| Rustoleum | Quality varies considerably from one color and sub-brand to the next. The “stops rust” black is the best black among the shwag brands. “Stops Rust” is their all-purpose line. The colors are somewhat run-resistant and generally cover well. Rustoleum brand paint works with almost every type of cap out there, though some hi-pressure caps do not work well. Rusto offers about 100 colors. |
| Rustoleum: Painter’s Touch | This is the better brand of Rustoleum. |
| Rustoleum: American Accents |
Ugly, watery, overspray… all things you will complain about if you use this paint. |
| Krylon | Again, quality is not consistent with every color. Watermelon is one of their best, Tomato and Stonewash Denim are among their worst, as are their yellows and many ugly pastels.
Also, some of people’s favorite colors have been discontinued. Krylon seems to have fewer colors than they used to. Discontinued colors sell for big bucks on Ebay. As quality is concerned, Krylon is not bad, though it is far from the best. Some colors cover poorly; on a white wall, this will not matter, but when covering previous lines, the color beneath may show through. This is important, because if you don’t want undercoats showing through, you will have to go back over the line again (thus using double the paint and also possibly creating deviations from the original line.) One of the biggest concerns (especially for novices, but pros as well) is drippiness. Krylon is definitely less drippy than generic paint, but compared with premium paints discussed below it is definitely more drippy. You can make a can of Krylon much better by simply turning a new can upside-down and spraying propellent for about 10 seconds. (spray cans have a straw that runs from the nozzle to the bottom of the can, so by turning a can upside-down, you spray out the propellent without the paint, thus reducing the pressure in the can). This will give you much better control of the spray. Krylon offers many lines of paint, but their “All-purpose spray paint” line is by far the largest with 52 colors, and when people say Krylon, they are usually referring to this product line. All-Purpose and Satin Touch only |
| Krylon All-Purpose Spray Paint | This is Krylon’s classic line of paint. It’s the best Krylon brand overall. 52 colors offered. See here for details about good and bad colors. |
| Krylon Satin Touch Spray Paint | This is a line of mostly pastel colors. It’s not bad, but only 13 colors are offered. |
| Krylon H2O Latex | This stuff sucks. “Water-based latex.” The name says it all. 20 crappy colors. |
| Spanish Montana (MTN) | Montana has two primary lines of paint: Hardcore, and Alien Art Concept.
Montana is great paint for several reasons. The most important is the colors. Montana colors are bright. They cover great and they stand out, more than any other brand in most cases. They also have 124 colors to choose from, more than Rustoleum or Krylon offer. Another important quality is drip resistance. Montana paint is very drip-resistant. After getting used to Montana paint, using cheaper brands can be frustrating, because you will be accustomed to paint that sticks to the wall. On the other hand, when MTN does drip, it drips badly. Montana (and also Molotow, below) have a clever system for making it easier to identify your cans, too. Montana has a ring that fits the cap between the nozzle and the edge of the can indicating what color it is. If you’ve used Rustoleum or Krylon, you know how it can be tedious to figure out which can is which once the tops get mixed up. The ring prevents this problem. There are two major lines of Montana, the Harcore line and the Alien Art Concept line. The difference between the two is that the Hardcore line comes in 400ml (standard size) cans with high-pressure valves, while the Alien line comes in 250ml variable-pressure valves. Variable-pressure means you can push down a little and get a light spray or push down hard and get a heavy spray. More about valves further down. The MTN Montana cans also have two balls (“peas” is the industry term) in the can instead of one like Rusto and Krylon, making shaking/mixing faster and easier. |
| German Montana | Overall, this paint is very similar to Belton Molotow. It is said by the company that it the cans work properly in extreme temperatures from -38 to 48 degrees C (-36 to 118 F degrees F). German Montana offers two primary product lines, the “Black” and “Gold” lines.
Due to the ethical concerns about this company described above and below, we probably will not care to experiment with it, since we wouldn’t carry it even if it was good paint. We got to try a can of the gold though. |
| German Montana: Gold | At first, it seemed the Gold line performed great. It has great variable-pressure control, it can make really skinny lines, and it didn’t drip easily. The Gold line has 174 colors available at this writing. German Montana Gold has a matte finish.
Once the paint dried, though, it didn’t cover very well at all. We could see everything beneath the coat. This was tested with Shock Orange Dark 2020. Maybe other colors cover better, but this one didn’t. |
| German Montana: Black | 75 colors available. The Black line has a constant high-pressure valve like MTN Montana Hardcore. |
| Belton Molotow | Belton and Molotow are the same paint; Belton is the company name and Molotow is the name of the product line. But since Molotow is the only line Belton offers in the U.S.A., it’s basically the same thing to us.
