Vintage Lighting Recipe for old Altman Texture Black Paint.

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Working on my fixture signs today while adding a few more fixtures and doing more above and below now 8" center hanging to fit it in. Gotta do another pipe at some point, also have to rig the pipe so it can be flown down for tours. Hard to see what it is or how it’s different if like 10' in the air, but is what it is for now in a place to showcase it.

I noted a #65 dated and placed into the 360Q area because of its color. It’s not a 65Q and should not have been put there. Mistake on my part in placement and dating, it’s not a hammertone brown either. It was painted semi-gloss black though at some point. Not the correct black and that old textured pre-1962 Altman black has changed over the years, but I could see the texture not hammertone under the paint..

I’m color blind with red/green confusion so what I paint or what gel I sort is often really off or really well done in me spending extra time to match. Think I did well tonight in the aged/still a little dirty pre-1962 era texture black 360 Leko sitting right next to a dried #65 Fresnel. Neither are the oldest of Altman texture black/gray. Still working on getting a pre-360 series Leko once the source gets time. I believe my pre-1962 #100 Inkie is also slightly different color and slightly more textured yet.

Anyway, onto recipe.

I see brown in the gray/black texture paint. For that my normal Altman Hammertone Brown semi-match - Rust-Oleum Hammered Brown #245218. Caution - this spray is higher output than normal spray, play test on other materials before doing a light coverage on your fixture or you will drip. Possibly also increase your distance. Shake really well and a bit longer. It also seems to clog after time in storage even if following directions for cleaning, so don’t expect an old can to work. Not impressed with the new spray triggers.

Let set in for about ten minutes and apply Rust-Oleum Multi-Color Textured Aged Iron #223525 to the still wet paint. Don’t be too concerned about the white specs of paint yet, the below coat of still fresh brown will hopefully color them and or there is more steps to tone it down.

Next for me was a very light coat of Rust-Oleum Bar0B-Q Black spray paint #7778. Very light coat from at least 16" away. It’s texture paint so the further spacing won’t hurt it. Kind of air brush it on so the brown/multi-color gets darkened but not completely blackened. Old Altman texture paint is kind of lively in not a simple color. If you don’t blend at this point completely, from a distance it will.

After like five minutes of the light coat, add a heavy coat of Krylon #1310 Dulling Spray. Very good match once dry short of dirtying it up. This from a distance and given I’m color blind... but very close in match to what I can see and better than the Hammertone Brown match to a real Altman Brown painting.

Note also... most of these in use are not high temperature paints. If you plan to use the fixture and at full wattage, you are better off in just scraping what paint is loose if not sanding or sandblasting, than high temperature painting the fixture. I’m going instead for a color match for a dating of what it will have looked like in if they do get used, they would be more prop than light and would be dimmed or lamped way down. Close enough match however that I’ll feel good once I get the lens trains back from sand blasting from the Lekos, to be able to match paint. That’s a good and challenging thing as it’s with modification very close to Century or Kliegl paint once the above technique is done. Some modification and perhaps some gray primer added to the mix.

Final close up look.. white sparkels dimmed down a lot sill there but darned close to the old fixture of origional paint I'm matching for texture and very same color. Dirty water if I really want to get perfect the next step.
 
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I'm going to have to play with this recipe ! Wasn't the original paint on old Altmans a 'Zylotone' paint ?
 
I'm going to have to play with this recipe ! Wasn't the original paint on old Altmans a 'Zylotone' paint ?

Hmm possibly, got any or what is it? Certainly be higher temperature rated and easier than this solution for simulation of what color it was. Wife's alreay mad about the fumes and the cats won't come near me. (Sand blasted lens trains painted tonight.)
 

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