Will glitter ruin my air brush??

nick · Post by **nick** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 3:38 pm

Hi guys,

This may be a little off topic in regards to sci fi stuff, but I want to experiment with adding very fine glitter to some acrylic clear and spraying it on a model. Trying to emulate the metal flake effect that was popular in the 60's and 70's on practically every custom car, more specifically, the VW dune buggies.

I want to spray a nice deep rich colour, then spray the glitter over it in a clear coat/s to try and achieve this.

Has anyone done this? and how/ what/ when/ how?? Did it clog up/ruin the airbrush etc??? I've been surfing the web and youtube, but very little information available for DIY.

Any info would be appreciated.

thanks

SpaceRanger1 · Post by **SpaceRanger1** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:22 pm

Glitter is too coarse to shoot through an air brush. There are specialty metalflake paints available for airbrushing, and metalflake powders available for adding to regular paint. An internet search should turn them up.

nick · Post by **nick** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:12 pm

I have seen a few metallic powders, but I really want to try to get the effect of large fish scale 'bits' in the paint. I want to shoot a metallic colour basecoat, then clear it with larger 'reflective' bits in the clear. Like they did way back then. This is for a VW "Manx type" dune buggy model. The paint effect I want is something that will practically dazzle your eyeballs out of their sockets..

....yeah...like that...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522@N02/12489538304/

and that...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/109040522@N02/12489535244/

May not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's for a little project I'm thinking about.

cheers

karim · Post by **karim** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:40 pm

No way glitter will go through a brush. I'd recommend shooting a base-coat, then dusting the model with the glitter while the paint is still wet... then covering it with a light top-coat.

Rogviler · Post by **Rogviler** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:05 pm

I would get some of the Kustom Shop airbrush metal flakes. I've always liked their products, especially airbrush and pinstriping supplies.

They have different grain sizes, and while I understand the "look" you're going for, you'll really want to go with a pretty small size so it's in scale, you know what I mean? Like, in scale, "glitter" would be flakes the size of your hand.

You can totally airbrush metal flake though. No problemo.

-Rog

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:10 pm

Gosh, I miss that chinsey glitter from the '70s. Looking back at pictures of myself as a small child at the video game arcade back when half of the games were not technically "video games" by today's standards, everything had that glitter. Especially with a red base color. The seat cushions at the restaurants also had that gaudy red with glitter. I think it's awesome and you don't really see it much anymore. You'd have to have lived back then to remember it.

I wonder how they made that back then? Perhaps it's as Rogviler said, and it was applied on top of a coat of paint and then sealed?

nick · Post by **nick** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 2:13 am

here's a video of the effect I'm looking for.....pretty crappy quality video, but you get the idea. Only visible in sunlight, and you can see just how 'big' the flakes are.....they're not tiny, that's for sure!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI_n6_OjW5Q

CrazyDude · Post by **CrazyDude** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 2:51 am

To me that looks more like a Mazorra type paint.

I have seen similar effedcts done using fine cosmetic glitter described as above.
Can be hand brushed on.

There was also a Japanese female gundam modeler that airbrushed glitterr nail-polish.

nick · Post by **nick** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 3:07 am

Here's another video. This guy has used "Folk Art Extreme Glitter" to get the effect that I'm after. Think I might do this, or maybe try the PearlEx pigments. Maybe even try to make my own glitter paint with micro glitter. Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj_Uc_7MTpQ

This guy's got several videos on how he did it, but they are all about a minute each, so quite annoying, he shoulda done the whole lot in just one video...

The thing that concerns me though is if the glitter will ruin my airbrush or not?? I know it probably depends on particle size, but all it says on the bottle is 'micro', no actual size....hmmm....I guess a real thorough clean will be called for after spraying... The product I have seen at the local supply shop looks like very fine glitter, almost like dust, so I think I may be OK. Comes in a whole stack of different colours too.

cheers

Rogviler · Post by **Rogviler** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:12 am

No, it won't ruin it. If the particle size is too big it will just clog. But nothing that can't be cleaned out.

