Hi folks!
There seems to be a lot of interest in lighter reflective DIY screen paints. Even though I am really going in the opposite direction in search of a really good
dark reflective screen paint, I decided to see if the reflective ingredient I was using could also be used for a very light screen.
The data and photos below should be enough to give you a good idea of what the mix I call "Cream&Sugar" will do. They aren't sexy "screenies", but they tell the story, at least most of it.
I call this mix Cream&Sugar because it isn't white, but an off-white kind of like cream, and the sparkle in the mix is the sugar. As will be shown later, the mix is neutral, but just barely.
Addendum: During the course of this thread I developed three different Cream&Sugar mixes and designated them C&S #1, C&S #2 and C&S #3. The formula given below is now called C&S #1.
First, the ingredients; the "cream" is
Sherwin-Williams Luminous White flat interior latex and the "sugar" is
Craft Smart Metallic Silver. These are mixed in a 2:1 ratio; 2 parts LW (Luminous White) to 1 part CSMS (Craft Smart Metallic Silver). The LW is available from Sherwin-Williams stores and the CSMS is available from Michael's arts & crafts stores;
and only Michael's. In the post following this one I will describe how those not having access to the above ingredients can possibly substitute their own locally available materials.
Why use Luminous White? Because I have almost a gallon of the stuff that I have no other use for!
The CSMS is a reflective ingredient that I am using to make an N7 mix that is showing great promise, but that's for another thread.
I should also add here that while I don't know what material is used to make the CSMS sparkle, it
doesn't show a prismatic effect like all of the mica-based silver paints I have tried do. No rainbows from CSMS, even when used full strength. In this regard, it acts a lot like aluminum flakes, but it isn't near as "darkening" when added to a mix.
CSMS is also inexpensive; it's $1 for 4 ounces, $2 for 8 ounces and $4 for 16 ounces. That puts it at $8 per quart, which is cheaper than most house paints.
It is my hope that others will continue with adaptations to this original mix using different white paints and seeing how they work out. I
strongly suggest not deviating from the use of the CSMS, unless absolutely necessary, since that could really throw off the color and reflectiveness of the mix.
The first photo is of a bottle of CSMS so you know what to look for at Michael's.
Now some microscope pics for those that care about such things.
As with most microscope shots, the color is not correct.
C&S at 60x
C&S at 200x (this pic displays an area about 1/32 inch wide)
A Spectral Chart of Cream&Sugar. Note that the fancy name isn't used in the chart. This mix has not been color-corrected to make it neutral, it is a simple two-part mix. Of special note is that the L* value in the top-left of the chart is 90.31, this equates to a Munsell Gray of N9; a pure white would be 100 or N10. The a* and b* values are under 1.0 (+ or - doesn't matter) so the mix is considered neutral.
Since C&S will be compared to a Kilz2 panel, I have included a Spectral Chart of my batch of Kliz2 as well. you can see that Kilz2 is brighter than C&S with a L* value of 92.29, the other values show my batch of Kilz2 wasn't neutral (but close enough for gov'ment work
).
Now some panel photos.
The panels are, from left to right, Kilz2, C&S, Black Widow BB/AAA 4:1 and BW WM/HE558 5:1. Only the left two panels are of true interest to us in this thead. I used the BW panels to hide most of the wall
which can still be seen in place of a 5th panel. I placed an "X" there with masking tape, kindly ignore this "panel".
Panels under room light with camera auto-white-balancing.
Panels under projector light using a 100% white image, head on.
Color Bars, head on.
White image at 45 degrees.
Color Bars at 45 degrees.
Color Bars at about 170 degrees. Sorry, I was in a hurry and forgot to take a white image at this angle.
While I don't have the photos to prove it, the C&S panel had slightly deeper blacks than the Kilz2 panel. Of course, they were much lighter than the BW panels, but we're not counting those this time.
I didn't have the disk that contained the gray-scale photo I use, so I had to make do with what I had.
All-in-all, I think that C&S has similar whites to the Kilz2 panel while being a slightly darker panel. Also, the C&S was more neutral, which does make a difference if you can't adjust your PJ's R, G and B channels independently (I can't).
There you have it. I hope someone can make use of this info.