Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting / A Treatise on the Painting of Carriages, Wagons and Sleighs, Embracing Full and Explicit Directions for Executing All Kinds of Work, Including Painting Factory Work, Lettering, Scrolling, Ornamenting, Varnishing, etc., with Many Tested Recipes and Formulas

by M. C. Hillick

REDS, WINES, AND OTHER COLORS OF THE RED ORDER.

For warmth and brilliancy of color effects, carmine among a long list of gorgeous reds, is without a rival. Carmine is a glaze color exclusively, and the splendor of its radiance is governed entirely by the ground color. Carmine, along with its near relatives of the red order, has a decided tendency to fade, flake, and chip off. The ground color, therefore, must, in addition to being faultless in color density and surface features, be possessed of great enduring qualities. It may be accepted as a rule worthy of practice that the ground colors for the general order of reds should be mixed with a binder of varnish sufficiently strong to impart to them when dry at least a faint gloss—an egg-shell gloss, if it please my community of readers. A ground so prepared is fortified to counteract the fading and flaking properties of such of the reds as are used as glaze colors.

To secure a first-class job of light carmine, bring the surface up level and smooth, and then apply a coat of peach-blow color, made of white and some one of the ordinary reds. Over this apply a coat of deep English vermilion, using the vermilion stoutly charged with rubbing varnish. Polish this coat, when dry, with curled hair and apply a second coat of the vermilion, adding a sufficiency of varnish to convert the mixture to the color-and-varnish class. At the proper time this coat should, preferably, be rubbed lightly with pumice stone and water. Next apply a coat of clear rubbing varnish, which in due time also demands rubbing with pulverized pumice stone and water. Then to rubbing varnish, elastic or quick, hard drying, as the size of the surface may dictate, add enough of No. 40 carmine to fully stain the liquid, say 3/4 of an ounce of carmine to one full pint of varnish (many first-class painters use 1/2 oz. carmine to 1 pint of varnish), and apply to the surface, be it body or gear, with a soft badger or bristle brush. For a less expensive job, omit the coat of clear rubbing varnish and apply the carmine directly to the vermilion.

A method easier to carry into execution in painting a carmine job consists in adding a little carmine to the last coat of vermilion color-and-varnish. This coat is rubbed with curled hair; then carmine is added to varnish, as in the first method, after which a small quantity of vermilion is put in to give the mixture opacity or covering power. Clouding and such other incidental imperfections to be considered in connection with the work of one not really an expert in the manipulation of glaze colors, is thereby avoided. For a darker carmine, use a ground of flamingo red, carmine red (a solid color), road-cart red, Kalliston red, or permanent scarlet, dark shade, the latter color requiring a light vermilion ground.

In applying carmine to wheels, it is advisable to flow the whole wheel at once, instead of doing them in sections, as by this practice a cleaner, clearer, and more satisfactory job is secured. For the gear, do the whole of one end of it before wiping up, then the final end, finishing with the reach and side bars, if there be side bars. To obtain the real purple and fine linen of carmine effects, the color-and-varnish requires to be flowed on freely and quickly, and promptly slicked up. Pottering and sectional patching up invites inferior results.

The vermilions, of which there is at present quite a formidable list, ranging from the glaring light shades to the glowing dark ones, all bespeak carefully prepared and durable grounds, if satisfactory wearing and appearing qualities are to be attained. Vermilions may properly, it would seem, be classed among the fugitive colors, and their retention of purity of color is therefore dependent upon the grounds employed to support them. As previously stated, a peach-blow color forms a good ground for vermilion. It should be made to dry with an egg-shell gloss so as to overcome the fading propensity of the vermilion. Then let the first coat of vermilion have a decided gloss. The final coat of vermilion is placed as color-and-varnish. Linseed oil should not be used in vermilion, as it darkens the color and destroys its brilliancy. Ditto japan.

The large class of modern reds known under such alluring titles as C. P. red, flamingo red, brilliant coach red, Ottoman red, Kalliston red, etc., are usually applied over ground colors specially supplied by the manufacturer. With but few exceptions, such reds are used in this way: One coat of color, one coat of color-and-varnish, "dead," or lustreless, coats being carefully avoided.

Indian red in at least two distinct shades, pale and deep, and Tuscan red in three shades are largely used for running parts and panel colors on certain fin de siecle pleasure vehicles, and they are painted as solid colors, one coat flat color and one coat color-and-varnish.

In wagon painting, wine colors in half a dozen shades are used. They also need the supporting strength of very stable grounds. Indian red and Tuscan red, of shades suited to the shades of the wine color afford excellent ground colors. If ample time be at the command of the painter, mix these grounds with a binder of raw linseed oil. For hurried work, use a binder of varnish.

Among carriage painters generally, the lakes have never been classed as strictly permanent pigments. At the same time, in the creed of modern carriage and wagon painting they are indispensable. Of those probably the best known in the vehicle paint shop, may be mentioned maroon lake, Munich, carriage part, permanent scarlet, scarlet, red, English rose lake, purple lake, carmine lake, and crimson lake.

Maroon lake is best glazed over a deep Tuscan red ground; Munich lake over extra deep Tuscan red or lampblack; carriage part lake over the same ground as Munich; permanent scarlet over vermilion; scarlet lake over light vermilion; red lake over pale Tuscan red; English rose lake over extra deep Tuscan red; purple lake over a ground made of Tuscan red and Prussian blue. Carmine lake furnishes many of the gleaming and beautiful effects of No. 40 carmine when used over such grounds as are best adapted to genuine carmine. Crimson lake is used over vermilion grounds and furnishes a color of great warmth and richness.

It is advisable, when perfecting the ground for the lakes, to add to the last coat of ground color some of the lake to be used over it, as a mellowing, toning ingredient. The non-elastic quality of the lakes suggests the use of elastic rubbing varnish when preparing the lake color-and-varnish. This will impart elasticity and adhesiveness.