-Rog

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 3:10 pm

You want that bass boat look. It depends on the airbrush. Airbrushes that shoot fine lines will have trouble getting those, relatively, huge flakes through. This will lead to jams that are a pain in the butt to clean out. Back flushing helps. But no, it won't ruin it, just make clean up a pain.

PetarB · Post by **PetarB** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:21 pm

Tamiya's spraycan lacquer comes in a colour called 'Pearl Clear' TS-65. It's a fantastic gloss clear that puts a very fine metallic fleck over your paintwork. I've just used it on a project and it looks amazing.

nick · Post by **nick** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:30 pm

Thanks guys for the input, I think I'll just play around a bit and experiment on scrap plastic. So many colours, so many different particle sizes, so many ways of doing this...no one way is better than the other....just different.

I was thinking of doing it this way:

1: primer x 1 coat
2: metallic basecoat x 2 or 3 coats, depending on coverage
3: glitter mixed in clear x 2 or 3 coats, depending on coverage
4: plain clear x 2 or 3 coats

Rub down between each coat. I want this to look so deep and shiny that you can dive into it!!

Does this sound OK?

nick · Post by **nick** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:35 pm

PetarB...just went onto your site and saw the pilot figures you have. Any chance of you doing any Battlestar Galactica figures? Viper pilots and cylon figures?

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:59 am

nick wrote:Here's another video. This guy has used "Folk Art Extreme Glitter" to get the effect that I'm after. Think I might do this, or maybe try the PearlEx pigments. Maybe even try to make my own glitter paint with micro glitter. Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj_Uc_7MTpQ

This guy's got several videos on how he did it, but they are all about a minute each, so quite annoying, he shoulda done the whole lot in just one video...

The thing that concerns me though is if the glitter will ruin my airbrush or not?? I know it probably depends on particle size, but all it says on the bottle is 'micro', no actual size....hmmm....I guess a real thorough clean will be called for after spraying... The product I have seen at the local supply shop looks like very fine glitter, almost like dust, so I think I may be OK. Comes in a whole stack of different colours too.

cheers

I don't imagine it will damage the brush. But as others have said it will most likely clog it. I hear the Airbrush Torpedo works great for the backflushing you'll be needing to do. Shameless plug, I know.

As for your flake coat, why not color coat, Future coat, dust with glitter while wet and then polish the Future to a shine? I think you would have to repeat the Future-glitter sequence a few times AND I think you would want a few coats of Future over the glitter after you've stopped adding the glitter so that you're not polishing all of your glitter off. It's not exactly what are in the videos but it's essentially what you're doing when polishing certain metallizers anyway.

Kenny

nick · Post by **nick** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:20 am

I did think of just dusting some glitter over a wet clear coat, but I thought it would probably end up 'blotchy' and not evenly distributed over the clear. That's why I'm thinking of mixing some glitter in a bottle of clear. More likely to be evenly distributed throughout the mix.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:31 am

Use a shaker to distribute it. Basically a mesh screen large enough to pas the flakes over a jar.

nick · Post by **nick** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:58 am

Yeah, I think I'll experiment a bit and see what happens. I did kinda like the idea of dusting some glitter over a wet coat, and get a nice 'thick' coating then putting a few clear coats over that.

But then again I also like the idea of having several coats of glitter and clear coats, to get the effect of the glitter 'floating'.

Hmmm....dunno, like I said, I think I'll do a few experiments on some plastic spoons and see what effect I end up with.

Thanks for the input guys.

cheers

TurkeyVolumeGuessingMan · Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:35 am

Donn Yost mentions in his video on car paint jobs that there is a product called Snazzy Silver Metal Flake by Kustom Kolors. Maybe look into that.

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Will glitter ruin my air brush??

Will glitter ruin my air brush??

Yes, it will.