very carefully and thoroughly before applying each coat, it was hard to control the thickness of each layer. This difference in layer application is apparent when comparing individual samples.
From now on I plan to always use a white primer layer, 5 layers of glow paint, and a clear coat to protect the luminous paint.
