Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hi, I'm Alex with Angel Gilding. And I'm Alex with Synthetic Foundries. I've been using Angel Gilding products for the last several years for cosplay custom parts, 3D prints and other things, and here at Angel Gilding we've been working on behind the scenes developing a full line of new products, angel Chrome. So we have Alex here today to show us how he's using these brand new products to spray Chrome, his 3D printed helmet. Let's dive into it. First we're going to basecoat the piece. We're using that basecoat resin as well as our universal hardener. This is universal because it works with both our base coat and top coat. We're always going to do eight parts of resin to one part hardener. We're going to measure it by weight and we'll link the scale that we like to use in the description box below. First off, we've got that hardener. Now we're working on the resin Basecoat. Resin is a different product than our topcoat resin. It does not have the UV inhibitors, so you'll want to make sure that you're using Basecoat for basecoat and topcoat for topcoat.

(01:11):

Once we've got that measured out, we're going to mix it well. Crown spray tool is an option if you've got the starter kit for this base coat. He's going to use the HVLP gun from our pro kit showing how he's going to go back and forth over the piece. A nice, smooth, high gloss surface is what's going to give us that bright, brilliant reflection of the silver. You'll want to do a double wet coat. We do not recommend for our base coat or our top coat that you go with a misted coat. For ours, you'll want to do a nice wet coat over the surface, back and forth, being sure not to get any drips, fish eyes, champagne bubbles and such.

(02:12):

You will see that Alex is really working with it to make sure he's got a nice even coverage. Taking a look through it. You can wait three to four minutes between coats to let it flash off if you feel that it needs a second coat. Once you've got that coat just how you want it, you'll allow it to dry for 24 hours. We do have baking instructions on our website as well. If you'd prefer to bake that finish, it's very important that you clean up your gun, whether HVLP or Crown spray tool, you'll use lacquer thinner and Alex has shown you here how he uses some lacquer thinner to spray it through the gun to make sure it's nice and clean.

(03:02):

Now this next step is optional, flaming the base coat, and we do have information in the knowledge base specifically about the science behind this and why it's recommended in spray chrome. That narrow blue flame is what's important and you don't want to heat up the piece or melt the piece. You've got that one inch air gap is the key that's going to help with wetting as well as adhesion. Once you've got that piece flamed, if you wanted to, you're going to go ahead and clean it. You can see that Alex is using brand new gloves and dawn cleaner. We found that brand new gloves are the best way to clean because you can make sure you're really getting into the nooks and crannies of your piece. Cleaning is an essential step to make sure that the chemistry develops properly on the surface. Up until this point, we were using tap water to do the rinsing. Now we're going to go over it with distilled water. No matter what water you have from your tap, we always recommend using distilled water for your final rinse.

(04:43):

Next up is measuring the chemicals, so we've got our measuring cylinder here. You'll see we do all of our measurements in milliliters and that's because milliliters are much more precise and therefore more accurate than measuring in ounces. First up is prep coat 30 milliliters of prep coat to one liter of distilled water. We are using all the equipment that comes in the starter kit, but the instructions and such will be the same for measuring dilution ratios. If you're using our pro kit, first up, pouring in that distilled water. Next up is Chrome prep code. You'll want to have designated cylinders for each of your chemicals to avoid any contamination. Next up is 10 activator. That's one milliliter of 10 to 250 milliliters of distilled water. Make sure with this one that you mix fresh daily. Now a tin activator because you're only measuring one milliliter, you're going to be using this syringe. One full pull of the syringe is one milliliter. Next up is the pump spray assembly. This is a unique product to Angel gilding. It's an excellent way to achieve a silver finish without requiring an air compressor. First, we're measuring our silver solution once again using the same measuring cylinder as we did for our distilled water and other products because this cylinder only ever is used to measure water so it stays clean and avoids any cross contamination.

