WARNING: I am brand new to diy screens so may ask dumb questions.......

I was reading through the diy screens on avs fourms and found this pageOption #27, the Rustoleum Metallic Finish spray paint caught my eye as an inexpensive way to get a high gain screen. The only concern( besides the fact if it will work or not) is hot spotting, so i was thinking about either spaying it onto some blackout cloth or maybe to a base coat of white paint. Any suggestions of, first of all this is worth pursuing or if anyone has tried this, or of a different material that would work better that would keep up the gain but reduce hot spotting.
Thanks

I read the same study a couple of months ago and decided to test it myself. I used a piece of 2x3 foam board , primed it with KILZ and gave it 3 coats of the Rustoleum spray. I hung it on my blackout cloth screen to compare. I was not impressed with the results at all. I had some minor hotspotting but, the projection colors, blacks and whites were terrible. I went back and re-read the study to make sure that I had used the correct Rustoleum and I had. I could not duplicate their results. I say forget it.

by itself... the rustoleum spray is not a viable screen solution.

however, that particular rustoleum also comes in a quart container. it is oil based and a mess to work with... however in a 3:1:1 ratio of rustolem silver, rustoleum white (flat), and minwax satin (oil-based)... it makes for a compelling high gain screen. just one catch... it has to be sprayed, period.

what surface would you reconmend i spray it on?

any clean surface that will accept an oil-based paint.

now what i didn't say was... this mixture is a bear to spray. it has to be frost coated. 6-8 very light coats.
and even then the metallics want to seperate with-in the mix creating a pebble-like pattern when it dries. this pattern can be seen when the screen is projected on... especially in light scenes.

have any links to pics with that setup PB?