Here' s some with a base coat of white w/ blaze orange over the top. I aplogize for the bad resolution of these pics, they were taken before I got my new digital camera. the colors are MUCH better and more vibrant in person- the whites are very white and pure.







And here' s some that had more of a unique pattern:




When letting my shafts dry, I let them stand plug end down. If the paint is thin enough, I want it to be consistent over multiple shafts and if you let them dry plug-end-up, you may get some runs in the paint going to the front of the shaft. It also would be difficult to put the shafts plug-end-up and keep your nice defining line between dipped area and raw shaft.

The flat white would be the optimum base coat to use, but I think you could probably get away with using the gloss. But I think the flat white takes other colors better over the top of it- just my opinion.

How thin? Well, that' s a trial and error sort of thing. Only thin the amount you' re going to use in the dip tube, don' t thin the whole can. It is much better to thin a little, test, and if needed add more thinner. If you go too far with the thinner- then you' ll have to add more paint to get the mixture right and you' ll end up with way more paint than you' ll use. Kind of like cutting arrows, it is far better to cut a little and test and then cut some more rather than cut too much and end up with the shaft too short. (been there, done that [X(]) Some of the better dip tubes have covers so that you can store the paint right in the dip tube and don' t have to dump it back in the can. Next session you can add a little more paint to the tube, and re-thin as needed.

Add a little thinner to the paint in the dip tube, mix well, and do some test dippings with an old shaft making note of the time it takes once you pull the shaft out of the tube for the paint to turn from a " run" to a drip. Once you find a good mixture, keep note of that " time from run-to-drip" , that you' ll use to reproduce results once you find a good thinness. Make a quick log of times and results of how the coats turned out and how the paint did or did not bulge up on the end of the shaft. Make some trial runs before doing your real shafts.

Also be aware that your paint level will be going down as you dip shafts. So don' t use the bottom of the dip tube as your dip level, otherwise with each dip you' ll have slightly less dip length..... Add a little more paint to the tube than needed so that you can dip to the exact same length each time even though the level of paint may be going down a little.