Hey all, I’m looking for one of you innovative types to help me come up with a way to consistently measure paint mixtures. I’ve tried measuring cups, and even those little measured mixing cups you get at hobby stores, but have been uhappy with the result, i.e. never getting the same color twice.
I use a 3cc syringe. Very accurate way to measure paint , but I generally just use them for paint and thinner mixtures. I’ve only tried it once mixing colors and it worked fine but it was only a two-color mix. I had to mix some more when the first batch wasn’t enough and was concerned about the colors matching. Couldn’t tell any difference at all.
You can also count the drops but that gets real tedious in a hurry.
There a company named Precison Mix Systems which makes a system based on graduated syringes to get the same paint mixes over the time; maybe you could merely try with syringes to get, for instance 5 ml of this blue, 3 ml of this green and 8 ml of this orange, or even use eyedroppers ( 5 drops of this blue…) if the quantity in the syringes is too much; due to the small quantities used in modelling, I think that it is a better way to measure volume than weight, as a precision scale is rather expensive; and overall, don’t forget to record your mixes.
When I mix paint I use the little cups that they give you medicine in at the hospital and an eyedropper. The cup is graduated in five scales. I measure out my base color into the cup and then add my tinting color (or colors) using the eyedropper. Just note the amount of base paint and count the number of drops of tint you added to get the color you want. Keep a notebook with the various formulas you come up with and you should have very few problems with matching batches. (you gotta remember even paint manufacturers have problems with that). You can find the cups at a hospital supply store, some LHS, and Hobby Lobby. Hope this helps a little.
I also use eyedroppers.
You can either count the drops or eyeball it but it always works fine and being absolutely precise is not necessary.
Mike
I’m a chemist and have available all sorts of things to measure liquids accurately. But you don’t need this kind of accuracy. I use a plastic cup and an eye dropper counting drops for small mixes or counting whole eye drop fulls for larger quantities.
John