Black Widow (paint mix)


Black Widow or is a non-commercial open source project to design a paint mix to be used as the base DIY projection screen. Led by Mechman Alternators, Wbassett and Custard10, the paint mix is made from easily accessible materials from the United States and the European Union, and could outperform commercial projection screens.
Black Widow Paint is a paint with four special slick agents that seek to be competitive with other projection screen manufactures.

History of DIY painted screens

Projection screens are primarily white or gray. A white screen is better balanced and more accurate when it is close to D65. A gray screen is more accurate when it is closer to neutral, based on parameters such as color balance, spectral curve and color temperature.
The most popular way to improve a simple neutral gray color, up until now, has been by the use of mica and poly coatings. The problem with mica is it causes a color shift. To improve on a well-balanced neutral gray, without introducing color shifting, non-interference pigments are used. It was discovered that by adding aluminum-based paint, a gray color was created. This paint has been used over the years as a 'silver' substitute, since the aluminum's bright and reflective properties are conducive to applications such as manufacturing mirrors.