the sparkly paint...

[proace360]

So i just joined as i am planning to paint my x-plorer silver and blue... however i wanted to know how to get the sparkly paint, as in the ones used in this guitar



is it a finish or included in the paint?


thanks

[proace360]

So i just joined as i am planning to paint my x-plorer silver and blue... however i wanted to know how to get the sparkly paint, as in the ones used in this guitar



is it a finish or included in the paint?


thanks

[thecaptainof]

It can be done easily with paint... someone did a superb job right here: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16037
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yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote:

Wow Mr. Mad, who fucked your buffalo?

[thecaptainof]

It can be done easily with paint... someone did a superb job right here: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16037
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yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote:

Wow Mr. Mad, who fucked your buffalo?

[xsjadomaggot616]

first of all its called metal flake, and second you cant do real flake like that unless you have a real paint gun all the supplies and the money to buy all the paint, no to even mention the experience of being a painter. the only thing close to that with spray paint is a metallic paints so the answer is no.

[xsjadomaggot616]

first of all its called metal flake, and second you cant do real flake like that unless you have a real paint gun all the supplies and the money to buy all the paint, no to even mention the experience of being a painter. the only thing close to that with spray paint is a metallic paints so the answer is no.

[xsjadomaggot616]

[xsjadomaggot616]

[senapanaga]

do a ghetto metal flake and sprinkle glitter on your guitar before you paint?

thats what i'd do because im a poor bastard
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[senapanaga]

do a ghetto metal flake and sprinkle glitter on your guitar before you paint?

thats what i'd do because im a poor bastard
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[Kylekillgannon]

[Kylekillgannon]

[VooDooRex]

Poor ftw!

[VooDooRex]

Poor ftw!

[wumpus]

Thread necromancy..

The "sprinkle glitter and then clearcoat" approach DOES work. Make sure you get very very fine glitter, though. The larger the glitter flake size, the more problems you'll have with a lumpy guitar surface. Here's how.

1) normal guitar paint prep (sand, prime, etc). MAKE SURE THE SURFACE IS SMOOTH AND CLEAN BEFORE YOU START!

2) put a base coat on that is similar to your glitter color for coverage. If you are using red glitter, put a red metallic base coat on. Get good coverage, make sure it's nice, even, and smooth. The finer the glitter you use, the better this base coat has to be-- more of it will be visible.

3) put down some newspaper and move the item from the paint area to the fresh clean newspaper.

4) while the base coat is still wet, immediately after painting, move the guitar/faceplate to the newspaper.

5) SLOWLY, SLOWLY sprinkle the glitter from high above the guitar. Take your time and cover the whole thing. Use lots. Don't worry about wasting the glitter, you will recover the excess in the next step.

6) Let the guitar dry for just a few mins, and the glitter stick. Don't take too long; we only need a fraction of that glitter to stick for it to look good.

7) Firmly shake the guitar/faceplate over the newspaper to remove the excess glitter. Shake lots, get all the loose stuff off. Use your finger to flick the back to get as much as you can off. The stuff that's stuck is all you want on there; any excess glitter will just make your life harder when you're clearcoating. If you did it right there will be tons of excess glitter on the newspaper. This is normal! The only thing left on the guitar/faceplate will be the embedded glitter, and it should be nearly 100% covered.

8) Lay down a light clear coat over the glitter so it all sticks. Don't goop it on, just spray a reasonable coat to keep the glitter in place.

9) if you want to save the excess glitter, roll up the newspaper and funnel it back into the container.

10) let the guitar dry for a few hours.

10.5) hold the faceplate up to a light surface so you're looking across the flat front surface. Look for any pieces of glitter sticking up abnormally high. These need to be dealt with. Use your hand or a cloth and try to gently rub the areas with glitter that's sticking really far up. Be GENTLE, and go SLOW. The goal is to make sure the faceplate surface is somewhat flat; anything sticking up really high makes your life painful later so deal with it earlier and save yourself some pain!

11) lay down another clear coat, let dry for 6+ hours.

12) Hold the faceplate up to a light and look across the flat front again. Look for uneven areas on the surface. Do a VERY LIGHT sanding with VERY FINE sandpaper to smooth the surface. Be *extremely* careful with sanding. Some of the glitter/flake does not take well to sanding. Try sanding in a small area first, and use a damp paper towel to wipe it down afterwards, followed by a dry paper towel. When in doubt do NOT sand until you've laid down 3+ clear coats!

13) repeat steps 11-12 a few more times until you're satisfied.

14) (optional) after applying your final coat, get some polishing compound and buff the crap out of the surface. This will give you a gloss finish.

WARNING: you will need to put LOTS of clear coats on to cover the flakes. I'm talking 4+ coats, maybe more. That's just the way flake painting works. Use really fine flakes/glitter to avoid doing a ridiculous number of clear coats, or at least be extremely careful when applying larger flakes.

EDIT: you will have so many clear coats it can be hard to tell if it's fully dry. Pick an inconspicuous area (I recommend near where the neck will insert, this paint has to come off anyway for the neck to be able to fit) Press your finger hard against that area and make sure it doesn't leave a fingerprint. If it does.. you're not dry yet. You can try speeding things up with a little judicious use of the hairdryer, or leaving the faceplate out in the sun (I recommend this) but remember: patience is a virtue. This technique takes lots of painting and that means lots of drying..

