Faux Gold finishes

[jhicks]

We are getting involved in some fairly large signs for an irish Pub. They will have 17 to 19 letters approximately 18" high along a 20 foot sign face in Goudy old style font. We plan to cut the letters as individual parts and use the technique Joe Crumley posted photo's of on his Rumor's sign. Probably run with radiused edges in a HDU, Medex or exteria perhaps 1" thick and wonder what faux gold finish folks have found out there.
I recognize nothing will replace gold leaf but am curious what folks have found as a more budget priced gold paint finish.
I don't think we will be able to get the $ necessary for such a large amount of gold / process time so thinking I need an alternative to test and pilot for comparison purposes.
Any tips are appreciated.

[bjenkins]

Jerry I have used "One Shot" on a few signs with great results. People have been really happy with it. The trick is DO NOT us "gold". It's weird but the "brass" is a nice gold color and the gold is ugly.

[joe]

I agree with Bud. The OneShot Gold looks like xxxx. Neither Brass or Gold are very long lived. There made with medal particles, suspended in clear varnish. The metal will tarnish in about one year.

I have a new product, Auto-Air Colors. It's stocked by your local Automotive Paint Dealer. There are dozens of intense colors. It comes in small 4 oz. bottles, water based and very transparent. Here's the way I've done it.

Gild the piece with aluminum foil or spray a gloss coat of silver, then top with the transparent gold. Once dry spray an automotive clear coat. I bet you'll like it.

[rick_woodward]

Bud is right on the brass paint. Thats what i use. Heres an example on the 3d lettering. rick



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[jhicks]

Thanks to all. I'll do some experimenting and see wgat works best for samples.
Nice letters and finish Rick!
Thanks Joe. Always a wealth of knowledge! See you in KS

[joe]

Nice work Rick,

Your letters look very custom. Sure would like to see more of you work. Hope you can make it to Kansas for the camp.

J

[rick_woodward]

Thanks Jerry an Joe. Wont be goin anywhere soon. Trying to come up with the money to build a building.Gonna have to do it as i can. I was gonna post two pics of the whole sign, but i had to keep chopping down the size to get it to post. I had the pics set to 72 dpi. My pics were only 115 kb but the limit is 50 kb........ Not good for posting pics. Any advice on posting pics?

[joe]

Do you have Photoshop?

[jseiler]

For free, free, free, there is "The GIMP" GNU Image Manipulation Program. Its pretty good, as good as photoshop in my opinion.

Pre-compiled windows version @

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

John