We just been out doing a bit of tidying and pruning in the warm sunshine. It feels like spring is just around the corner.

To my horror though I discovered I have a gnome emergency situation!!!



Sir Mortimer (don't ask! ) is looking very dishevelled and obviously needs a bit of touching up! Can anyone suggest what paint to use bearing in mind I don't want 5l of every colour needed!

Sample pots? I don't know if they do them for outdoor paints though (It's a long time since I worked in Great Mills )
I think at the paint-mixing bit, you can get sample pots made up of gloss paints though, so that might be worth a go.

I would use Plasti-cote fast dry enamel. You can get it in little jars at B&Q etc.










Well i would, if I had a dishevelled gnome. Which I don't. I have a Gollum. But he isn't painted, he's naked.

You could go to a shop that sells airfix and other DIY models, they do little pots of paint for modelling looks like you'll need a fair bit of red though. I had to ask - Sir Mortimer???

Aww, poor little fella, looks like someone's been playing football with his head, does someone in your family not like him?
I'd go along with the others, those little pots of Plasticote enamel are great or if you have any odd tins of paint or small sample pots (emulsion would do), that aren't the right colours, you could buy a couple of tubes of acrylic artists paint & mix them in to get the right colour & seal with a coat or two of clear varnish.

Artist's or craft acrylics would probably work well or the 'airfix' type paint for models (I'd go for the acrylics if you can find a craft shop that sells them, it's a lot easier to clean them off the brushes)

Originally Posted by HayleyB

...I had to ask - Sir Mortimer???

Errr, well unfortunately its not very silly, he was given to us by an eminent archaeologist and so we decided to name him after another...Sir Mortimer Wheeler. He wasn't a gnome at all but a bit of a 'giant' in his profession!

Will keep an eye out for some Plasticote stuff. Not seen the little tins of Airfix paint since my brother stopped making model aircraft!

Did see an acrylic paint set - about 10 different colours for a silly price, it was in either Aldi or Netto last week, but I cant remember which. Still, at my age, who am I is sometimes a difficult question.

Originally Posted by dammad49

Did see an acrylic paint set - about 10 different colours for a silly price, it was in either Aldi or Netto last week, but I cant remember which. Still, at my age, who am I is sometimes a difficult question.

The craft acryllics sometimes come in cheap sets too. Once dry, acryllics are waterproof, and I've bought them that were sold for painting on plaster-of-paris models. (I like acryllic paint, you don't need any funny liquids for brush cleaning).

Try here
http://www.presentsformen.co.uk/Prod...Own-Gnome-390/

Lol! Thats quite a 'good-looking' gnome there BW! I see its from Presents for Men, is that for those of you who have grown out of model aircrafts?

Edit - Aldi have some cheap acrylic paints for sale on 19th, but they're not near us - but there must be some 'cheapo' shop in Devizes selling similar stuff....

What do you call a gnome bought on hire purchase?



A metronome......................because is is got on tick!

Is he a plastic gnome or a concrete one?

If he's concrete, acrylics don't stick to it for long unless you give him a coat of "size" first.

A weak (watered down) coat of acrylic paint as a base to soak into any bare concrete first. Let that dry well before giving him his final coat.

wilko's also sell little pots 59ml of fast dry enamel paint,is called plasti-kote,got some the other day,it covers well,and dries in no time,a bit expensive at £2.99,i wanted a bright yellow,thats all i could get,i would buy more if i needed any,

@ BW - Groannnn! (That actually made me laff!)

@ SS - He's neither, I think its a type of plaster, but I'll make sure I size him up first!