Silkie hasn't laid in five days.....

[Neil Jones]

Hi All

Well there’s no going back now, here’s the first two “test coats” of grey PlastiKote Primer SUPER from  B&M Bargains: I washed all the T-Cut off & scoured the surface of the egg hatch with a new kitchen scouring pad & cleaned the surface with mild bleach & dettol solution, dried this off & gave the hatch two light coatings of primer.... What do folks think? 

I’m going to do it all in this Primer SUPER, & pay particular attention to the Cubes edges, having looked at countless videos, they are said this is where any pealing could take place? Once it’s in-situ only the hatch will be in daily use & the roof in weekly, so my finish on them will be more exacting than say the static sides. The primer is actually a great match for the front & rear panels of my Cube, making it really rather tempting to respray it a Black, Grey & White Camouflage pattern, but so it fits in with all it’s accessories I’m hoping to go with shades of green. 

PlastiKote don’t have a great range of tonal greens & browns to create bird themed camouflage in store, so will look online to see what my options are. If you look around the “Omlet” “O” you can see I’ve gone a tad close & not got a smooth finish, but aside from this mild blemish, I’m happy with it so far. 

Neil

[Neil Jones]

Actually going with the type of design only in brighter shades of green: The patterns a digital camouflage & easier to spray & lay onto the Cube than tricky chicken or bird repeat stencils as it’s at 45 degrees: Have asked a laser cut stencil maker to cut me the 3 layer stencil I’ll require. Just to help give it a professional look (I hope!) If it works I’ll be taking commissions lol x

[Patricia W]

You may have started a trend here!  

[Neil Jones]

Hi Patricia W

I only think that’ll happen if I get a net finish, so I’m going to take my time on it & see how it goes?  If they weren’t such a massive item to transport I could do them for people. Let’s wait & see, hope it’s not a disaster! X

[The Dogmother]

Good luck, looking forward to seeing the pictures.

There was a bit of a trend for folks hand painting designs on their Classics about 10 years ago - Lesley decorated hers with flowers. I think they use acrylic paints.

[Neil Jones]

Hi The Dogmother

I think hand painting something as big as a cube by hand, is a real labour of love? The ex-Clothing Designer 👨‍🎨 in me wants a professional look, or I’d not even attempt this, I’m so impressed with the quality of my old classic cube, that perhaps now I really appreciate why they cost a lot NEW & hold their value: So before I recommission mine & become a hen keeper, I’d just like to attempt to do it justice? Something I could show Omlet & I so think they could create vinyl wrapped special edition Cubes, Ups & Eglus x Neil x

[Neil Jones]

Here’s the 5 colours I’ve chosen to use: 

1: 2031 Real Green

2: 105 Predator

3: 106 Rex 

4: 2141 Tank

5: 2161 Secret

I’m using KOBRA  Low Pressure Spray Paints from a firm called Graff City Ltd that I found online: So it’s Graffiti artist’s spray which I’m checking can be used on primed Polypropylene & getting 2 cans of each colour, for the price you’ll pay for one can of PlastiKote @ B&M. Logging this all incase someone else fancies a go. 

[Patricia W]

Keep going.  I’m intrigued.  

[Neil Jones]

Well Folks 

 The Paint 🎨 has arrived by courier & that’s great service from Graff City Ltd, hey? As only really ordered them the night before last.......Hope you like the wild 😜 shades I’ve gone for, still want the old Cube to sing as it would have new:  Two coats of PlastiKote Primer have gotten me this far. So another 3 or 4 cans would give all that was green to generous coats.  They Primer is such a close match for the front & rear of the Cube that I’ve cheekily done the front door too & it might stay that way actually.  The primer will scratch fairly easily, which of course is a MAJOR concern? But think 🤔 with a few more layers of paint & then a substantial amount of lacquer to finish it off as a top coat, it should be good if I’m careful..... The worst part so far, was having to scrub all that silly T-Cut off in a mild bleach & dettol solution in the bath 🛁 lesson leant!

Neil

[AndyRoo]

I'm interested to see how this turns out. I was thinking of doing this to our cube a while back.

[Neil Jones]

Hey AndyRoo

It's only been a drag washing the T-Cut all off, wasn’t my brightest of 💡 ideas it must be said! What a Doofus? Anyways I think the trick might be getting a nice as possible finish on all the active edges that will see human interaction. So I’m giving those areas of high use extra coats to minimise peal & scratching (so door knob, egg hatch, & roof sides). Before the Camouflage flourish goes on I’ll draw it all out on the Cube first & try & find a base coat colour that’s as close to the original green as possible? So if I get the odd scratch or scuff, I can repair it without any drama. 

Thinking sticking with your Cube’s original colour way will also help the finish look more original. Is your’s a green example too Andy? These canny owners of purple cubes seem to suffer UV fade a lot less, from what little I’ve seen. I’m going to take a lot of advice before deciding how base to protect, seal / lacquer the finished article, & there’s lots out there that claim they protect UV, but we’ve all seen how graffiti can fade........Even if I now make a mess, it’s already better looking than it was in primer grey. 

