[Ftoast]

I've been doing a lot of reading on that other forum and noticed a marked lack of roll-on painted screen options. I myself have been a pretty vocal advocate of flat/matte-white and decent light-control, so this was a neat direction to attempt. After finally completing a larger panel, I wanted to share it on the shack.

If it's going to fight light, it had better be really good at it. It should be simple to find, make, and apply. It must retain enough gain to pair a 100"-120" screen with only 400-600lumens and look decently bright. It must retain better uniformity than commercial "black" screens without requiring the use of a 1.6:1+zoom..NOT limiting projector pairing choices (besides actual short-throws) is a high priority.

Most shopping was done between HomeDepot and Walmart because of their wide availabilities.
The mix only uses two ingredients; a silver/metallic plus a matte black/dark-grey interior latex.
For the metallic, a quart of RalphLauren SilverMetallic can be found at HD for under $25 or a quart of the very similar Glidden Disney SilverMetallic can be found at certain Walmart locations for under $15.
For the flat/matte, basically any location that sells water-based paint by the quart can tint you a can of "deep onyx" (neutral black) or "grey metal/obsidian glass" (N4.3 dark grey) for under $10.

An inexpensive 1/4"nap (not foam) roller, 2-3coats (grab a 3pack of 1/4" roller pads), a decently smooth surface ($5-15panel from a hardware store), and no previous experience/skill is required.

So far I've found that a 1:2mix (Metallic:black) shows good uniformity and light-rejection but is quite low gain.. a 1:1mix (Metallic:N4.3) shows good uniformity and gain but lacks a bit of light-rejection..and a 1:1mix (metallic:black) shows good brightness and light-rejection but isn't quite as uniform.

Because I don't own a bright enough projector to fill a large screen of the 1:2mix and because I wanted more light-rejection than the 1:1(metallic:grey) could provide, my first full-size test uses the 1:1(metallic:black) mix. This has been the version I've favored all through testing.

(paint~$30, roller/pan/etc.~$10, 4X8panel ~$10)..Pretty much anyone, regardless of previous skill and using almost any non-shortthrow projector and $50 worth of easy to find materials can build this if they feel like giving it a shot.

This is 110" (cropped top/bottom) and nearly 400 lumens from an LED projector.
It looks pretty neat in person and I'm super proud. If anyone else wants to try it out, I'd love to see/hear about the results.

 

[Yiannis1970]

Nice try!!

I would love to do some testing but unfortunately don't have access on these paints...

 

[Ftoast]

Nice try!!

I would love to do some testing but unfortunately don't have access on these paints...

I've had decent luck using dark grey craft paint metallic instead of the Glidden or RalphLauren, but I'm sure they're not all created equal. There's also the rustoleum metallic accents "real pewter" that can be found online (and in a few stores) which can work well.
I'd be curious to hear if it works alright to use AAA instead, but it may be a little TOO reflective. If you or someone else feels like giving it a shot, that'd be great to read about.

 

[mechman]

How bad is the hot spotting? It looks pretty bad in the my little pony (?) images.

 

[Ftoast]

How bad is the hot spotting? It looks pretty bad in the my little pony (?) images.

My camera's lack of dynamic range makes it look much worse than it is in person (and helps make the contrast look even better than it is..cheating), but it IS still visible to some extent for large bright scenes like that once you start looking.
It's subtle enough to not notice once you're into the film and it's much less pronounced than the BD screens I've used the same projectors on, but it's not as uniform as the blackwidow or flat/matte paints.

I like to use that scene for bright colors (shows weird things for projectors with weak color/white brightness) and the uniformity problems it shows on any imperfectly uniform screen. Also I'm hoping someday someone will notice a smallish detail and comment about where the clip came from.
"Oh wow! You won the world's largest iPod Nano. ..And it came with a clock app!"

 

[Ftoast]

I forgot to mention, FolkArt metallic (Pearl, SterlingSilver, GunmetalGrey, BlackSequin) are the craft paints I had good luck with and have been told are available in the UK at least online.

Loosely related:
There was/is a brave experimenter who took the plunge for spraying a 1:1mix of SterlingSilver:N4.3grey(OONN/1300) which I've got a large selfmade sample of rolled instead of sprayed. Mine easily matches my matte-white screen on-axis while his sprayed version ended up around 0.7gain or less (I believe he said it showed whites darker than his BlackWidowUltimate). Is it possible that spraying VS rolling could've made this kind of difference or is something else more likely at work?

Are there any shack members with the access/ability to spray and the willingness to throw away some dollars and hours toward finding a ratio between SterlingSilver and flat/matte-darkgrey which results in roughly 1.0gain?

 

[Ftoast]

Mixed up a higher-gain and more aggressive light-rejection version using 3parts RalphLauren metallic "Garden Twighlight" and 1part flat/matte-black "OONN 07/00".

The off-axis brightness remains matched or slightly above the 1:1mix, but viewing from 40degrees or less off-axis (where 90 would be completely sideways) builds a nice brightness gain that allows me to use the 140lumen projector at night with some lights on rather than relying on the 400lumen LG.
On-axis it is around 0.9gain while the surface with no image remains around N4 in ambient light.

http://youtu.be/MssmLgmMwtA

 

[Ftoast]

I finally have a dark screen permanently attached in a room that makes good use of it.

