Suggestion on end of show, or even beginning of season paint

[wemeck]

Every show you end up with custom paint mixtures. Well you throw in a busy production season and you can multiply the amount of mixed paint. Not to mention we always get donated paints from people, and have unopened paint from old shows. Well what I do is I have the paint crew make a big batch of base coat paint by mixing all these unwanted paints in a large garbage can.

Came in handy with the last batch of base coat we made for Lost In Yonkers the color was a dark KHAKI, and the Scene Designer liked it. So we then stenciled the flowers on the KHAKI to look like wall paper. But this is a one in a million chance.

Usually it is a dark brown, light grey, or dark grey color.

[soundman]

I dont think im following you, you just take the odd color paint and mix it all to see what you come up with? we just keep ours and add some other color to get what need.

[cruiser]

Sooooo true...... ud be stuffed and have alotta waste if u mixed them all and discovered it made some colour that u 1) dont want and 2) looks crap lol

we just store all ours for like a year then dispose of the weirdo colours that no one remembers what or where they were used ahaha

[ship]

No the slop paint theory is one that is both sound and very much used across the industry. You just need to make sure that all paint put into the slop bucket is the same variety and type or you will end up with a goo that nobody wants however. Especially do not mix water based and oil paint.

Think about the use of such slop paint for base coating scenery to wash away past paint jobs on it, much less for shrinking the muslin of a new flat. Why get out much less waste new and fresh paint if it is only going to be covered by another coat of it? Having a base coat of paint in bulk is also very useful so that everything can be covered in it while prepairing for finish coating. Otherwise what happens when you run out of one color used for the base coat - no doubt already used or left over, than have to grab a different color or can to finish the job? Base coats will often show thru and it's by far better to have a base coat all in the same color.

As needed, the slop paint can be wattered down some to prevent it from getting thick, and some white glue can be added to help it adhere. Also white paint can be added to it for lightning of it. Black paint such as surplus from wattered down washes of it will also be useful in bringing the paint back to the grey coloring from the brown. Slop paint should always be well mixed before using and kept tightly closed in a quality container when not filling other buckets of it, or it will go bad fast. It is also useful to use a pantyhose or at least window straining strainer screen which can be washed later for future use to strain the paint being poured into the container. This will keep out contaminants, brush hairs etc, and remove any parts of the paint that is too thick.

In theory, all mixed paint will become grey as a slop of them. In reality, most slop paint will turn into some kind of beige or tan which is very useful with white or black paint added to it for different shades of wood graining, normal painting etc. and there is a huge volume of it freeing up many gallons that will otherwise have to be bought for even finish scene painting. Another good use of such slop paint is for flame proofing the backs of scenery. Many jurousdictions will allow this as adiquate and a cheap way flame proofing adiquately, otherwise it can be used with flame proofing materials to supplement it so you do not need as much to cover a large area. Such paint if grey will provide a very good quality finished professional quality to the back of your scenery also that will help prevent it from rotting or drying out.

One 55gal. drum of slop paint , especially if on casters in the corner of a scene shop is much easier to work with than 55 gal. of misc. individual colors to paints which might or might not match and since each of them is opened and not full. Each of the individual cans will probably also be in varying degrees of drying and rusting away in the can, especially the ones towards the back of the shelf. Much better to use them all up. In this way, you can have your base paint colors, some white and some black, and be done with multitudes of others in between other than a bit of extra colors pre-mixed that are used on the current show - that in addition to a huge amount of base color slop paint that can be tinted or shaded as needed. After the show is over, those show paints go into the slop bucket because it is very unlikely that you will need it again.

[soundman]

I see now but still dont think it would fly with our TD. He save everything some stuff I can unerstand dentist chair odd props and what not but when its a 2*4 thats 4 and a half inches long? If someone needs it the could dig it out of the trash instead i have to deal with it.

[ship]

I never kept any 2x4 that was less than at bare minimum 18" long, and than when I had enough to replace it lenghts moved up from there. Scrap lumber was assigned to one under the cabinet area and was not allowed to outgrow it unless scenery was actively being constructed. Once done, into the trash all but useful pieces went.

On the other hand, the scrap paint idea is well founded and supported by most texts on stagecraft or professional scene shops. You might present the idea to the TD and see if it flys depending upon what type of paint you are using. If its the type that gets really smelly and smells of bacteria soon after it's mixed, I would not save it either.

[LCTLight]

I have to say up until our current show, I thought the idea of slop paint was not such a good idea as well. However, since we're doing our current show in black and white, EVERYTHING had to be base coated. The only alternative was to paint the grays on EXTRA think so as to not have any of the last show coming through.

We reuse lots and lots of set pieces as we are on a tight budget. I can honestly say that we just recently put all that has been mentioned into practice just a few weeks ago when we base coated everything that was going on stage. Best part was it turned out to be a decent shade of gray so we ended up using not only for a base coat, but also for an accent color and texture color as well. We added black and painted all

To me, it just makes sense, especially coming from a tight budget point of view. If it continues to just sit there, it's will only end up drying out and eventually rusting on the can. Then all that's left is throwing it out. Why not use it for something, you've already paid for it anyway, then you don't have to BUY paint for base coating.

Good advice Ship.....

We have the same problem with short lengths of wood. Don't know why we keep it. Unfortunately ours isn't limited to a spot under the counter, it's limited to an entire room......it's a mess....hopefully we're going to get it all out when we take a break over the holidays. We have a new shop foreman who is determined to get it cleaned up.