Neil 

[AndyRoo]

1 hour ago, Neil Jones said:

Hey AndyRoo

It's only been a drag washing the T-Cut all off, wasn’t my brightest of 💡 ideas it must be said! What a Doofus? Anyways I think the trick might be getting a nice as possible finish on all the active edges that will see human interaction. So I’m giving those areas of high use extra coats to minimise peal & scratching (so door knob, egg hatch, & roof sides). Before the Camouflage flourish goes on I’ll draw it all out on the Cube first & try & find a base coat colour that’s as close to the original green as possible? So if I get the odd scratch or scuff, I can repair it without any drama. 

Thinking sticking with your Cube’s original colour way will also help the finish look more original. Is your’s a green example too Andy? These canny owners of purple cubes seem to suffer UV fade a lot less, from what little I’ve seen. I’m going to take a lot of advice before deciding how base to protect, seal / lacquer the finished article, & there’s lots out there that claim they protect UV, but we’ve all seen how graffiti can fade........Even if I now make a mess, it’s already better looking than it was in primer grey. 

Neil 

Yes, ours is a green one. I've never seen an original green coloured cube up close, so I'm not sure what they look like. I'd imagine ours is reasonably faded, though.

[The Dogmother]

I know that you've started Neil, but might it be an idea to strip it down to the component panels and spray them on the flat?

I am pretty sure that there was a thread on here a while back about vinyl wraps for eglus and cubes. 

[Patricia W]

I’ve a green and blue cube plus red and green eglus.  The blue cube has retained its colour whilst the green ones have faded.  The red eglu has faded too but not too badly.  A friend has a purple one which has retained its colour.  

Yes, I think I’d spray on the flat. 

[Lewis]

I'm loving the entertainment from these updates - I think I would have just stuck with the original colour  

Sarah at Stopham Poultry used to paint her eglu's and had branded stickers made up and you can get vinyl wraps for the Cube on eBay

[Neil Jones]

Don’t worry ladies I’ve been spraying all the tricky areas on the flat & only reassembling the Cube to show you the progress. Remember too that this is only the primer stage. I’ll have to be much more meticulous with the top coats & will do them flat down the shed on a bed of newspaper 🗞. Also I’ve been doing all the edges flat & rotating them every 30 mins. 

[Neil Jones]

Hey Lewis

Sticking with the original colour was not an option, as it was too far gone, but it’s in great condition other than that?  So as a former Clothing Designer I looked into Vinyl wrapping her professionally but was quoted £650 plus VAT. & I could have a new Mark II for that. 

Those vinyl wraps on eBay look interesting but appear to be for Mark II, I’ll sneak a peek if they do them for Mark I as I might need a plan C......

A custom paint job will have to do. I don’t care if I mess up, it’s going to cost very little to do & it’s an experiment 🧪 & a bit of fun actually. I’m worried what I’m doing could fade or crack, but have done ✅ all the preparation & going to ask around about how best to seal the camouflage once applied. Of course I’m sure if I were boring & resprayed her in one flat shade, life would be a lot easier. 

Best Regards

Neil

[Patricia W]

Wonder if Banksy would like to use a cube for a canvas... 

[Neil Jones]

Just imagine what he’d do on a Cube? 

[Neil Jones]

Slow progress today: The Cube is now nearly all grey though & looks like an Anderson Shelter! As you can see I had the building inspector in. Meet 5 year old rescued Dachshund called Otto.  He had a right nosy & made the other dog 🐶 Buckley jealous (as he’d never fit!) so much barking & merriment.... I’m going to a specialist paint 🎨 shop for some advice before putting a base coat of green on & yet to source a cheap enough & nice coloured base coat green: I’m then going to make acetate stencils to create the effect & they should deal with the curved okay..... 

[Luvachicken]

My lilac cube is 10 years old now and still looks pretty good for its age.

I love your dogs and reading your antics about how it is all going.

I can't wait to see the finished result.

[Neil Jones]

Oh Luvachicken

Thanks for your very kind words: It’s much appreciated actually. I don’t think 🤔 I’ve ever saw a Lilac Cube? Sounds like a wise & lovely colour choice. It’s a shame the new one’s only come in two colours but Omlet will want to keep their SKU’s to a minimum as the range has expanded? Send me a picture of your cube, as I’d love to see it. Having the base coat made bespoke with a local paint company in Manchester, who’ll take 3 days to create it....So the custom paint job costs are mounting up! Hope it’ll be worth it & pleased with how the primer has taken to it. Neil xxx

[The Dogmother]

Lilac was rapidly discontinued; Omlet brought out some trial colours, including a brown one.... some were less successful than others.Sadly, the newer models are made from a less robust material and the designs prove clunky, but I guess they are looking to keep their manufacturing costs down.

[Neil Jones]

Sounds like some of these discontinued colourways could be much sought after then @The Dogmother? Today I’m taking my collection of paints, & the egg 🥚 hatch to HMG Paints Ltd: to get a custom base coat to tie in with my camouflage themed make over. They maybe able to talk me through a suitably strong UV Matt Finished Sealant too? Exciting times apparently it’ll take them 3 days to colour match my order & attached are some of my initial ideas 💡 Neil 

[Patricia W]

I think that top green is nearest to the original green of my cube.