I’m new to the site and have recently begun trying to improve my paint jobs on my autos. I have found alot of helpful tips on here already and I had a question. I’m going to be painting the body of a car true blue pearl and was wondering if there is a specific color I should use as a base to really bring out the pearl, like a silver or something. Right now it is primed with a flat white coat. What do you think? Thanks.
Rep
Well when i worked at my dads auto body shop he used either silver or gold base coats for his hoouse of color paint jobs you could shoot the base color you want then the color and then if you can add some pearl to the gloss clear coat. you would probibly use a translucent blue for your color. thats the only idvice i csn think of right now.
Generally for warm colours - reds, oranges, browns, etc., you’ll want to use a gold base coat. For cool colours, blues, most greens, you’ll want to use a silver. Then you can put a transparent blue over it to get the candy effect. If you can get your hands on it, you may want to mix some pearl powder into your first layer of translucent blue. Expect to put on a few coats of clear blue to get to the colour you desire.
ok. thanks for the suggestions.
Rep
If you are talking about Testors Model Master “True Blue Pearl” you can get various hues to the color by using a different base color. White is a common base coat for true pearlized paints. You can get a different effect with silver, gold, brass, or copper as a base. I shot a dodge viper with this color using black as a base and got a deep rich blue that closely approximated the Viper color.
Yeah, it was model master true blue pearl paint. I ended up using chrome silver under it. It has turned out real nice so far. I has a neat effect with how the light hits it. Now I have another question though. Is it gonna be ok to clear coat the acryl paint with lacquer top coat? I’ve never used a acryl paint for my color coat before and I don’t want it to ruin it. Thanks.
Rep
That might be risky. You may want to stick to an enamel clear. I sprayed some laquer clear over the top of enamel once, and it completely attacked the paint underneath it, it was bad!
I read with much interest about pearl paints. When you spray these paints to you have to spray each coat in a diffrent direction like you do when spraying candy colours?
First and foremost mix the paint thouroughly to get the flakes distributed evenly in the paint. Then keep the paint stirred up while you spray it for the same reason. The flakes like to settle if you don’t keep the paint stirred. It does help to spray the coats in different directions for each coat. This helps to get the flakes laid down in different directions and you get a more even reflection of light. This is not as much a problem with scale models as it is with real cars. As with candy colors, but to a lesser degree, pearlized paints are translucent and the thickness of the paint should be even so that the color looks the same. If the coat is thin the reflection of the base coat will make the color look lighter, or if the coat is thick the color will look darker in that spot.
Thankyou for replying to my question on Pearl paint. After 20 years of airbrushing it is nice to learn more tricks to geting the wanted results.
Cheers
John Wilson