After a lengthy discussion in another thread about a paint technique, someone suggested a thread dealing with the way some custom paint tricks are done.
I was "volunteered" to start it... and since I have liked to talk about this subject for over 40 years, here we go!
I'll make the first topic an easy one... "COBWEBBING".
I'm sure it was discovered when a painter left the thinner out of his lacquer paint, then tried to spray it! At least that is the basic principal, but it does not normally work with enamels, and lacquers are disappearing.
If you can find lacquer, I have successfully used it this way:
Pick a color that shows up well on top of your base color. If it is dark, use a light webbing color. If it is a light base, use a dark color. The strands are very thin, and without a lot of contrast, they won't show up.
Spray a base color in urethane.
Allow it to flash.
Put the lacquer into the gun with no thinner.
Find a place to test spray it.
The trick is to turn the air fan knob all the way in, so it directs a stream... open the paint knob way up... then drop the air pressure so it is just enough to pull the paint up out of the cup.
Spray from 2 or 3 feet away... and move fast across the surface! You will be surprised how quickly it comes out!
To make the webbing finer you can try the following:
Cut down the paint knob to allow less paint throught the gun, or...
Up the air pressure to cause the wet webbs to break up more before they hit the surface...
Or add a very small amount of thinner to the lacquer to cause the paint to "string" less. Add just a little at a time. You cannot take it back out! If you add too much, add some unthinned pait to it.
Once you have gotten a pattern you like... do the same exact combination of things on your final project.
Let it dry as long as possible, then get some mid-coat clear sprayed over it.
It may need to allow it to dry and shrink... or it can be lightly sanded to level the final surface. You can do that before your final clear, so you don't have the webbing shrink later, causing the top-coat clear to sink above the strands.
One more possibility: If you can't find some lacquer...
Krylon make acrylic enamel webbing spray in aerosol cans. It is used for artsy projects, so you may find it in local stores that deal with those types of products. Other companies may offer it too. Here is a link to Krylon about it... http://www.krylon.com/products/webbing_spray/
You might do some test panels to see if it is compatible with your paint system.
The flamed "Captain Chaos" drag boat below was done using lacquer webbing with a urethane paint system.
Now get creative! The bike job combined webbing with some dribbled lines from a paint stick, to look like cracks in a stone texture.
Anyone else have some tips??? Now have fun! ~
I was "volunteered" to start it... and since I have liked to talk about this subject for over 40 years, here we go!
I'll make the first topic an easy one... "COBWEBBING".
I'm sure it was discovered when a painter left the thinner out of his lacquer paint, then tried to spray it! At least that is the basic principal, but it does not normally work with enamels, and lacquers are disappearing.
If you can find lacquer, I have successfully used it this way:
Pick a color that shows up well on top of your base color. If it is dark, use a light webbing color. If it is a light base, use a dark color. The strands are very thin, and without a lot of contrast, they won't show up.
Spray a base color in urethane.
Allow it to flash.
Put the lacquer into the gun with no thinner.
Find a place to test spray it.
The trick is to turn the air fan knob all the way in, so it directs a stream... open the paint knob way up... then drop the air pressure so it is just enough to pull the paint up out of the cup.
Spray from 2 or 3 feet away... and move fast across the surface! You will be surprised how quickly it comes out!
To make the webbing finer you can try the following:
Cut down the paint knob to allow less paint throught the gun, or...
Up the air pressure to cause the wet webbs to break up more before they hit the surface...
Or add a very small amount of thinner to the lacquer to cause the paint to "string" less. Add just a little at a time. You cannot take it back out! If you add too much, add some unthinned pait to it.
Once you have gotten a pattern you like... do the same exact combination of things on your final project.
Let it dry as long as possible, then get some mid-coat clear sprayed over it.
It may need to allow it to dry and shrink... or it can be lightly sanded to level the final surface. You can do that before your final clear, so you don't have the webbing shrink later, causing the top-coat clear to sink above the strands.
One more possibility: If you can't find some lacquer...
Krylon make acrylic enamel webbing spray in aerosol cans. It is used for artsy projects, so you may find it in local stores that deal with those types of products. Other companies may offer it too. Here is a link to Krylon about it... http://www.krylon.com/products/webbing_spray/
You might do some test panels to see if it is compatible with your paint system.
The flamed "Captain Chaos" drag boat below was done using lacquer webbing with a urethane paint system.
Now get creative! The bike job combined webbing with some dribbled lines from a paint stick, to look like cracks in a stone texture.
Anyone else have some tips??? Now have fun! ~