(07:20):

For our silver solution, we are going to measure 15 milliliters of concentrated silver with 485 milliliters of water. As you can see, that cylinder was marked with an S and that's because we want to make sure that we're only ever using it for silver solution. Once again, avoiding cross-contamination

(08:39):

And having a designated cylinder marked with an R. For our chrome reducer, once again, we're going to be doing 15 milliliters of Chrome reducer, concentrate with 485 milliliters of water, swirl it around to mix it well, and go ahead and put that cap on and once again, you'll want to make sure that you tighten that fully so that it is able to pressurize. In order to make it fully pressurized, you're going to pump each side. Oftentimes it's easiest and more consistent if you pump one side at a time. Once that lever starts to give you some pushback, you've got it fully pumped.

(09:43):

We are ready to proceed with the chroming process on our piece. First off is the prep coat. Prep coat is what's going to enable the other chemicals to flow well over the surface, and so therefore we want to make sure that we get a nice full wet coating of that prep coat. Make sure you get all of those crevices. When in doubt, spray more prep coat, and then you're going to go right over it with the tin activator. Do not rinse in between. Go right from the prep coat to the tin activator spray that very, very well. You want to make sure that that tin is able to sit in every single part of your piece To enable the chrome to properly adhere,

(10:48):

We now need to wait at least 30 seconds. You can wait a bit longer to make sure that that tin activator is fully adhered. Now we should see while we're doing a nice thorough rinse that the piece is still having water sheet off of it, you're not seeing that beating up and rinse, rinse, rinse. This is an essential step. You will always want to rinse more than you think you need to. The reason that we focus so much on rinsing is that excess tin will affect the brilliance of the silver, so if you have leftover tin on the surface, then that's going to react with the silver and cause some dark streaking, which of course you want to avoid when you go to spray it. You do want to spray it to the side to make sure you're getting nice even mist from both sides of the gun and then spray it over the full piece. Being able to rotate this piece like this is really important to ensure that you're getting nice full coverage. As you can see from that photo above as well as the main photo that silver really is starting to develop, so you're going to spray and then you're going to wait. You do want to give it some time.

(12:37):

If you see that blotchy appearance, do not panic. That is a normal part of the process. It's just going to take some time for that silver to develop. Taking a little bit of time to allow it to develop here is going to save you in the end because it means that you will not have to redo the piece spray and then wait spray and then wait. Allow the silver to develop lighting makes all the difference. Now, in case you do make a mistake and you need to resil that piece, you can use silver remover. Now, the unique aspect to silver remover is that you can use it directly over your base coated piece and you do not need to base coat it. Again, we're measuring equal portions of part A and part B into a cup there just taking a soft cotton ball and wiping it over the surface and you can see how quickly it works to take that silver off. We're going to fully wipe it down and then after you've got all that silver removed, you will make sure that you clean it really, really well to remove any of that excess silver remover before you go back through the process, repeating the rinsing, the prep coat, the tin, the rinsing, and the silver.

(14:23):

Once we've got our piece silver just how we want, we can move on to protecting it. You do need to allow that silver to dry completely. You can do that with a heated fan allowing it to sit or if you'd like, you can blow forced air on it, but the key is to make sure that that silver is absolutely dry before you move on to any top coating. Now, to tap coat it, we're going to be using our chrome tinted topcoat resin. This has UV inhibitors in it and is premixed to just the right formula to get that brilliant chrome finish. First, we're going to be measuring that resin. Remember, it's an eight to one ratio, so eight parts of resin to one part of hardener, and once again, we're measuring by weight in the cup that resin will appear quite dark, but do not worry. That is going to be a nice thin layer over your piece and will achieve the nice chrome finish. For more information on why you would need a tinted top coat, be sure to check out our knowledge base for this top coat. We will be using the canister on our crown spray tool. Once again, this is an option that comes in the starter kit and is also something that you can purchase individually. It does not require the connection to an air compressor. We're going to once again go over with a fully wet coat. You do not want to do a misted appearance and rotate your piece to ensure that you've got a nice clear coverage.

(16:47):

Just as we saw with the silvering lighting is key. Make sure that you're working in an environment with natural lighting. You can see here my piece appears slightly yellow and that is all because of the lighting. As you'll see, this piece is brilliant and chrome.