Any fade tips?

[rossb]

I am going to be using a flame mask and I want to fade metallic yellow to metallic red. I will be using a single action brush, any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Candyman]

Practice.

Especially using a single action. You want to make sure you get the right combination of airflow and paint flow. It can't go on too thick or you'll get splotchy edges. One tip I read way back that I still use is when you're doing a fade around a mask, aim the main paint spray at the mask and not the blank part of the body. Yeah, you'll get more paint on the mask, but the overspray will fan out onto the blank plastic and it gives a great mist for a fade without risking a heavy coat of paint in the edge.
Definitely practice, though. It's a bit trickier with a single action because you want to make sure your air pressure and paint flow are dialed in before you actually attack the body.

 

[rossb]

What about the actual fade I want to do inside the mask?

 

[Candyman]

1 quick question. Will the yellow be the perimeter color and the red be the center color? If so, that's a bit tricky because if you paint the yellow fade around the perimeter first, the red will most likely bleed through when you go to back it. And you'll probably lose most of your yellow effect.

Hmm...tricky...

 

[rossb]

I don't want to get that fancy. I just want to paint the base of the flames yellow and I want to fade the tips to red. I don't plan to do a perimeter.

 

[Candyman]

It's ok, that's what I mean. Just lay down the masks. Paint the main body color. Then remove the flame mask. Mist the edge in red. Then back the flames in yellow and that should give you a good fade from red to yellow in the flame.
Unless the main body color is lighter than the red. If that's the case, paint the main body color and back with a couple coats of silver first so the red doesn't show through.

 

[rossb]

Thanks, the main body will be backed in black before I remove the masks. When you say mist the edges I assume you mean to mist the flame tips, and then do the entire mask area in yellow after the tips dry?

I planned on doing both the red and yellow as transparents and then backing them with pearl silver for a deep metallic look. I don't want either the red or yellow getting too thick.

 

[Candyman]

Yup, that's exactly what I mean. Mist the tips red. Let dry. fill in the yellow. One thing that might happen is that by using transparents, there actually might be a bit of an orange blend in there, too since yellow and red combine to make orange.

 

[rossb]

by using transparents, there actually might be a bit of an orange blend in there

That might not be a bad thing. Thanks for the replies.

 

[hamz9561]

Yup, that's exactly what I mean. Mist the tips red. Let dry. fill in the yellow. One thing that might happen is that by using transparents, there actually might be a bit of an orange blend in there, too since yellow and red combine to make orange.

This great info. Thanx, Candyman!

 

[Buggyracer28]

Fades are one of the easiest, cool techniques imo. Heres how i do them; spray the lighter color first, then spray the darker color at an angle going towards the already painted side. Not too far, just so that it is a nice transition and not an abrupt color change.

ps. I would carefully back the red in white before you spray the yellow all over because you might get an orangish tint to the red.