Old painter and new products

[Bonecarver]

Guys, Been lurking here for a couple of weeks now just reading and looking at the work you guys are doing, very inspiring to say the least.
Great Forum and a lot of sometimes confusing information on what to use. I painted back in the early to late 70's mostly bikes and sleds. I have gotten the itch to make my bike look different from the one beside it and under my current state of confusion on which products / style to use to get the look I want.

I like old school flake, though I do not want the bass boat look on my bike I'd like a lot of sparkle. Here is a pic close to what I want to do.


I leaning towards Silver Flake Base, with Kandy for the flames, Pearl White for bike color.

My confusion comes in with my feeble mind thinking it would look better with the flames done in colored flake rather then candy colored. But I worry about the thickness of it all.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Carver

 

[Brian Dee]

Hello and welcome to the forum. As for your paint job ,flake or candy the flames,well thats pretty well up to you. But using chrome or the silver flake, is in my opinion the best way to go. I think I would do the flames in the chrome then candy those,then the white pearl. The best way to do this would be to flake, candy ,and bury the flake in Clear. Now mask out your flames then shoot the pearl and clear. So your really all your doing is back masking the flames. You could also do drop shadows under the flames,and with the white pearl it will give a pretty cool 3d effect. I'm sure Scott will drop in here with some of his advise,he is the master of flames. This one was done in this way. Chrome flake,candy cobalt. Then the flames masked out then added the skulls. Hope this helps.

 

[TAZ]

Welcome to the the forum.

The way you go about it really depends on the size of the flake you use.
If you go with the smaller flake, which it sounds like you will, you can do the steps like Brian said. You can shoot the flake, then the candy, then lot's of clear. Then mask 'up' the flames, and shoot the base.
If you go with a big flake, you should spay the flake, clear it, resand it flat, THEN spray your candy. Then you can mask 'up' the flames and spray the base.
Just the basic steps, but if you go with the smaller flake, this will make the job a little easier and still give you a bigger than metallic sparkle

 

[Bonecarver]

Thanks Guys!
I guess I am on the right track with my thinking. Now to get things together and see if the neighbors would like their mailboxes metal flaked and flamed for some much needed practice before I start messing with my tins.

Again thank you, and a comment about the forum, so far with all of the posts I have read I have not noticed anyone, putting anyone else down in any fashion, which compared to a couple of the other painting forums I have been reading (and did not join) it is cool to see good honest help without the drama.
Not sure I will have much to offer in the way of help, but I may be pretty good at asking questions and starting posts, then there is always the being used as a bad example thing !

Carver
View attachment 556

 

[Brian Dee]

Carver, Now that is cool. How long have you been carving. Could you tell us a little about it. I have never seen anything like that before. Yep your right, the people on this forum are all about painting, no fluff here. Good people to. You have questions, just fire away. and be sure to have fun.

Brian.

 

[Bonecarver]

Thanks Brian Its guys like you, Taz and the others that take the sting out of having to ask the.. well... less then difficult questions.

I started carving in 92' and while I started with wood I have since switched to doing mostly antler and bone carving. It is hard for me to find time to sit and do it anymore. I am hoping when I get retired here in a few months I can devote a little more time to it.
To be honest I would swap the carving ability I have for the drawing/painting ability I see in some of art work done here.
I use a dremel tool, belt sander, and now a magnifying head set to see what the heck I am doing. I do mostly Knife handles now, but also game calls,key fobs that type of thing. I have sold a few pieces but for the most part I carve for gifts or to donate to fund raisers people are having for one purpose or another.
Here is another I did for a gift to a friend.
View attachment 557

I do not having many pictures of the carvings online but there are few on
my family website ( warning:::: you will know more about me then my doctor )
Carving

 

[Brian Dee]

Hi Carve,r those are pretty cool, I would imagine you have some pretty heady hours into them. Ever do any scrimshaw? Hmmm, I can see those on the end of a suicide shift on some radicle custom. Thanks for showing your work.
Brian.

 

[Bonecarver]

Thought I would check back in here and let you guys know I got some materials together
HOK .015 Flake ( I am going to go smaller, or at least mix in .008 for better fill in with less coats)
HOK SG100 mid coat
I used a Dupont product for the candy as the pro shop told me it would not stripe easily, and was easier to
work with then the HOK Candy. So I figured easy would be a good starting point.

HOK 2K Overall Urethane Clear

Just been doing test panels for the most part but did do an old helmet for something more interesting to play with. So far so good. Other then I really need a hell of lot more practice laying out flames, or I need not do it sitting in the recliner watching TV and having a beer or two... It also took a little bit to get the guns dialed in but everything laidd down nice.

I have to say everything I own now sparkles. I am still getting "the look" from the wife for having not only tacked the flake into the house myself, but for also not thinking how much of the stuff would be picked up on the feet of our 2 mastiff, and 1 great dane.
Personally I think it is kinda cool the way the driveway sparkles in the moonlight now...

So I hope to finish prep work on my tins this weekend. and start taping things up. The taping is what I will need practice on now.
I am embarrassed at the job I did on the helmet.
If I do not screw it up to badly I will post pictures as things move along.

Thanks for all the great information guys!
Curt

 

[Bonecarver]

Well, this has been a learning experience.
The first paint job I did I removed a few days after I had finished it. I just did not get the look I was looking for.
I did not think about pictures until I had the front fender and tank already stripped as you can see from all the paint on the ground.

I went back to bare metal, re-primed, re-sealed and started again.
White base with white pearl over it. I messed up here and should of put a protective layer of clear over the pearl.

Next I taped off the tins. And man did I go through some tape. I just could not get things to look the way I wanted, once I learned to
let the tape flow and not try to force it things got a little better.

I used 3 different size flake for the flames, overkill for sure. The guy at the custom shop suggested Dupont candy over HOK
so that is what I used 3 colors of candy and solid yellow for the flames over the flake.

I like the way the sun effects the colors where the yellow shows in the bright sun but not so much in dimmer light.
You can see it in some of the pictures

I struggled a little with the air brush doing the drop shadows, and I guess that is the part I am most dissatisfied with. This was
my first time using an airbrush. I also mess around and put some skulls on my helmet which came out pretty good, least wise
for my level of talent,

I put some Abalone flake over the entire thing, it really sets of the pearl white nicely, and helped to enhance the yellow hues
of the flames.
It took a bit of playing with the gun to get the clear to lay down nice and flat. I started off way too dry with it and lacking air pressure, once I adjusted that things went really well.

Now the new problem. what to paint next?
Is custom paint on a John Deere considered tacky?

I enjoyed the heck out of this and have been at kind of a loss with what to do with myself since I finished it. I HAVE THE BUG!