Arri st and other camera parts paint job

Jonas Hendrix · January 10, 2009

Hi ,

im currently renewing (dusting of ) some camera gear i have and i need to paint some parts , its saturday and i cant reach my camera mechanic ( guess its sane not to work on the weekend :) ) , so i bother you guys on the forum , what the is the name of the black paint process to get that black crumply texture on the cameras ? i need to paint a few scratches and some cameras completely , can i do it at home ? do the parts have to go in a paint oven ? i have cameras that the finish goes from more rough to less .. how do you achieve this finish ?

thanks and have a nice weekend .

jonas

Annie Wengenroth · January 10, 2009

I can't speak for the 16S and ST cameras (Tim Carroll would know) but I know that for the SR's, on the outside, Arri uses Krylon semi-flat black applied with a sponge brush. They used to bake the paint on (I forget what it's called too, but again, Tim would know!). The old paints are not as readily available in the U.S. anymore.

Your tech might have some other suggestions on how to do it too. But if you end up using spray paint, it's an easy enough DIY job, though time-consuming. Have fun and don't let the fumes get to ya...

Tim Carroll · January 10, 2009

I can't speak for the 16S and ST cameras (Tim Carroll would know)

I'm not going to be much help on this as I would never try to paint an Arriflex 16S (16S/B, 16M, 16St). The paint is applied at the factory and baked onto the aluminum. Not a process that you can repeat at home. I have seen numerous cameras that were repainted by a certain shop in New York, and the paint is coming off all over the camera.

Besides that; the outer surface of the camera, (it's patina) gives the camera character and is testament to its life and its contribution to the art of filmmaking.

Best,

-Tim

Jonas Hendrix · January 10, 2009

Hi tim ,

thanks , i know that shop, i have seen their cameras , not bad .. to bad to hear the paint jobs they do does not hold ... , im not trying to paint the hole camera , i like it the way it is , and i agree with you , its just some scratched parts and spots i would like to mend . I have other super 8 cameras and things i need to paint, thats what my question is.. maybe with wrinkle paint for car finishes ? has anybody done that ?

btw , you have a great site ..

ps now that i have your attention , i recently bought on ebay a oil pen for the arri st , what oil do i use ? could you help me there . ?

cheers

jonas

ps. thanks for the post Annie

Tim Carroll · January 10, 2009

The oil pens for the Arriflex 16S cameras require an oil you can buy from ARRI INC. in New York. It is called Chronosynth. Be prepared, it is VERY expensive. Think Liquid Gold. ;)

Best,

-Tim

Jonas Hendrix · January 11, 2009

The oil pens for the Arriflex 16S cameras require an oil you can buy from ARRI INC. in New York. It is called Chronosynth. Be prepared, it is VERY expensive. Think Liquid Gold. ;)

Best,

-Tim

Hi Tim ,

i live in Barcelona , ill ask in Arri in Munich , do you think the oil will be called the same there ? knowing them it should be called "das unike und perfekt Arri Kamera Oil " not Chronosynth :)

cheers

jonas

Sean Charlesworth · June 23, 2009

I have had pretty good success with repainting cameras here at NYU. We have a sandblaster which makes getting the old paint off pretty easy but you could probably use some type of stripper. Anyway I have been using Krylon Wrinkle Finish (#3370) which is used a lot on cars and motorcycles. It's pretty much identical to the Arri S finish. You have to spray it on really thick and it wrinkles as it dries. Heating it helps the wrinkle process but since I don't have a way to truly bake the parts, I 'baked' them under two 1K lights for most of the day and that worked well. It's not as good as the Arri paint job but has held up surprisingly well under student use. The only problem I ran into is where they engraved the camera after painting. I chose to mask those areas and paint them with standard paint, not perfect but as good as it gets.

Hope that helps,

Sean