Field caught bootlegging paint

[Guts]

If a field offered me homebrew paint, I'm slingin that stuff 100%!

Willballforsoup has some fun videos but a lot of his recent stuff is just stirring up drama

[Painthappy]

It's not bootleg; It's artisanal.

Heck yeah. I'd love to check it out. As long as no one is pretending for it to be something else, that just seems awesome.

Sure to be some hiccups in the learning process but who knows, talk about fresh paint!!!

[DocsMachine]

That's interesting, but for the moment I'm calling it clickbait.

"Used encapsulating equipment" is a million-dollar investment. "Struggling" and "million dollar investment" are kind of mutually exclusive. The process takes a warehouse sized workspace and a team of people to operate it.

And, there is no way, as in it's not possible, that somebody's garage operation, if such a thing were even possible here, could beat the pricing of a company that buys the base materials by the literal semitruck load.

The field would have to be huge to justify it, SC Village huge, and that means a massive population center like Dallas, LA, Chicago or Miami.

Nope. I would love to have to eat my words later, but for now? Pure fake news clickbait.

Doc.

[Olsson]

I'm a simple man. Doc debunks it - I'm instantly onboard with his statement.

[flyweightnate]

If they're encapsulating moonshine, you have my attention.

[Drcemento]

Hmmm. might not be as crazy as you think - search "paintball encapsulation machine" and allot comes up for allot less than a million - they will set them up to make whatever you want. look at the vitamin/supplement industry - hippies and bodybuilders have been encapsulating unicorn dust and powdered rhino balls since the 60's.

could you effectively do this under a tarp out at the paintball field? - probably not well, or cost effectively, but I've seen great things come out of a tin shed with a hammer, 60 year old skillsaw and a corded drill, and absolute garbage come out of a high tech shop with every tool imaginable so It would not surprise me if something like this were going on.

I hope its true and good on them for sticking it to the man!

[uv_halo]

The machines have historically been referred to as Gelatin, or GelCap, Encapsulation machnes. As I understand it, what makes such a machine a 'paintball' machine are the dies, which can be purchased/fabricated separately as they are a wear item.

[DocsMachine]

The machine is only part of the equation. You need vats to heat and mix the gelatin, a machine to roll said gelatin out into ribbons, more vats to mix the fill, a drying tumbler, drying racks- and any of those machines would be set up for pills and bath beads. Paintballs are more precise, and those dies are special order. (I recall a rumor, years ago, that just the dies were $50K.)

I'll grant that one could probably put together a shoestring ballery ( ) for less than a million... but probably not much less.

And, my last point stands: Due to economies of scale, I very much doubt a shoestring encapsulator, could be bulk prices from the big guys.

Doc.

[Drcemento]

Also take GAP paint for example - they operated out of a Janky wherehouse in carson city - you could go down there and buy it at wholesale prices right off the loading dock. that was not a big operation, and it got hot and cold in carson city. - it was dry though. I would argue that was some of the best paint to ever go through a paintball gun.

[Magmoormaster]

Also take GAP paint for example - they operated out of a Janky wherehouse in carson city - you could go down there and buy it at wholesale prices right off the loading dock. that was not a big operation, and it got hot and cold in carson city. - it was dry though. I would argue that was some of the best paint to ever go through a paintball gun.

GAP was run by Alex Fraige's dad, who was very wealthy. They might have been janky, but they had a lot of money behind them.

[Drcemento]

I would seriously love to know more of that story from Alex- who was the guy running things, how many machines did they have, what was their peak production. - I kick myself for not paying more attention when I went there and had asked for a tour or something. The place just wasn't that big or anything special. I think allot of the paint making process is more about who's running the machine and how much attention they are paying than anything. employees that give a rats ass are few and far between.

[Trbo323]

I don't know the history but I imagine when paintball first started they didn't have millions to spend on the encapsulation equipment but still managed to make paintballs. Maybe this field got a second hand encapsulation machine?

That all said I do think it's fake. Struggling fields don't invest anything in equipment unless it's very necessary. And relying on one unknown person's supposed peak under a tarp for the whole story? Come on. Could have been an old combine under there and some people wouldn't know the difference

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[Ecapnation]

Bath beads actually

[DocsMachine]

Supposedly the first oil-paint balls were more or less handmade, using what we'd call homebrew equipment that the Nelson's built. I've never heard that confirmed, but it's worth noting that for the original purposes, a user might only go through maybe 20-50 rounds per year.

Keep in mind that early stuff, too, went for 25 cents a ball- that's 25 cents in early 80s money- that's about 85 cents today. Per ball.

After the sport took off, as I understand it, the demand for both cheaper paint and washable paint grew, and that's when they started looking at the actual bulk encapsulators like RP Scherer.

(If anyone knows of a definitive timeline for this sort of thing, I'd love to read it.)

Doc.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I don't know the history but I imagine when paintball first started they didn't have millions to spend on the encapsulation equipment but still managed to make paintballs. Maybe this field got a second hand encapsulation machine?

That all said I do think it's fake. Struggling fields don't invest anything in equipment unless it's very necessary. And relying on one unknown person's supposed peak under a tarp for the whole story? Come on. Could have been an old combine under there and some people wouldn't know the difference

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Right? Like, who did the Nelson brother's go to back in the 60's to make a machine for them that could manufacture a paintball? I would assume some kind of encapsulation machine for like candy or something had to be reenginered or repurposed to make the first ones. .

Edit- read a old post by mike e on automag dot org

furthermore paintballs were made from the same dyes as horse pills and bath beads I BELIEVE it might be one and not the other im not very positive on that one. but i do know that the technique for making paintballs is quite old.

[Riot]

Can’t be any worse than the real stuff. Whatever.

[Trbo323]

Can't be any worse than the real stuff. Whatever.

Solid point

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[martix_agent]

Who's the "struggling field"

With how much money the encapsulation process entails, there absolutely not a chance that this is a "struggling field" even if the story is true.
You also need lots of building space, correct formulas, and quality control, even to put out rental grade paint.

[Ecapnation]

Oh no agreed... I think the whole story is a bunch of BS. I do know however several field that used to pick up paint clean it and rebox it and sell it for like 10 bucks a case. That was an indoor field that was fairly clean and they still got away with it.

[Trbo323]

Well, I mean you could argue every field is struggling basically all the time these days

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[Chuck E Ducky]

These machines are not cheap I call BS.

Bootleg also implies a field could not make its own paint. Call it what it is a field making its own paint. As long as the field had the capital knowledge and skill to do so what’s stopping them. I don’t see anything about them passing it off as “xxxx” brand.

Small batch quality paint would be awesome! We might see better quality however likely more expensive paint in the future anyway.