FlyingBeefStew
06-04-2004, 11:02 AM
Well, I had a thought: people have always rated paint on how well it performs in their gun, and how it hits the target, right? What about outside of the gun, with targets aside? I have conducted a test to see how different types of paint measure up to the Beef Standards(I got the idea from an old article in Spy magazine, where they tested a Twinkie). I have tested Blue Streaks(BS), Zap SPANKs(ZS), and Marballizers(M). All paint was purchased fresh, and tests were done in extremely controlled environments. The categories are as follows: Height Drop, Exposure, Water Immersion, Fire, Boiling, Freezing, Squeezing, and of course, Microwaving. I will leave you to make your own judgments on how well they did.
Height Drop: All paint was dropped starting at 1/2 feet, and moving up in increments of 1/2 foot until the paint was damaged.
BS: I dropped the Blue Streak from several heights, starting at 1/2 foot. Nothing happened to the paint, up until about 7 feet, when it cracked open a little bit, and a small amount of paint leaked out.
ZS: At 3 feet, the paintball cracked open, and most of the paint spilled out.
M: At 2 1/2 feet, the paint shattered, and all of the paint was dispensed.
Exposure: All paint was left out on a windowsill for 48 hours. I checked on them at 24 hours. The weather was warm and sunny, and a tiny bit humid, during the Exposure tests.
BS: At 24 hours, the paint had not changed very much in appearance, but on closer inspection turned out to have turned very soft and mushy. At 48 hours it had swollen a small amount, while the shell had become translucent and thin. It had also flattened out somewhat, looking more like a blue egg than a paintball. It was also very fragile, with the shell feeling as thin as paper. The fill was even more watery than before, now looking much like blue Kool-Aid.
ZS: At 24 hours, it had not changed very much, still retaining it's appearance. It was also only slightly softer than before. At 48 hours, some dye had mysteriously leaked off of the shell onto the sill. It was a little bit larger than before, and still seemed relatively hard. However, the fill had become very liquidey, and had lost any consistency it had had.
M: At 24 hours, it had bloated a bit, with the shell losing a small amount of colour and flattening out near the bottom. At 48 hours it had not changed very much from before, besides losing a little more shell colour. The fill, however, was a very good consistency and had not changed at all, as far as I could see.
Water Immersion: All paintballs were soaked in room-tempurature water for 24 hours.
BS: Throughout the test the paintball gradually swelled up, being nearly 2x as big as before the test. The shell had become like blue-tinged plastic, with the fill leaching out through the shell to dye the water a bright blue. Further examinations of the paint after the 24 hours were prevented when the paintball disintegrated when removal of it was attempted.
ZS: It swelled up rapidly in the first couple hours of testing, but stopped rather quickly. The shell gradually lost some of it's colour during the test, and a small amount of paint leached out. Strangely, the layers of colour layered themselves, with the shell colour on top and the fill on the bottom. Also, the paintball seemed "welded" to the bottom of the cup during testing.
M: It swelled a small amount initially, and then actually seemed to shrink slightly towards the end and after removal from the water. A good amount of colour was lost from the shell, but very little was leached from the fill and it retained it's consistency. The paintball texture was also retained, to an extent.
Fire: A gas flame from a stove is applied to the paintball.
All paint in this category performed roughly the same: within seconds, the shell blackened, and then melted away, spilling paint on the stove top.
Boiling: Paintballs are dropped into water at boiling point(100 deg. C).
All paintballs performed similarly in this test, with very little happening to them aside from a small amount of shell colour loss.
Freezing: Paintballs were placed into a freezer(-10 deg. C) and checked after 24 hours.
BS: After 24 hours, these paintballs seemed to be strangely resistant to freezing. The shell frosted over and hardened even more, and the fill(thankfully) thickened, but the paint would not freeze.
