Painting McKenzie's tree limb

[boarhunter67]

I purchased an artificial tree limb from McKenzie.  It came painted, but some of the paint flaked off.  I'd like to just go over the spots with paint and blend it in rather than sending it back.  I called them and asked this question, but never got a response.  1st: what paint do I use (lacquer, acrylic) or does it even matter? 2) should I seal the whole limb to keep more from flaking off or should I just rough it up and paint it from scratch?  I'm looking for the cheapest and least time-consuming way to fix it.

[George Roof]

Best bet is to do it like they did it.

1) Rough the log up with a Stout Ruffer

2) Paint it with WHITE FLAT LATEX PAINT

3) When dry, stain with your favorite oil wood stain

[boarhunter67]

Thanks George, but that's not what they did.  That may be the problem.  It isn't roughed up and it isn't primed.  It seems to be painted with a laquer based paint.  I know this because when I first tried to paint over the quarter sized area where the plastic or material was showing through, the paint disolved and turned into a 50 cent sized blank spot.  I know I can cover it, I just don't want to have to do the whole log.  That was why I purchased this in the first place. 

[George Roof]

Call McKenzie and ask to speak to someone in Tech Services.  Mike Gillis and crew  will be able to give you specifics.

[boarhunter67]

Thanks.  I called them twice so far, but can't get a hold of the person they direct me to.  I'll have to wait until I have a day off so he can call me back any time that day.  If it's too much trouble, I'll just send it back and ask for a replacement, but with the cost of shipping, I thought I'd try an easy fix first.

[DDavis]

Isn't the  foam on the limb dyed gray . That should help when you try and finish it . I like to do a little more work to the limbs when I get them even the finished ones . I use waterbase paint . Start by using a dark brown or burnt umber watered down and do a wash on it , get it down the the cracks . take a sponge and dab the dark brown off of the high spots to your liking .  Now take some med to dark green lighty sponge it all over the limb in different spots , after that do the same with some choc. brown . Do this just enough so you can see a hint of these colors . Now dry brush some white on a few high spots , go easy with this . Now take some gold toner and do the same as with the white . When dry if you want you can seal with a matt finish .

[boarhunter67]

It's not foam.  It's like a yellow plastic or something.  Thanks for the tips.  If I end up having to start over, I'll try it because it sounds like about what
I've heard on here before for color schedules.  Thanks again.  It's funny that you're DDAvis and I've see a Scott Davis on here since I'm D. Scott Davis.  I never knew my name was so popular before.  LOL.