Hydrodipping?

[Jonathan]

Is anyone familiar with a process called "hydrodipping" (maybe "hydro dipping")?  I've seen a (very) few videos where people have used a film that lies on top of water, dipped whatever item they plan to color slowly though the film that is floating - and the pattern of the film is transferred to the object.  Seems there might be some application for our hobby, but I've not actually seen this in person  -  so I don't know how think the film is, etc.   

Similar to spraying oil-based paint on top of water and pushing an object through the resulting film, I guess.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

 

[ZTony8]

That process was shown way back in the 70s in an article written by Hank Borger in Car Model Magazine. The only question I've had is if you should use cold or warm water. Which is it?

[Dave Van]

1 hour ago, ZTony8 said:

That process was shown way back in the 70s in an article written by Hank Borger in Car Model Magazine. The only question I've had is if you should use cold or warm water. Which is it?

Hank called the process 'Psycho Swirl' in the old MC articles. Pretty simple. The car body can be any color but flat white works best.

Fill a bucket with water....hot or cold makes little matter. Bend a wire coat hanger to hold body so you can place it under water...or use whatever works for you. Spray whatever colors on top of the water AFTER the model body is at bottom of bucket.  Spray your top colors, make any designs and pull the model up through the floating pant, with damp paper towel blot out trapped water and make paint conform. After FULLY dry clear coat. 

About it.....Enamels work better as lacquers tend to dry to fast and kinda fragile.  

[cobraman]

If your talking about the film you can buy and not where you put paint on the water....I looked into it a while ago buy could not find any prints that were "in scale" for a model car.

[440 Dakota]

here is the site I studied a bit when I thought about doing some gun stocks, its the film style and quite a few videos are posted on the site

https://www.mydipkit.com/

[Straightliner59]

I recall it as "Swirl-a-delic". At one time, I had a copy of the Car Model mag it was in,originally.

[peteski]

The model on the cover of AMT KISS van was painted using this techinque.  The enclosed  instructions provide a section on how to paint the model.

[Jonathan]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:11 PM, cobraman said:

If your talking about the film you can buy and not where you put paint on the water....I looked into it a while ago buy could not find any prints that were "in scale" for a model car.

This is what I was referring to - the film.  I think it's sometimes called "water transfer printing", but I'm not sure.  Seems, if you could either find or create your own scale-appropriate patterns, that there might be a way to use this in our hobby.

 

Here's a full-scale version:

 

 

[Jonathan]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:16 PM, 440 Dakota said:

here is the site I studied a bit when I thought about doing some gun stocks, its the film style and quite a few videos are posted on the site

https://www.mydipkit.com/

Something like this, yep.

If there were a way to do your own film.....

[TooOld]

The March 1972 issue of Car Model Magazine had Hank Borger's "How-To Swirl-A-Delic" article , here's a link :

https://public.fotki.com/TooOld/models/misc-/magazine-articles/swirladelic-paint/

[Jonathan]

On 10/18/2020 at 5:01 PM, ZTony8 said:

That process was shown way back in the 70s in an article written by Hank Borger in Car Model Magazine. The only question I've had is if you should use cold or warm water. Which is it?

 

On 10/18/2020 at 6:38 PM, Dave Van said:

Hank called the process 'Psycho Swirl' in the old MC articles. Pretty simple. The car body can be any color but flat white works best.

Fill a bucket with water....hot or cold makes little matter. Bend a wire coat hanger to hold body so you can place it under water...or use whatever works for you. Spray whatever colors on top of the water AFTER the model body is at bottom of bucket.  Spray your top colors, make any designs and pull the model up through the floating pant, with damp paper towel blot out trapped water and make paint conform. After FULLY dry clear coat. 

About it.....Enamels work better as lacquers tend to dry to fast and kinda fragile.  

 

On 10/19/2020 at 2:02 AM, peteski said:

The model on the cover of AMT KISS van was painted using this techinque.  The enclosed  instructions provide a section on how to paint the model.

 

On 10/18/2020 at 8:17 PM, Straightliner59 said:

I recall it as "Swirl-a-delic". At one time, I had a copy of the Car Model mag it was in,originally.

I've seen a few builds done with the Psycho Swirl / Swirl-a-delic techniques. (Awesome names, by the way!)  I do like that it's kind of "fluid" and you get a different effect every time.  Although, I wonder about how "smooth" the paint really is without miles of clear coat.  That said, this film stuff looks like you could control the pattern.  But as noted by Ray, it seems that finding something scale appropriate is an issue. 

