Painting relief game board


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Old 12-01-16, 08:44 AM
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Painting relief game board

I've made a game board that has over 100 divots for marble moves and I want to paint these wells one color and the surface another. It's too complex to hand paint each well or to mask them. Is there some way to paint the wells and then apply a surface color that doesn't seep/lip back into the wells?
 
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Old 12-01-16, 08:52 AM
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My thought would be to paint the whole thing and then sand the top back to raw wood and polyurethane it. The divots would then be painted and the top would show wood grain.
 
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Old 12-01-16, 09:21 AM
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The idea SS proposed would be the easiest! No matter what you use to mask or shield the divots - seepage will happen with any brushed or rolled on coating. Setting marbles in each divot and spraying the finish might be an option.
 
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Old 12-01-16, 10:27 AM
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Setting marbles in each divot and spraying the finish might be an option.
I think that would be my next option.
 
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Old 12-01-16, 06:33 PM
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Thanks, Fellas. I tried the marble setting technique, but I guess I'm not enough of a graffiti artist to use a rattle can that precisely. The marbles create a shadow so that perpendicular spraying results in a halo around each divot. Since these divots are only 3/4" center-to-center I had difficulty obtaining a complete coverage that left a nice finish, even spraying at various angles, and occasionally that resulted in slight seepage on a few wells on my test board.

So far the paint and re-sand technique looks like the only solution, but I'm hopeful there is yet somebody out there with an outside-the-box idea that would allow different paint colors instead of natural wood finish. How do they paint those Forest Service signs with routered lettering?
 
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Old 12-02-16, 03:26 AM
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Not sure how commercial signs are painted but when the routed out portion is deeper it's easier to roll lightly over it and not get much paint where you don't want it ..... and touching up or wiping off errant paint is always an option.

Sounds like the marbles are slightly smaller than the divots. Assuming you can't get a slightly larger ball, you'd need to make the existing larger. Tape over the marble would be one option. Covering the marble with vaseline is another. If you go with vaseline you have to be very careful NOT to get any on the surface you intend to paint!
 
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Old 12-02-16, 07:47 AM
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Actually, the marbles are slightly larger than the divots. The wells are 1/2" and marbles are about 0.52" but as you spray directly, the circumference of the marble shadows the 1/2" hole just enough to leave that halo. Thanks again for your continued interest.
 
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Old 12-02-16, 11:52 AM
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Then spraying more coats, especially around the marbles should fix it. It's best to spray multiple coats concentrating on the area around the marble before going for a finish coat over the entire board.
 
 

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