A $15-or-less 5gallon container of ultralight drywall compound along with a straight $2 pine board (aka. trowel) managed to smooth a 16:9section of ancient plaster wall.
Part of a $10 gallon of flat interior tinted "Grey Tabby" slightly thinned (about a quart of paint and about 6oz of water) gave a nice dark-grey start after the section of wall was lightly sanded and filled in a few spots.
Finally, a single rolled coat using a $15quart of Disney/Glidden metallic "Untinted" mixed together with about 15oz of flat interior "GreyTabby"...not thinned, no water...and the screen was almost finished.
A couple $6 rolls of two-sided velcro made a great border after cutting a few tabs of it off and gently hammering staples through the tabs and into the wall.
The whole thing cost about $50.

https://youtu.be/RmgXJvkkqkI

The screen is 98"-diagonal in a white room with a single window on the right-side wall which is about 6inches away from the screen-wall, a fantastic sharp angle for an AmbientLightRejecting screen to benefit from.
The projector is an LG pa75u which measures about 400lumens peak, and it's on a tripod nearly level with the top of the screen for maximum on-axis gain when seated.
The mix is 2parts metallic "untinted" and 1part flat-"GreyTabby", resulting in a shade that's noticeably lighter than plain "GreyTabby" while still providing excellent blacks and shadow-detail in the presence of light. The on-axis gain is around 0.7-0.8, but that's only a rough estimate.
The uniformity looks really nice in-person, and the amount of visible texture is very low (which is good because it's being viewed from about 7ft away and I'm pretty spoiled by the matte-white screen in the blackroom).

 

[budiz]

Thanks for this info. I used 3 parts ralph lauren untinted metallic and 1 part unique grey and I am pleased with the results. Only got me more curious about how much better my image could be if I were to repaint. You know how addicting these things can be, Maybe Ill repaint and go with a darker base to get deeper blacks.

 

[Ftoast]

Thanks for this info. I used 3 parts ralph lauren untinted metallic and 1 part unique grey and I am pleased with the results. Only got me more curious about how much better my image could be if I were to repaint. You know how addicting these things can be, Maybe Ill repaint and go with a darker base to get deeper blacks.

Be warned that the darker you go with the shade/color, the less clean and less uniform the screen will ultimately get...it'll also become even more finicky about little painting mistakes and surface imperfections.
That said, going as dark as "Moonlight Orchid" or the slightly darker "Special Gray" can still work alright at a 3:1ratio. Though the slightly more neutral "Seal Grey" might be a better choice for color-balance.

Any chance of posting picture/s of how it looks now?
I've never tried that light of a shade before (having skipped directly from a darker 3:1-"Granite Grey" all the way up to a 18:1-white), so it's great to see someone trying something different.
Thanks for writing in what you found and liked.

 

[Ftoast]

I figured out how to make SilverFire/BlackFlame as well as SF/BF-NC using only two ingredients.

I have a few different SF panels that I've been able to directly compare with and these simple versions appear to have the same look and shade-of-grey, gain, off-axis gain, and approximate color response.

So if anyone wants to try SF/BF while only mixing two paints (instead of nine) and spending ~$25 (instead of $80-100...or nearly $200 for the commercial version), here you go..

I've been using ColorPlace interior flat (from Walmart) and Disney/Glidden Magnificent Metallic "tintable".
OR it's also possible to use
the Cheapest interior flat medium/deep-base Glidden (from HomeDepot) and RalphLauren Silver Metallic "tintable".

The darkest-colored SF/BF/BFx1 mixes can be slightly exceeded by using:
8.5parts tintable metallic mixed together with 1part FlatGrey-"Obsidian Glass".

The middle-colored SF/BF mixes can be matched by using:
8.5parts tintable metallic mixed together with 1part FlatGrey-"Grey Tabby".

The lighter-colored SF/BF mixes can be slightly exceeded by using:
8.5parts tintable metallic mixed together with 1part FlatGrey-"Elegant Charcoal".

The SF/BF-NC mixes can be matched using:
5parts tintable metallic mixed together with 1part FlatGrey-"Seal Grey"

The common alteration SF/BF with 2-3oz colorant and 6oz extra flat-white can be matched using:
7parts tintable metallic mixed together with 1part FlatGrey-"Elegant Charcoal"

Just like SF/BF, these mixes work best thinned (with water), strained for chunks and sprayed as several fast/light duster-coats with a HVLP sprayer that works well with thin paints..and a fan helping dry it.
I've had moderate luck with rolling as well, but only while the surface is laying flat on the floor (small enough to reach across without an extension/wand..so about 4ft-tall) and the paint is slightly thinned with water (about 15%-20% water) and then a fan is set to blow on it as it dries.
The laying flat which allows the thinning and the fan all combine and seem to make a helpful difference toward getting a smoother/cleaner-looking finish...along with the specific rolling instructions that
I JUST NOW REALIZED HAVEN'T BEEN EDITED INTO THE FIRST POST!

...um, guys? Why can't I edit my old/original post to add important information?
Does the Edit button go away after certain posts are a certain age or something?