Here's another sample, I found on Amazon.  I wonder what the finish is like - is it smooth?  I figured surely someone has tried by now.

[peteski]

I should have been clearer:  The KISS van was painted using paint sprayed on the water surface. Not a thin solid film.  Paint is still in its liquid form when the model body is dipped in it.

[Jantrix]

I've done this before, it works quite well. I quickly sprayed three colors on top of water in a 5 gallon bucket, with the water moving in a gentle circle. Give it a couple moments to mix a bit, let yellow and blue give you some greens, etc, and then dunk straight through the paint film. Mount the parts in whatever way makes sense to you. A model body could be taped to the end of a length of 2x2 or 2x4. After the body is underwater, use a stick or something to clean up the remaining paint that's on top of the water, so it doesn't stick to your part when you pull it back up.

I used cold water and Krylon enamels. I can only find a pic of the surfboards I did, but I plan to do a full size van here very soon. In the past, it may have been silly on a model car becasue there was no way to replicate it in 1:1 vehicles, but now with vinyl wraps, you can hydrodip your daily driver if you have the means, which I would love to see.

[oldnslow]

My son and I worked in a gun shop and got to do this to customize AR and 1911 frames . The material comes in 24" rolls , there are 100s of designs , just lay the material on top of the water , we used a 10" deep 24" by 36" stainless steel pan , and dip the part as seen in the video above . The films we used needed to be baked on after dipping .

[STYRENE-SURFER]

Way back in 1971 I had this issue. First time I had seen the technique, anyone remember that Maverick?

[cobraman]

I remember, I had that issue.

[BlackSheep214]

On 10/19/2020 at 2:02 AM, peteski said:

The model on the cover of AMT KISS van was painted using this techinque.  The enclosed  instructions provide a section on how to paint the model.

I had that kit in my teen years. Now I want to have another go at it if I can find one.

[Can-Con]

25 minutes ago, BlackSheep214 said:

I had that kit in my teen years. Now I want to have another go at it if I can find one.

There's one on e-bay right now ,, with a "buy it now" price of only $349.99. ?

[Jonathan]

13 hours ago, oldnslow said:

My son and I worked in a gun shop and got to do this to customize AR and 1911 frames . The material comes in 24" rolls , there are 100s of designs , just lay the material on top of the water , we used a 10" deep 24" by 36" stainless steel pan , and dip the part as seen in the video above . The films we used needed to be baked on after dipping .

That's cool.  Do you know if there are films that don't require heat to set?

[BlackSheep214]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

There's one on e-bay right now ,, with a "buy it now" price of only $349.99. ?

Yeah... he can keep it. LOLOL

[peteski]

2 hours ago, BlackSheep214 said:

I had that kit in my teen years. Now I want to have another go at it if I can find one.

I also built that kit in my teen years (when it first came out).  I still have some parts from it.  I did manage to find another unbuilt one (yes, on eBay) about 10 years ago, and even then it was very pricey. IIRC I paid around $100 for it.  They do show up, but also fetch high prices.

[oldnslow]

10 hours ago, Jonathan said:

That's cool.  Do you know if there are films that don't require heat to set?

Just google "hydro dipping film" , they're available on Amazon , hundreds of patterns .

[Can-Con]

17 hours ago, BlackSheep214 said:

Yeah... he can keep it. LOLOL

 

17 hours ago, peteski said:

I also built that kit in my teen years (when it first came out).  I still have some parts from it.  I did manage to find another unbuilt one (yes, on eBay) about 10 years ago, and even then it was very pricey. IIRC I paid around $100 for it.  They do show up, but also fetch high prices.

IIRC, the "X-Tasy" van has the same custom parts and I remember someone printed copys of the decals. 

Or for an even cheaper way to go, the "Dirty Donnie" van is easy to find and has some of the custom parts. Missing the chrome  bow-tie grille and headlights and spoked wheels. The wheels are the same as the ones in the '63 Vette and '66 Mercury. That would get a guy pretty close.

[peteski]

Thanks Steve. I now have some options while I contemplate putting my KISS  van kit on eBay.   Actually, I already have a spare original decal set.

Stuff like this is what is so great about participating in an online forum - modelers out there have so much knowledge as to what parts came with what kits. Very useful stuff!

Edited October 24, 2020 by peteski

[cobraman]

Not really a fan of this swirl a delic painting . I recall seeing in all those years ago . That being said I got a bug to try it . Here is my result . As I said , not a fan but I will find something to do with it .