Luminous paint?

[Argent]

Hi peeps,

Does anyone here have experience/knowledge about Luminous paint?

I am after some that goes on clear, last against wearing off from handling, isn't going to irradiate me (or anyone) and of course is as bright as possible.

Actually planning to obtain and paint up a polycarbonate sword, maybe even with multiple colours to try a Thundarr the barbarian type Sunsword.

What to buy and from where?

 

[Cottontail]

Hi peeps,

Does anyone here have experience/knowledge about Luminous paint?

I am after some that goes on clear, last against wearing off from handling, isn't going to irradiate me (or anyone) and of course is as bright as possible.

Actually planning to obtain and paint up a polycarbonate sword, maybe even with multiple colours to try a Thundarr the barbarian type Sunsword.

What to buy and from where?

Hmmm. I kind of doubt there is such a thing--not that glows brightly, anyway. I think most of those paints are really suspensions of a luminous powder. The powder is not transparent, and you need quite a bit to get a good glow, so the best you'll probably do is a sort of milky translucence. If you're good with that, then I'd say just rough up the blade a bit and put some LEDs in the hilt. Much brighter, limited only by batteries, and you can have any color you want.

 

[Blake]

I suggest looking up wildfire paint they should have what you are looking for!

 

[Argent]

Hmmm. I kind of doubt there is such a thing--not that glows brightly, anyway. I think most of those paints are really suspensions of a luminous powder. The powder is not transparent, and you need quite a bit to get a good glow, so the best you'll probably do is a sort of milky translucence. If you're good with that, then I'd say just rough up the blade a bit and put some LEDs in the hilt. Much brighter, limited only by batteries, and you can have any color you want.

Love Lightsabers made from in hilt LEDs but want to do something a bit different with multiple colours.

- - - Updated - - -

I suggest looking up wildfire paint they should have what you are looking for!

Thank you going to give this a shot!

 

[Traemo]

You could run the LEDs up the inside of the entire blade - would take longer to make, though

 

[Cottontail]

Love Lightsabers made from in hilt LEDs but want to do something a bit different with multiple colours.

Even if you end up going the luminous paint route, you might still want LEDs in the hilt. Most luminous paints--at least the phosphorescent variety--are charged by, and glow very strongly in, black light. And you can get "black" LEDs.

...because the Achilles heel of luminous paint is going to be the limited duration of the glow, assuming you're mainly wanting to show this off in dark environments.

Related anecdote: When I was in college, my roommate bought a black light. It was the first time I'd ever played with one, and I quickly (accidentally) discovered that my laundry detergent powder, which was loaded with phosphates (as most are) glowed crazy-bright when exposed to black light. He and I had the same devious idea almost simultaneously: We mixed up a pasty solution of laundry detergent and water, and proceeded to paint every wall of our apartment with detergent graffiti. The detergent was white, and the wall paint was a matte white, so when the black light was off, it was almost impossible to see what we'd done. A year later, we moved out of that apartment without cleaning the walls. I've always wondered whether a subsequent renter ever turned on a black light and was horrified to discover that his or her entire home was a glowing mural. (Some of what we'd painted was rather "inappropriate", too.)

 

[BoredBoy]

http://www.readysetglo.com/categories/Glow-Paint%2dDay-Invisible/