ZS: When I checked them, the shell had swollen slightly, and lost some of its colour. The shell was very brittle and glass-like, shattering at the slightest disturbance, and the fill, which now resembled thick pudding, was flecked with ice crystals.
M: After 24 hours the Marbellizers had frozen completely through, with the shell losing almost all of it's colour. The fill had contracted slightly, leaving it rattling around inside the shell. The shell still had some elasticity to it, as it cracked but did not shatter very easily.
Height Drop: All paint was dropped starting at 1/2 feet, and moving up in increments of 1/2 foot until the paint was damaged.
BS: I dropped the Blue Streak from several heights, starting at 1/2 foot. Nothing happened to the paint, up until about 7 feet, when it cracked open a little bit, and a small amount of paint leaked out.
ZS: At 3 feet, the paintball cracked open, and most of the paint spilled out.
M: At 2 1/2 feet, the paint shattered, and all of the paint was dispensed.
Exposure: All paint was left out on a windowsill for 48 hours. I checked on them at 24 hours. The weather was warm and sunny, and a tiny bit humid, during the Exposure tests.
BS: At 24 hours, the paint had not changed very much in appearance, but on closer inspection turned out to have turned very soft and mushy. At 48 hours it had swollen a small amount, while the shell had become translucent and thin. It had also flattened out somewhat, looking more like a blue egg than a paintball. It was also very fragile, with the shell feeling as thin as paper. The fill was even more watery than before, now looking much like blue Kool-Aid.
ZS: At 24 hours, it had not changed very much, still retaining it's appearance. It was also only slightly softer than before. At 48 hours, some dye had mysteriously leaked off of the shell onto the sill. It was a little bit larger than before, and still seemed relatively hard. However, the fill had become very liquidey, and had lost any consistency it had had.
M: At 24 hours, it had bloated a bit, with the shell losing a small amount of colour and flattening out near the bottom. At 48 hours it had not changed very much from before, besides losing a little more shell colour. The fill, however, was a very good consistency and had not changed at all, as far as I could see.
Water Immersion: All paintballs were soaked in room-tempurature water for 24 hours.
BS: Throughout the test the paintball gradually swelled up, being nearly 2x as big as before the test. The shell had become like blue-tinged plastic, with the fill leaching out through the shell to dye the water a bright blue. Further examinations of the paint after the 24 hours were prevented when the paintball disintegrated when removal of it was attempted.
ZS: It swelled up rapidly in the first couple hours of testing, but stopped rather quickly. The shell gradually lost some of it's colour during the test, and a small amount of paint leached out. Strangely, the layers of colour layered themselves, with the shell colour on top and the fill on the bottom. Also, the paintball seemed "welded" to the bottom of the cup during testing.
M: It swelled a small amount initially, and then actually seemed to shrink slightly towards the end and after removal from the water. A good amount of colour was lost from the shell, but very little was leached from the fill and it retained it's consistency. The paintball texture was also retained, to an extent.
Fire: A gas flame from a stove is applied to the paintball.
All paint in this category performed roughly the same: within seconds, the shell blackened, and then melted away, spilling paint on the stove top.
Boiling: Paintballs are dropped into water at boiling point(100 deg. C).
All paintballs performed similarly in this test, with very little happening to them aside from a small amount of shell colour loss.
Freezing: Paintballs were placed into a freezer(-10 deg. C) and checked after 24 hours.
BS: After 24 hours, these paintballs seemed to be strangely resistant to freezing. The shell frosted over and hardened even more, and the fill(thankfully) thickened, but the paint would not freeze.
ZS: When I checked them, the shell had swollen slightly, and lost some of its colour. The shell was very brittle and glass-like, shattering at the slightest disturbance, and the fill, which now resembled thick pudding, was flecked with ice crystals.
M: After 24 hours the Marbellizers had frozen completely through, with the shell losing almost all of it's colour. The fill had contracted slightly, leaving it rattling around inside the shell. The shell still had some elasticity to it, as it cracked but did not shatter very easily.