Standardizing Touch Up Kits

[paintcab]

We are receiving a couple of co-pros this season and sending one out. Over the years, we have gotten a full range of paint kits from the sending company. Over the years, we have decided on what our best practices are for sending a paint kit to another theater. I’d like to get some general guidelines out there to make this easier on all of us. I’d like to hear what you send that works, what you have received that didn’t work (no watery paint please!!!).

So here is what we’re trying to do from McCarter Theatre

1. Process sheets for the show get scanned in and emailed. No need to waste paper printing.

2. 3×5 color swatch cards for main colors in the show. These include show name, unit (wall, door, etc) and the recipe for color matching. We are making these during the build anyway, so we just make a second.

3. Touch up colors, @ 8oz. The colors we’ve mixed to do our touch ups in house. These are fully paint, no water. There may only be 2 or 3 of these based upon the show. That may be all the paint we send. If the receiving painter needs other colors, they have the swatch cards to match.

These 3 items seem to be what is really needed by the receiving painter. However each show is different, so we may add:

full strength pints of main show colors (no water) We can all make our own RU wash or glaze

small specific tools that were used-for example for Crowns, we sent the paint marker we used to do the body outline on the floor

a can of an important spray paint, specialty tape, a small container of a specific texture, a pint of the sealer used

any notes we’ve made on specifically ‘weak’ areas in the set that we expect will need to be touched up

I’ve had a number of shows that have long periods between one theater and the next. I really feel with the process sheets and color recipe cards another scenic should be able to re-create any element of a show. Touch up colors are nice to send if they are full strength and sealed well. Most of us will just palette a difficult color match anyway.

So what else do you want to get in your touch up kits? What do you NOT want? Are the 3 items I listed at the top enough?

Thanks Carrie Ballenger (paintcab)

[Angelique Powers]

I don’t get to send off to many paint kits these days, but when I do, I totally agree:

– no washes, no stinky paint, and swatches are key.

I also like to make sure that the containers I’m sending are leak proof. My preference is metal cans, followed by a plastic jar, and then finally a good quality deli cup (the microwaveable kind tend to be best) I also make try my best to make them leak proof with tape around the edge, and use soft rags for packing (who doesn’t need a good rag?)

I have received some really crappy ones in the past – and forget about trying to send one in the winter months – the paint gets frozen! – so having good swatches is key.

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