Here are some photos of a 98" FolkArt Gunmetal Grey screen.
It looks pretty good in a non-ideal room with a lot of reflective and light-colored surfaces.
It works alright with a few lights on.
It can also perform decently during the day.
This used:
$14 worth of matte poly
$10 worth of FolkArt GunmetalGrey metallic
A little water
These were mixed in a 1:1:1 ratio (about 10oz FolkArt metallic, 10oz matte poly and 10oz water)
A $40-$50 paint sprayer (Wagner Opti-Stain)
It was sprayed onto a ~$10 sheet of ThriftyWhite supported around the back by wood-gluing a few 1x3 poplar boards and made into a very straightforward ZeroEdge style "black" screen.
A screen this dark-colored doesn't always need a ton of projector horsepower hitting it to show a decent image.
I'm using a ~400lm portable (REAL full-color lumen...not exaggerated manufacturer specs). That's less than 14ftL hitting that screen.
However, a brighter projector can help any screen punch through more light and help the image avoid looking dim compared to bright surroundings.
Here are a few comparisons:
That "lighter-colored" sample at bottom/left is CarlsALR...this mix is significantly darker-colored.
For reference, CarlsALR is a similar shade as the CineGrey3D and 5D, the Stewart FirehawkG4, the premade BlackFlame/BFX1 ALR paint and the 8:1GreyTabby DIY mix.
This paint should be more on-par with the DarkEnergyAbyss and StewartPhantomHALR (if anyone is willing to pass on a screen sample of DEA or HALR they are no longer using, feel free to PM me with details)
The samples are (left to right) CarlsALR, Pro-Grey and Pro-White.
The ~150lumen projector is shooting a 6ft-wide image onto a ~0.9gain panel which means about 7ftL is all there is to help the screen fight the lights and lamp.
FolkArt metallic has some EXCELLENT properties:
It's available practically everywhere; Joanne's, Walmart, Amazon..even outside of the USA.
It works amazingly well sprayed, even with my cheapo ($40-$50) Wagner Opti-Stain sprayer, going on smooth and fast with much less visible sagging than other paints and less pitting/bubbling than others.
Because a lot of its pure-state gain seems to be acheived via gloss rather than a lot of metallic/mica, it works best when mixed with a matte-clear (like untinted deep-base) or matte-poly (water-based) which can matte away some of the excessive gloss without concealing the metallic/mica as much as regular paint tends to.
A 1:1 mix of FolkArt metallic "GunmetalGrey" and water-based matte Polyurethane (thinned with about 25%-33% water) works great.
Best of all, despite being one of the darkest-colored mixes I've seen AND hitting around 0.9gain on-axis, it is also VERY clean and smooth-looking.
It looks pretty good in a non-ideal room with a lot of reflective and light-colored surfaces.
It works alright with a few lights on.
It can also perform decently during the day.
This used:
$14 worth of matte poly
$10 worth of FolkArt GunmetalGrey metallic
A little water
These were mixed in a 1:1:1 ratio (about 10oz FolkArt metallic, 10oz matte poly and 10oz water)
A $40-$50 paint sprayer (Wagner Opti-Stain)
It was sprayed onto a ~$10 sheet of ThriftyWhite supported around the back by wood-gluing a few 1x3 poplar boards and made into a very straightforward ZeroEdge style "black" screen.
A screen this dark-colored doesn't always need a ton of projector horsepower hitting it to show a decent image.
I'm using a ~400lm portable (REAL full-color lumen...not exaggerated manufacturer specs). That's less than 14ftL hitting that screen.
However, a brighter projector can help any screen punch through more light and help the image avoid looking dim compared to bright surroundings.
Here are a few comparisons:
That "lighter-colored" sample at bottom/left is CarlsALR...this mix is significantly darker-colored.
For reference, CarlsALR is a similar shade as the CineGrey3D and 5D, the Stewart FirehawkG4, the premade BlackFlame/BFX1 ALR paint and the 8:1GreyTabby DIY mix.
This paint should be more on-par with the DarkEnergyAbyss and StewartPhantomHALR (if anyone is willing to pass on a screen sample of DEA or HALR they are no longer using, feel free to PM me with details)
The samples are (left to right) CarlsALR, Pro-Grey and Pro-White.
The ~150lumen projector is shooting a 6ft-wide image onto a ~0.9gain panel which means about 7ftL is all there is to help the screen fight the lights and lamp.
FolkArt metallic has some EXCELLENT properties:
It's available practically everywhere; Joanne's, Walmart, Amazon..even outside of the USA.
It works amazingly well sprayed, even with my cheapo ($40-$50) Wagner Opti-Stain sprayer, going on smooth and fast with much less visible sagging than other paints and less pitting/bubbling than others.
Because a lot of its pure-state gain seems to be acheived via gloss rather than a lot of metallic/mica, it works best when mixed with a matte-clear (like untinted deep-base) or matte-poly (water-based) which can matte away some of the excessive gloss without concealing the metallic/mica as much as regular paint tends to.
A 1:1 mix of FolkArt metallic "GunmetalGrey" and water-based matte Polyurethane (thinned with about 25%-33% water) works great.
Best of all, despite being one of the darkest-colored mixes I've seen AND hitting around 0.9gain on-axis, it is also VERY clean and smooth-looking.