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Best paint to use on shiny brass light fixtures?


fov

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The lights I got for my half scale Queen Anne rowhouse are all shiny brass and I wanted something more subdued. I carefully painted the brass parts with plain old matte black paint (something from Michael's, it might be Ceramcoat). I wanted them to look like wrought iron.

After doing a couple of coats and letting them dry, the paint was flaking off very easily. So I touched them up and then, when dry, painted on matte varnish to protect the paint. But some of the paint is still flaking off - even as I'm painting on the varnish, it's like the contact with the paintbrush is causing the paint to scrape away. I don't need them to be perfect looking (a bit of brass showing through actually looks nice) but the brass is so shiny, and if a big patch gets scraped off it looks bad. I'm concerned about putting them in the house and then having paint flake off if something bumps the light (*ahem* like my hand) and not be able to fix it due to the cramped space.

Is there a better paint to use for this? Maybe I should have used gesso first to give the paint something to stick to? (Kinda late for that now...) Any ideas will be appreciated!

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I did this once with a brass fixture. I used spray grey primer and then a silver spray overcoat. It was still a very delicate finish, so I was careful not to handle it too much when I installed it. I actually ended up using it on Baxter Pointe Villa instead of the Newport. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts. I think shiny metal of any kind is going to be hard to paint and have it stick.

http://www.otterine....og1.php/alchemy

Also, I've sprayed brass door hardware flat black and then painted over it. That is also a delicate finish that I've had to touch up from time to time.

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I have been spray painting my brass fixtures with black matte spray paint for my Nottingham (except for the great room light I am going to leave brass to go with the gold accents on the roof and walls).... I too have had the paint flake pretty easily.... maybe automotive paint would work?????? I don't know.... very curious too if anyone has any ideas

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At least I'm glad to hear it's not just me! I wonder if something like Testors model paint would work better?

I first got the idea to do this from a Guys from Texas workshop I took, where we painted the door knobs black and then sanded a tiny bit off to make it look like tarnished brass. I don't remember it flaking like this. On the other hand, the doorknob was immediately glued in place and doesn't get handled.

I found this link about painting brass: http://www.wikihow.com/Paint-Brass (I suspect these fixtures aren't real brass but the problem of the paint not adhering is the same...)

It says to use a self-etching primer to give the brass a bumpy surface paint can adhere to. Makes sense but when I look up "self-etching primer" all I find are sprays. These pieces are tiny and I don't really want to attempt to mask them (esp. since some of them use part of the fixture as a contact point for the light bulb, I'm assuming if they get coated in primer and/or paint that would disrupt the electrical current?)

I have one more fixture that I haven't painted yet, maybe I will try gesso on it first since that's the same concept. If that works I could always sand the paint off the ones I've already done (it comes off easily enough!) and start over.

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Most, if not all decorative brass has a lacquered finish. So if you use a liquid de-glosser this will dull the finish & allow paint to stick to it without losing detail. For the mini items that we use this method works much better than sanding. Altho there is the chemical downside.

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Good to know, thanks. I have not heard of liquid de-glosser but it sounds like something the tinkerer of the house might have in the garage somewhere. :D

Last night I scraped the paint off one fixture (very easily!), then buffed it up the best I could with a nail file and painted on a coat of gesso. I let that dry overnight so haven't tried re-painting it yet. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

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I dont have any solutions, but I find different metals take the paint better than others, for instance I dont have any problems with painting door knobs (as long as I let the first coat dry totally thoroughly....but I have isuues with flaking when painting lamp bases.

I did want to say to Audra I COULDNT AGREE MORE! I really wonder when the miniatures industry is going to get out of the 80s and start producing finishes on furniture and metals that arent shiny mahogany and brass.

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I use fine steel wool on my brass fixtures and painted them black having no problems with the paint coming off. The problem is the lacquer finish. But once I dulled/roughed it up with the steel wool it worked perfect! :kicking:

And using the steel wool will not make the surface of the brass show any scratching through the paint. You also don't have to deal with any chemicals.

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  • 3 months later...

As a follow-up to this topic... if I want to keep the color the same but make it look like old tarnished brash instead of new shiny brass, is there something I can just paint on the fixture to "tarnish" it?

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I use fine steel wool on my brass fixtures and painted them black having no problems with the paint coming off. The problem is the lacquer finish. But once I dulled/roughed it up with the steel wool it worked perfect! :kicking:

And using the steel wool will not make the surface of the brass show any scratching through the paint. You also don't have to deal with any chemicals.

I do the same and it works perfectly...for painting I use only acrylics colours...and they work too :D

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  • 1 year later...

Another way I've painted shiny brass is with a super cheap velvet nail varnish - you paint it on nail varnish to remove the shine, thus giving a 'velvet' or matte surface. I then paint over that with an acrylic or stain or whatever. It worked well. This method actually came from a blog I follow, so it's not my discovery. The velvet varnish was a few dollars including shipping on ebay.

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Like Shannon, I've used cheap nail polish on metals or other surfaces that just won't seem to hold paint, and had pretty good results.

But velvet nail polish (varnish)... this I haven't heard of. Another new item to search for!

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I just use a metal primer specifically for outdoor metal, it has always worked for me. I've just been doing just that with bronze and silver minis that I want to paint and haven't had any problems. I don't bother to file them down first.

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For anything really stubborn I put on some spray varnish before the paint. You have to do it in fine layers first and let them dry thoroughly between each layer though or it can look a bit lumpy.

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For anything really stubborn I put on some spray varnish before the paint. You have to do it in fine layers first and let them dry thoroughly between each layer though or it can look a bit lumpy.

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Went to Walmart yesterday looking for matte nail polish. The clerk helped me find some. It was called "Wet n Wild Wild Shine" and in small print, "matte top coat". It's a cloudy pale grey in the bottle. Tried it on a shiny brass button and it now looks like brushed brass. The clerk said it seems to be becoming a trend for nails so think I will pick up some more next time I'm there. I'm working on a piece of painted furniture and I wanted to seal the paint, but not have shine--looks like this will do the trick...especially at .93 a bottle!

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Oh,I'll have to look for this one,Debra! It's been about a year since I bought any,but I have dozens of bottles of nail enamel in a plastic box that have never been used on nails,just minis. :) There are tons of colors and finishes out there to try (and now this one I've never seen) and the prices,even when they are a bit higher,are worth what you get for how far it goes. Thanx for posting about this top coat!

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This works great for shiny metal surfaces; however, I wasn't happy with the results on a black painted piece of furniture. I tried it on a small area and it looked streaky and uneven when dry. Of course, if you wanted it that way it would be perfect! LOL!

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