Some Vintage Shells and a Home-Made Green Sparkle (I need your help, D&P)

[CombatWombat3]

Alright, some of you know that I aqquired a small fortune in vintage shells (ludwig, slingerland, tama, etc), so I have been very slowly workign to refinish them, get hardware and construct myself one hell of a kit. I've had these shells basically all winter, and they've taken up a good 1/3 of my room.

Well, the first thing I did was take the wraps of a few of the better looking shells and sand them down.

(Two Tama Royalstar toms, a ludwig olive/blue badge tom, and a Slingerland tom)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/NHNwombat/Nice%20Day%20Out/DSCF1678.jpg
Sizes:
12"x8" (Tama)
13"x9" (Tama)
14"x10" (Slingerland)
18"x10" (ludwig)

The Ludwig is still unsanded (I lent my power sander to a friend, who refinished his bass, it's AMAZING)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/NHNwombat/Nice%20Day%20Out/DSCF1679.jpg

I then started to tackle the HUGE issue of a finish. I want this finish to be something incredible, something I can really be proud of. So I decided I wanted to do a sparkle (green, red or blue to be exact).


SO I spent MANY hours in my very small room sprayig, gluing, applying and doing god-knows-what to all sorts of spray-on sparkles, glitter and clearcoats, all the while wrestling a myriad of old boards I have.

The Result:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/NHNwombat/Nice%20Day%20Out/DSCF1676.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/NHNwombat/Nice%20Day%20Out/DSCF1673.jpg


So far, I'm quite happy with this, but I just cannot imagine doing this to an entire kit. It's simply way too time-consuming, it uses a HELL of a lot of sparkles and glitter, and the surface is incredibly uneven.


I'm asking all you D&Pers, What do you think of my work so far, and got any ideas to help continue it?

By the way, I'm in the market for hardware (I need EVERYTHING) as well, with an incredibly small budget. So any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Chester]

I cant really help you with your questions, but just to give soem feedback, i think that sparkle looks AMAZING, keep up the excelent work.

[We_Love_Lime]

I cant really help you with your questions, but just to give soem feedback, i think that sparkle looks AMAZING, keep up the excelent work.

As well.

[Drum Phil]

Best sparkle ever

[Snarz]

It's looking good.And as in hardware go to http://forum.drumshed.org/index.phpyou will likely find some in the classified section.

[Juicy_Forlorn]

That sparkle looks beautiful :)

[Win A Rabbit]

looks great, man. i was thinking about doing that (buying some assorted toms and such, painting my own kit) a while ago, but i doubt i'll ever get around to it.

good job, keep at it.

the only place i've ever looked at lugs was at http://www.amdrumparts.com. hope some of those fit your budget.

[Drum Monkey]

I know www.midwestpercussion.com (http://www.midwestpercussion.com) sells individual hardware parts... You can check them out.

The sparkle looks really good, those shells were a great fortune to acquire. Have you searched "how paint with sparkles" or something on Google for maybe an easier solution?

Anyhow it looks good so far, good luck ;)

-DM

[CombatWombat3]

Thanks....
It's an incredibly tedious process. What I do is:

I first sand the surface. I then apply 1 or two coats of green stain, and let that dry. Then I apply a coat of spray-on sparkles (grey). I let that dry, and then I apply a coat of spray-on clearcoat (Fairly heavy), and while that's still wet I just PILE the glitter on, covering every area. Then, once I'm sure that's dry, I carefully lift the board up, tip it sideways into a garbage can to get rid of the extra, and then I quickly spray on some more clearcoat to secure it.


Oh ya, and about the hardware and lugs.....unfortunately the key factor will be price. I've already considered mini-tube lugs (brass) and mini round lugs.
http://www.drummaker.com/pix/6525b.jpg
http://www.drummaker.com/pix/6525a.jpg

The only problem: $5.60 a piece (American). So let's assume 6 lugs a drum (being generous), and 5 drums. 5.60x6x2x5=$336 jut for lugs.....

Trust me, I've looked around, and I might just have to come up with that kind of money. I really want this kit to be incredible.

