gost flames?

[lt1chevelle]

iam confussed on how to paint ghost flames. do u spray your base color. tape off the flames and then add a pearl to the base and spray the flames u taped off with the base that has the pearl in it then clear it? this is my first time trying to do ghost and i was never tought how to so iam just trying things out to see if they work.

here is a pic if what i did when i tryed to do gost as u can see they are to ghosty lol and i had to thick of tape when i was taping the flames off but it was my first time taping flames out so ill learn one of thease days
thanks

[CDJr]

Hell, those look pretty good to me!!! Especially for a 1st time. ;)

[Phil V]

I was thinking the same thing, those flames look good to me. If you were looking for true ghost flames then you need to change your tecnique.

One of the things I've found is that it REALLY hard to get any type of decent ghost flames on a light basecoat. The darker the color the car it seems like the better "ghost effect" you get. Your fender appears to be a silver or titanium metallic which lends itself poorly for true ghost flames.

What materials did you use for your flames ? brand and type of paint

What did you use for the flame color ? was it pearls ? what did you mix the pearl powders into and how much pearl powder did you put into the pearl carrier clear ?

[lt1chevelle]

well it was a HOK green i forgot the name(the pic is not showing in color for some reason) i based it then cleared it wet sanded it taped the flames out then got the same green added snow blue pearl to it(dry,ppg). this is my first time using pearl and i had no ideal how to add and how much to add(im doing this in my highschool rop class) so i would say about a teaspoon then put about 3 coats on. witch i think was 2 much because i had a lip so i wet sanded it and blended it in than shot about 4 coats of clear so i could barry it and i would not beable to tell there was a little lip.
i think i will try to do it on a black fender but iam still not sure on what steps to take to do ghost.

[lt1chevelle]

i dont like the fist 2 bottom ones to skinny and i could of put one between them
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e267/65lt1chevelle/000_0294.jpg

[CDJr]

It seems to me the amount of pearl you added would dictate the how much the flames would stand out. So you might try using less pearl?

[Len]

I'm not a ghost flame painter so this is just an opinion... I like the job and I think the only thing I might do differently is vary the intensity of the pearl as it reached the tips of the flames.

[kwik69]

Here's a nice article I saw a week or so ago when I was researching ghost flames.
http://www.airbrush.com/how-to-guide.aspx?content=how-to/howtoDetail&id=25

I think this guy used an airbrush though to add more flake on the outer edges which give depth to the flame.

[Serge]

Put the pearl in basecoat clear (HOK SG100 or PPG DBC500...) instead of in the basecoat to shoot your flames. When working with pearls one trick I have is to mix in a small amount of pearl in the clear then use your mixing stick to gauge the amount of pearl there is in the clear.

If you use a large aluminium measuring stick to mix, lift the stick and look at it at an angle with the light. You will see the pearl concentration in the clear as it is sliding off the mixing stick. The density on the stick is close to the density it will have once sprayed. The idea with those kiind of ghost flames is that you want to shoot a transparent flame with some glittering highlight in it so the flame is made of glitter/pearlescent effect and not color. The reason yours turned out to obvious (not gostly enough) is that you used basecoat, even if it's the same as the base color, the pearl you put in it changed it's color enough to build a contrast.

The rule of thumb for pearls in clear basecoat is from 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp per ready to shoot quart. Again, you start at the low end and add more as needed. I don't know how much paint there was when you added a tsp of pearl in, but anything less than half a quart you had alot of pearl in that paint. If your basecoat was a PBC then the pearl color mixed with the pearl color of the pbc and changed the color...hence the not so subtle effect of the flames.

Another way to make nice flames is to use a kandy coat in the flame. You could use some green kandy and put some (a little goes a long way) crystal pearl or other glassy glitter in it to paint the flames. I find that those flames are still quite ghosty but better defined in general. All you need is some basecoat clear and some kandy concentrate.

As for the flame layout, practice practice and more practice....long nights with a 1/8 masking tape roll (rolls actually) is the best way to learn how to lay them up. It seems to me you did what most beginners do is to mistake the inside for the outside...Your flames probably looked better in tape because your eye factored it the thickness of the tape as being part of the flame. Since you paint only the inside, you then end up with a flame pattern that is thinner than what your eye accepted as aesthetic since it does not include the widht of the tape. Always factor in the tape width and figure what part of the flame you are painting (inside or outside).

As for the tape ridges, you have to try to shoot the base not to wet. Also, it helps to reduce the paint a little more. For example, I will reduce the SG100 basecoat clear 1 to 1 with reducer when I use it to transport pearls or flakes or put kandy concentrate in it. It will still stick the particles to the substrate but will not build as thick a coat. You can do the same with most basecoats to reduce the ridge. More light coats is better when doing graphics.

Hope this helps.

Serge