Airbrushbycurto
03-10-2006, 04:58 PM
Well this was one of my first attempts to layout flames on a custom Harley. Amazingly I did well enough to place third in a shovelhead show. I started with a Dupont Black basecoat, topped it with 3 coats clear, wetsanded, layed on the flames, then experimented with stretchmask.. Hated it, gave it away, I wouldn't recomend it to anyone.LOL. I used Auto Air for the flames.. another Experiment.. which was ok but the paint is very thin and transluscent so you gotta layer it slowly while allowing plenty of flashtime between coats. First I used a fine metalic white to outline the flame and give me some sparkle under my colors,then I hazed in some flashy highlights and shadows for effect under color. Next I added transparent yellow on my tips, and fading back a bit. I now lay down some transparent red to outline the edges of the rest of the flames highlights and shadows. This red is here to give some color change and darker spots throughout the final color, plus it makes a nice orange fade in the yellow. on top of that I layed AA Sparklesent Mango, What a color, heavy flake with a combo of the other colors looked cool. Next I wisped it with whit shadowing (fine Met. white) and addid the highlights. Three more coats clear, wetsand and three more. wetsand and buff. The whole time i was working on it I could only think "if I screw this up a gang of bikers will show up and..." LOL.. I have never seen a biker cry till the day Spider picked it up.. Tears in his eyes he said" Dave , this is beautifull." Those extra highlights in the end kinda melted into the job and dissappeared, till the sunlight hit it, they wisped down the flames like lightning.. I was clueles but faked like thats what I wanted to do.. LOL Spider entered into a Shovelhead show and took third place, (not sure if he had tears again.LOL) but like Craig said in the seminar the other night in florida.. Sometimes the best custom paintjobs come from Experiments..:tup: