I only laid down 2 medium coats of epoxy primer. This Tamco epoxy stuff glosses up like a single stage. So it is somewhat deceiving, definitely not as thick as it looks. I am going to have to be careful not to rub through. Probably will, and will spend an extra day fixing it.
On that note, how in the heck do you block something as small and curved as a say a fender or a tank that doesn’t have 2 adjacent square inches that are flat? I was just planning on very carefully hand sanding the shine off with 320 followed by 600 before taping the flames.
The process… black is going down first. Lay out the flames with fineline, which will stay down until the end. Tape over the inside of the flames, spray black BC outside the flames, pearl effects, light coat of clear to protect it. Let it sit for a few days then pull the masking, but leave the fineline. Tape over the black, airbrush some silver metallic and black where the red is going (creates depth inside the flames), spray the red Kandy basecoat with red micro flake mixed in, and follow with good coat of clear. Let it sit a week then pull all the tape including the fineline. Might have to use a razor blade, but I have gotten pretty good at keeping things thin. Tape off everything except where the fineline was. Rough up the exposed epoxy with a sanding pencil. Airbrush metallic silver in the gap followed by silver metal flake of various sizes mixed with a little prismatic flake, and airbrush some clear to lock it down good. Wait about ½ an hour, blow off all the flake from the masking that I can, then carefully pull the masking off. Carefully sand the pinstripe with 320, just knocking the sharp pieces sticking up off. Carefully rub the rest of it with 600. Clear. Sand the pinstripe with 320. Rub all of it with 600. Clear. Then probably sand with 320 or 400 followed by 600… get it real flat and smooth and then do a flowcoat.
This is the process I used on the blue helmet and the last few sample panels I've done... learning and refining all along.
Sooooo….. I’ve got a long way to go. I’m thinking 120 hours from this point. But I also have to build a temporary paint booth before I start the clear. Plus family vacation, bad weather weekends, overtime at work, and other delays. So yeah, If I can finish this by Christmas it will be a present for sure.