Gel coat color matching & pigments question

Been awhile since I repaired gelcoat but I was very good at it ! I had two pigments I used for various fades of white, coconut cream and almond ivory it was rare that more than those two were needed. At that time White came in a pink resin base or blue, depending on the manufacturer. In warm weather I always used sr catalyst and used my own wax styrene mix rather than a commercial patch booster which skewed the colour. Hope this helps.
RR

 

Hello RR, I know this is replying to a rather old post. I notice you are in WA. Can you please tell me where you sourced coconut cream and almond ivory pigments? Do you know of local supplier? Many thanks

 

This is where visiting a paint shop would be instructive, the tinting formulae for paints tell the story. The medium of most modern paints is clear, and amber or otherwise coloured medium will give a different result, but it is surprising what goes into "white" paints, that are not quite stark white.

 

Mate that was a lifetime ago, I believe the main supplier the company used was Summit chemicals in Bibra Lake, but there were others, not sure if FGI is still around.

 

I used to do some of this, some times got it right
I'd some times pick the tone then mix a pastel of that then gradually dial it in noting how may grams of the pastel(and it's composition) that I added to the white, it "always" changes after curing... good advice here is to polish up some part of the boat you didn't fix and point at that... then be washing the boat in the drive before pick up or spray in a whole side or to an edge to feather.

FGI became Nuplex then something else and is now Allnex, unsure on what they stock on the West coast. I bought a fair bit from them and Fibreglass Australasia back in the 2000s. Some chandlers stock tinting kits.
Allnex – The Coating Resins Company - allnex https://allnex.com/en/info-hub/location-finder?modalID=d3ff7357-9bd9-4f8a-9bda-f2a64c30984c&modal=true&country=Australia
Jeff.