Here we are with one coat of clear, see the red pop out! Now time for some walnut shading additive.

Wow, wow, and WOW! Those look stunning Jeff!

Okay but so now, with the outers looking so perfect and ****genous, I want to see interiors painted white. Because as gorgeous as the interiors are, they are antique-y now compared to the exteriors.

Does that suggestion enrage you? :)

[edit] "****genous" = like, the same all over, no darker bits.

Mitch

No white. I spent several hours getting rid of paint.

Ahh..........a monkey got on my keyboard. Yeah, that's it....:)

I have the walnut shader started, they are lookin good. More pics when it's all done.

Ha ha. That's funny! I know what the monkey was trying to say, old interior, New exterior. Coated heads will hide the problem.

After four coats of the walnut shader the drums are starting to look the way I had hoped. I will probably shoot a couple more coats but not sure. The shading coats are very light, it is a mix of 50% thinner and 50% lacquer. The shading additive is mixed at 1 teaspoon to 16 oz of the tinned lacquer, very hard to spray without sagging.

I post pics of the four steps together so we can see how the finish has changed after each step. The last thing will be a gloss top coat, so five steps total.

Jeff, those shells look outstanding!

Jeff - Outstanding! One or two more coats will make that finish look 3D, like you can see into the grain. Try the 'bike wheel spinner' for spraying! If you spin them while you spray it will help to minimize the droop and sanding afterwards.

They are coming out great. That's going to be a rich looking set of drums.

John

Thanks John! I can't spray in a circle like that, I b

Do much better spraying from edge to edge. But I do have a turning jig to turn the drum so I dont have to walk around it. It's very important to know how much material goes on the drum each coat.