Blue Speckle - What Tool?

[TurboC--]

Finally set up for the last step on my Pac-man - the blue speckle.  Tried a Loew-Cornell speckling brush.  It just makes tiny speckles and strands of paint.  Tried a toothbrush, same tiny speckles.  I am now thinking that the original speckle must have been done with something that had much larger bristles.  The original speckle has fairly sizeable specks, and not a bunch of little ones everywhere.  Anyone know what tool they used, or can be used for this?

[koolmoecraig]

I asked about this for my Rally-X machines which has black speckles.

Someone recommended using a tooth brush.

I haven't done it yet but it's worth a try.

[TurboC--]

As I said, a toothbrush also makes speckles which are far too small.  Tomorrow I'm going out shopping, I'm gonna buy the biggest bristle thing I can find and see what happens.

[koolmoecraig]

Sorry, I didn't even see that you mentioned that in your post.

Thanks for the info though.

[prOk]

I used a deck brush..

[TurboC--]

Can you explain the method?

[TurboC--]

Just tried something else - bicycle pump with a plastic attachment, round aperature and about 1mm diameter.

[TurboC--]

An interesting passage I found online (for painting an aircraft cabin actually)

Apply the base coat of dark gray paint. A sprayer with a 2.5mm nozzle is best but in a pinch, a roller may be used.
...
As soon as the dark base coat is applied, switch to a 1.7mm nozzle and with low pressure at the gun spray a speckle coat of the lighter gray paint over the area. Use low pressure at the gun so that the paint is not atomized but comes out of the gun in small

[prOk]

What you are trying to do is called 'stippling' in the art world.  Getting the right effect is all about the stiffness of the brush, the fiber of the brush and the thickness of the paint..  In my case, I got one of those handy dandy cheapo deck brushes with the really coarse short fibers on it from home depot.. only a few bucks.. I thinned the paint somewhat and then rake your finger backwards toward you over the bristles.. takes some practice but it can be done perfectly..

[TurboC--]

What you are trying to do is called 'stippling' in the art world.

[koolmoecraig]

I was trying out some techniques for my Rally-X. I found one that works well.

A handful of sharpened pencils dipped in the paint and given one swift shake. Looks 99% perfect to me.

Try it.

[TurboC--]

99% perfect sounds great at this point.     My friend can't get his compressor and sprayer to me until next week at the earliest, that excludes christmas and I was hoping to get it set up before then.  So you JUST tried this?  Since earlier you said you were going to try some things.  Well I'll give it a shot, thanks.

[TurboC--]

Err.  Well.  I tried it, it was interesting, I started out that way but, the dots were just too BIG with this method.  So I went back to the bicycle pump method.  It produced basically the right pattern, except having some that were too large also.  So I just pumped an area, and then went back with Q-tips to remove the large ones.  As usual I have one side of the machine which isn't bad, and one side which is .. not as good.  But it's all right I guess... and it's done... I just have to touch up where the masking tape ripped off some of the paint, then bring it up tomorrow and try to get everything hooked up. 

[prOk]

try a deck brush.. the bristles are only about an inch and a half long.. that makes a difference.