[CombatWombat3]

Oh ya....yuo can AIM me at NHNwombat too....I always like talking to other drummers.

[Drum Monkey]

Oh ya....yuo can AIM me at NHNwombat too....I always like talking to other drummers.
I don't have AIM :( :lol: I'm on MSN :smash:

I've checked out Midwest Percussion and it seems they don't have the kind of hardware you're looking for...

-DM

[Chippy569]

just do a snare, man :D

[White Riot!]

I would veneer the shells

[CombatWombat3]

....that would be really hard to do.

The reason I'm not staining the shells (as the main finish) is because:

1)I want to try something new
and 2) I've had to putty a fair amount on some of the shells, and it would look really bad if I stained them.

I have thought about just selling these shells, but I don't think I could find buyers.

[abandonthetruth]

If you can get one over the border without a customs charge, then I'd be happy to take one off your hands, .. pending the price is decent, .. 10 or 12 inch would be what i'm looking for.

[aznriceball]

looks incredible from the distance of the camera, but i imagine swimming through the ice capades is easier than smoothing that out and final coating it..

[MeaninglessPhoto]

Thats nice as hell man

I wanna do some **** like that. Would ebay have old shells like that?

[Berk]

Defintely.
Lots of old Slingerlands.

[White]

I would personaly scrap the Glitter Idea, if tis that hard, then just try and get a good green stain look to it, BUt ya, As for Hardware, Save up some more and buy actual tube lugs, that would look wicked.

[AtomShip]

Dont pour into a trashcan! Just pour the extra onto a newspaper and transfer thoughs spawwkles on the board again later...

[CombatWombat3]

looks incredible from the distance of the camera, but i imagine swimming through the ice capades is easier than smoothing that out and final coating it..


Ya..it's a BITCH. What I think I might do is to just COMPLETELY douse it in clearcoat after I do one layer when the sparkle is applied, hopefully filling in all the cracks.

[pitchfork]

Its risky, try putting the glitter in the clearcoat.

[Dirty]

It looks great, but i just don't think that the glitter will stay on your shells - I can imagine them falling of very slowly, but surely.

[CombatWombat3]

It looks great, but i just don't think that the glitter will stay on your shells - I can imagine them falling of very slowly, but surely.


Um....dude....they will be clearcoated on like no tomorrow. I can secure them absolutely no problem, to the point where I couldn't remove them with a knife very easily.

As to the comment about adding them to the clear coat, the problem is I would have to saturate the hell out of the clearcoat, and if I did that I would be basically doing what I'm already doing.

[abandonthetruth]

^^You make a good point .. i think with your test peice, .. try to clear coat what you have, and see how you can get it to come out. If you can't get it to smooth out, then you'll have to rethink what finish you want.

And did you get the e-mail I sent you?

[drummingducktape]

Its risky, try putting the glitter in the clearcoat.
i think that would work the best, if you had the green stain and had a little sparkles in the clear coat then did like 4 or 5 layers of glitter and then 1 or 2 of just clear.

[Aaron]

Are you clear coating between stain and glitter?

[Dirty]

Um....dude....they will be clearcoated on like no tomorrow. I can secure them absolutely no problem, to the point where I couldn't remove them with a knife very easily.

As to the comment about adding them to the clear coat, the problem is I would have to saturate the hell out of the clearcoat, and if I did that I would be basically doing what I'm already doing.

Fair enough, but don't come crying when......

Is the finish rough once it's all done, or have you tryed sanding it too?

[Chester]

Dont pour into a trashcan! Just pour the extra onto a newspaper and transfer thoughs spawwkles on the board again later...

good idea... if they still would be in a condition to be re-used, i wouldnt know

[CombatWombat3]

Fair enough, but don't come crying when......

Is the finish rough once it's all done, or have you tryed sanding it too?


Um....Sanding glitter? That's not such a hot idea.....

And I know how to get the finish smooth. That's no problem at all. It will just take some time. And I don't plan on doing my drumet like this, this is just an experiment. I've done a fair amount of this sorta stuff, I know what I'm doing for the most part.