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Anyone shooting BIG metal flake onto their models?


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I like the look of it. I saw a funny car at a contest years ago with a multi color big flakes and it blew me away. Anyway- I read about a flake gun that shoots them dry. Will they stick to fresh lacquer? Does it stay tacky long enough? I've used Tamiya spray lacquer and like it, but now I want to step up to airbrushing lacquers. Just wondering how it's all done.

 

Thanks. Lee

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What do you consider big flake? Regular flake for a real car or microflake?

As for a flake gun, I think they are stupid myself. It's added steps with no purpose. Just mix the flake in your clear, spray, clear, and sand smooth. Be prepared to use a lot of clear to allow yourself to sand it smooth. If you use lacquer you have to take into account that the clear is going to shrink for months after you spray it.  I have a project i did in silver flake last year, and gave it about a month before sanding it. It was smooth as glass, now it's a bit rough after a year of drying.

 

I would strongly suggest after you apply the flake to finish clearing it with urethane.

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The huge flake on some of the old race / show cars and dune buggies HAD to be shot through a special "flake gun", as it was just too big to shoot through a regular gun.

 

Image result for metal flake dune buggy

 

Thing is though, to get this effect in approximate scale-correct size, you just need to get one of Testors line of metallic lacquers.

 

Image result for ace-garageguy 70 chevelle

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Yeah, but on a bigger scale car, it sure would look cool. That's kind of a weird thing for me to say. Normally I don't like things that are out of scale, like real wood or leather on a 1/25 car. But that big flake, tho. 

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There is some larger rattlecan flake out there, which of course needs to be cleared or candy-coated.

https://www.66autocolor.com/Aerosol-Metal-Flake-p/spm-metalflake.htm

...and there's some even bigger...just remember that the bigger the flake, the more clear it's going to take to bury the texture, and fine surface details will go away...

 

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Check out Krylon's Sparkle line. It's a large flake, but dries very smooth and shiny. I've got a couple cans I'm gonna use on dune buggies and maybe some customs. That's how sparkly and flaky it is. 

Comes in red, blue, green, purple, and what they call "orange" but looks more gold-ish to me. 

Edited by Snake45
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21 minutes ago, Bucky said:

...This Dart was done with TESTORS One Coat Lacquer. The flake doesn't seem to be too big to me, and it went down very smooth.

Well, the flakes in Testors "One Coat" lacquers are about the same size as the metallic particles in "metallic" paint for REAL cars.

This makes them about 25 times bigger than they SHOULD BE for "metallic" paint finishes in 1/25 scale, 8 times bigger than they should be in 1/8 scale, etc.

However, the size does make them PROPORTIONALLY about right for the huge dune-buggy / bass-boat flake seen on old dragsters and customs, if represented in 1/25 scale.

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Ladies nail polish comes in a wide variety  of flake sizes and colors. Do a google search for Glitter nail polish/ metallic nail polish ect or if your brave enough venture in to the ladies aisles of any dept store.

An airbrush with a large flow rate like the Paasche H handles them once suitably thinned. Just keep the paint agitated while spraying so the flakes remain in suspension and don't settle.

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I'm not looking for scale size flake. I know that what I want will be out of scale, but that's ok with me. On something like a 1/16 funny car or the Tamiya 1/12 scale Dodge van, it would still be out of scale, but not quite so bad. Those two subjects are also good place to put a wild paint job. I used to have something even bigger; a toy RV made for the "Bratz" dolls. It's  not a faithful representation of any real RV, but a huge canvas for a cool paint job. I no longer have it, though. A friend of mine came over with his 4 year old daughter. She saw it in the garage and started playing with. She was just fascinated with it, even without the dolls. She's a good kid. I gave it to her. I did tell my friend that I would like it back when she gets tired of it. About 3 or 4 years later, I asked if she still plays with it.  "Yes. Every day". Eh. That's cool. That's what it was made for. 

Edited by LDO
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Seriously, check out the Krylon Sparkle. Their green breaks my heart. It's almost a perfect match in color to 1972 Chevy Spring Green/Pontiac Julep Green, but it's SO over-the-top flaky I couldn't possibly use it on a stock or stock-ish build. 

Wanted to use it SO bad I experimented with it. Shot a spoon with it, then masked half of it off and shot a flatcoat on it. The flat toned down the sparkle to where it looked no "flakier" than most commonly used model "metallics." So then I either gloss-coated or polished (I forget which) the flatcoated half, and, sadly, it was now absolutely indistinguishable from the sparkly, flaky, shiny side. So I can only use it on a '72 Chevy or Pontiac if I want to flatcoat it and build it as a weathered beater. Which I just might do. I have a surplus of MPC '72 GTO kits, and a reissue '72 Chevelle I don't think very highly of. 

But I WILL paint a dune buggy with the stuff. B)

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