My daughter is a very talented artist and she wants to paint some barn swallows on my new build, a Mill Creek 13. I have already epoxy/ fiberglassed the hull. The deck has yet to be added. Question: can she paint the birds directly on the wood or the fiberglass or varnish? She uses oil based paints, I wall attach a picture of what she uses. I will also add a couple of pics showing a couple of practice birds. I have only used Schooner Varnish on my other build. I would think Schooner over the bird paintings will most likely discolor it, clear varnish?
No answers so far so I will take a stab at this. First, I would not paint directly on the wood and under the fiberglass. The paint to wood and paint to paint bond is much weaker than that with epoxy. As a result, the layer of paint between the wood and glass will create a weaker area that will be more prone to delamination. I would suggest paint either on top of the epoxy or on top of the varnish. You probably want to experiment to see how the paint looks when overcoated with varnish. No doubt that some varnish will change the colors slightly. There are also clear varnishes that you could try. I use have been using Epifanes Rapidclear on my recent builds with good results.
Thanks for the response. I feel the same way about painting directly on the wood so I’ve pretty much crossed that one off. I have made a test panel with a fiberglass/epoxy 220 finish and one with a varnish finish. The exterior of the yak is all bright so I’m leaning toward just painting directly on the varnish.. I’m thinking the solvents in the varnish are going to react negatively with the paintings if I varnish over them but I truly have no idea so the test panel will be my next step.
I think I have a path forward. I did something similar with an onlay. I glassed the deck completely then I applied a layer of glass over the onlay overlapping the onlay about 3” all around. Filled the weave sanded everything and feathered in all the edges. Varnished and the edges are nearly invisible.
From what I’ve researched the epoxy will adhere well to acrylic paint, which my daughter also uses. So on my test piece of epoxy/glass sanded to 220 she will use acrylic paint, allow to thoroughly dry, lightly sand apply another layer of glass over the test paint and cross my fingers. I’ll let you know how it turns out
