How not to make a roof box - part 3- painting nigtmares

Only an idiot would design a roof box using six different tins of paint, which makes me well qualified as it would appear that I am indeed an idiot. Not only have I used an undercoat colour that is most difficult to cover with my chosen top colours, but my design also requires each colour to be bordered with two or even three other colours. This effectively means that I have to keep masking and re-masking different sections and also that I spend half my time cleaning paint brushes to move on to another colour. It is not for the faint hearted i.e. me, but I am sort of committed. I should know better because I went through all this last time. I remember now how each different paint had different flow and covering characteristics and of course I'm using the same stuff again. Can't waste old unused paint.

Here is the basic pattern as seen on the old box.


As you can see, you don't need a lot of the creamy colour, so I decided to make use of the spare paint by using it for the inside surfaces of the box, amply demonstrating how it fails to cover the undercoat.



This is Dulux weathercoat, without doubt the least pigmented paint I have had the misfortune to use. Not only is the pigment thin (yes I did give it a good stir), but the fluid is hyper thin too. No worry about brush marks, it runs out like water off a duck's back. I could probably have just poured it on and let it flow out into place!

'What's so hard about masking up diamonds and triangles?', you might say. Well it's nice straight lines alright, but every time you move from a diamond to a triangle you have to re-mask on the other side of the line. By the time I've done all four sides of the box, I've used enough tape to do a lane on the M6. No I'm not offering. Here's the masking for just the grey bits on one side. It's the fiddly bits at the diamond points that need a steady hand and a lot of concentration, neither of which are my forte.



Note once again my feng shui tidy workbench - like an operating theatre.

If ever I finish all this painting, I'll tell you about the flaws in theoretical wooden box geometry. If that doesn't put you off, nothing will.

I'm enjoying it all immensely.