Because it is a German company, it is actually pronounced “Molotov” like the cocktail you throw. In German, the “V” and the “W” are the same letter; it is written “W” and pronounced “V”. This is why “wiener schnitzel” is pronounced “veener schnitzel.” Since “Molotov” is consistent with the whole “bombing” metaphor, we say “Molotov.” But anyway, about the paint. Like Montana, Molotow colors are bright, and highly drip-resistant. Molotow offers even more colors, now approaching 200 (at this writing, 20 new colors are under development). Molotow uses a variable-pressure system on all of their cans. This gives the artist more control over the spray than other brands (Montana Alien paint uses variable-pressure too, but not in 400ml cans). One important advantage of Molotow is that the paint works properly in extreme temperatures. When we were painting our store, it was wintertime and we had to keep the building ventilated because of the paint fumes, so it was very cold in the room. The Montana cans would freeze unless we kept them on the radiators. Molotow works in freezing weather. As colors go, Molotow is misleading: for reasons unknown, the color charts on the websites of the Belton company and U.S. distributor are inaccurate and unflattering. Many nice colors are shown to be greyish, whitish, or just plain ugly. Details about this below. But, the actual colors are very nice. Also, Molotow paint is reported to be more resistant to fading and chipping than the other brands named above. |
1.2.3.1 Morality
Fortunately, it seems that the only toxic spray paint is the generic stuff; the brands listed in the table below are all clean. Yet they still have some serious concerns in other areas. Here is what we’ve found about the brands:
| Rustoleum
|
Wooh! The company promoted an anti-theft campaign. How self-servingly philanthropic. And if the “anti-graffiti” efforts had any real effect, it would have hurt their sales, and they wouldn’t have done it. So they have to know that the anti-graffiti efforts are nothing but Public Relations BS. |
Krylon
 |
From www.krylon.com:
“Krylon® Products Group is more than just paint and projects. We care about you and your community. Along with Keep America Beautiful, Krylon Products Group has created a national program called Graffiti Hurts® designed to address the growing graffiti problem in urban areas and small towns.” Krylon’s website is the cheesiest shit you can imagine. Innovation Inspired.TM It sets a new industry standard for “insipid.” And they have to put a crappy cap on it so you need to buy better ones elsewhere. |
| Montana Spain (MTN):
|
Montana Spain (MTN) sponsors some graffiti artists and contains links to other graffiti sites from theirs. The company states that it was founded by graffiti writers Moockie and Kapi. It sponsors many graffiti magazines in many countries. Montana’s sincere dedication to the art is evident in the quality of the product.
“I heard Spanish Montana contains lead and other harmful chemicals, Is this true?” MTN: “No, this is an unfounded rumor started by our competitor. Our Paint has been sent to the US EPA and they have reported that it is less toxic than some of the well known American brands of paint. They have stated furthermore that Montana Colors (Spain) is well within the regulated legal standards for paint in the United States. Succesfull Chemical analysis’s conducted in Europe can be viewed by Clicking Here.” |
| Montana Germany (Dupli)
|
The German Montana company committed perhaps the greatest crime in the world of graffiti, and on a massive scale, by stealing the Spanish Montana company’s name.
That says a lot about the company in istelf, but moreover, when pressed an explanation, the company claimed that it did it “for the artists’ sake” because the Spanish Montana company put toxic chemicals in its product. As it turns out, the opposite is true, and the German Montana company is now doing all it possibly can to avoid even mentioning the existance of the Spanish Montana company. The confusion between the two companies is, as you will see, a huge headache for everybody, and the company really shouldn’t be forgiven for this. The German Montana company is owned and controlled by Motip Dupli, a.k.a. Dupli-color, a multinational corporation primarily in the automotive paint industry. They feature a slick youth-targeted corporate website, with lots of pro-graffiti tones that conceal the slimy corporate face behind it. In some instances, such as in the “Write and Unite” DVD, Dupli-Montana seems to be deliberately confusing their brand with the Spanish company’s. This is, in my view, totally opposed to the culture of graffiti. The brand is a total fraud, good paint or not. |
Belton Molotow
 |
The Belton company named their product “Molotow,” which is the German spelling for “Molotov” like the cocktail, hence even their name is a reference to rebellion.
Belton sponsors many artists and their paint was developed by artists. Several of their colors are named for the artists who helped develop them. The U.S. distributor of Belton sponsor many graffiti magazines in many countries. Belton’s sincere dedication to the art is evident in the quality of the product. |
| Generic / Other Brands |
Read the label carefully. Many off-brands do not meet the chemical safety standards of the brands above. Some of them are covered in warnings about toxic chemicals. If you use these brands, be sure to wear a mask and gloves. |
Most hardware stores carry circular magnets like those pictured at left. Most also state the force of attraction, typically between 20 and 40 pounds–more than adequate.