I know it's a lot of work.. but it looks freaking amazing, like the metal flake painted guitar in the first post! It is impossible to get this look from any spraypaint, like xsjadomaggot616 said above. Believe me I have tried.. lots.

Anyway good luck and happy flaking, just wanted to share this technique that took me so long to figure out

[wumpus]

Thread necromancy..

The "sprinkle glitter and then clearcoat" approach DOES work. Make sure you get very very fine glitter, though. The larger the glitter flake size, the more problems you'll have with a lumpy guitar surface. Here's how.

1) normal guitar paint prep (sand, prime, etc). MAKE SURE THE SURFACE IS SMOOTH AND CLEAN BEFORE YOU START!

2) put a base coat on that is similar to your glitter color for coverage. If you are using red glitter, put a red metallic base coat on. Get good coverage, make sure it's nice, even, and smooth. The finer the glitter you use, the better this base coat has to be-- more of it will be visible.

3) put down some newspaper and move the item from the paint area to the fresh clean newspaper.

4) while the base coat is still wet, immediately after painting, move the guitar/faceplate to the newspaper.

5) SLOWLY, SLOWLY sprinkle the glitter from high above the guitar. Take your time and cover the whole thing. Use lots. Don't worry about wasting the glitter, you will recover the excess in the next step.

6) Let the guitar dry for just a few mins, and the glitter stick. Don't take too long; we only need a fraction of that glitter to stick for it to look good.

7) Firmly shake the guitar/faceplate over the newspaper to remove the excess glitter. Shake lots, get all the loose stuff off. Use your finger to flick the back to get as much as you can off. The stuff that's stuck is all you want on there; any excess glitter will just make your life harder when you're clearcoating. If you did it right there will be tons of excess glitter on the newspaper. This is normal! The only thing left on the guitar/faceplate will be the embedded glitter, and it should be nearly 100% covered.

8) Lay down a light clear coat over the glitter so it all sticks. Don't goop it on, just spray a reasonable coat to keep the glitter in place.

9) if you want to save the excess glitter, roll up the newspaper and funnel it back into the container.

10) let the guitar dry for a few hours.

10.5) hold the faceplate up to a light surface so you're looking across the flat front surface. Look for any pieces of glitter sticking up abnormally high. These need to be dealt with. Use your hand or a cloth and try to gently rub the areas with glitter that's sticking really far up. Be GENTLE, and go SLOW. The goal is to make sure the faceplate surface is somewhat flat; anything sticking up really high makes your life painful later so deal with it earlier and save yourself some pain!

11) lay down another clear coat, let dry for 6+ hours.

12) Hold the faceplate up to a light and look across the flat front again. Look for uneven areas on the surface. Do a VERY LIGHT sanding with VERY FINE sandpaper to smooth the surface. Be *extremely* careful with sanding. Some of the glitter/flake does not take well to sanding. Try sanding in a small area first, and use a damp paper towel to wipe it down afterwards, followed by a dry paper towel. When in doubt do NOT sand until you've laid down 3+ clear coats!

13) repeat steps 11-12 a few more times until you're satisfied.

14) (optional) after applying your final coat, get some polishing compound and buff the crap out of the surface. This will give you a gloss finish.

WARNING: you will need to put LOTS of clear coats on to cover the flakes. I'm talking 4+ coats, maybe more. That's just the way flake painting works. Use really fine flakes/glitter to avoid doing a ridiculous number of clear coats, or at least be extremely careful when applying larger flakes.

EDIT: you will have so many clear coats it can be hard to tell if it's fully dry. Pick an inconspicuous area (I recommend near where the neck will insert, this paint has to come off anyway for the neck to be able to fit) Press your finger hard against that area and make sure it doesn't leave a fingerprint. If it does.. you're not dry yet. You can try speeding things up with a little judicious use of the hairdryer, or leaving the faceplate out in the sun (I recommend this) but remember: patience is a virtue. This technique takes lots of painting and that means lots of drying..

I know it's a lot of work.. but it looks freaking amazing, like the metal flake painted guitar in the first post! It is impossible to get this look from any spraypaint, like xsjadomaggot616 said above. Believe me I have tried.. lots.

Anyway good luck and happy flaking, just wanted to share this technique that took me so long to figure out

[BriGuy]

wumpus outlined the necessary steps pretty well, but I can personally say that adding sparkle or flakes to a guitar and attempting to cover it up with clear coat is a nightmare. I wanted to make a glittering snow effect for my fiance's ice guitar and had to go through several excruciating steps of sanding down clear coats that were too thick to cover up too thick glitter. I finally switched to a super fine glitter and covered it up with "triple thick" clear coat. It eventually worked okay, but I don't think it ever cured properly and has since developed a paint crackling and still kinda smells like the clear coat over a year after completion.
See the guitar here

Avoid using physical glitter at all costs. The sparkly spray paint is about as good as your gonna get without either major headaches or hiring a professional.
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[BriGuy]

wumpus outlined the necessary steps pretty well, but I can personally say that adding sparkle or flakes to a guitar and attempting to cover it up with clear coat is a nightmare. I wanted to make a glittering snow effect for my fiance's ice guitar and had to go through several excruciating steps of sanding down clear coats that were too thick to cover up too thick glitter. I finally switched to a super fine glitter and covered it up with "triple thick" clear coat. It eventually worked okay, but I don't think it ever cured properly and has since developed a paint crackling and still kinda smells like the clear coat over a year after completion.
See the guitar here

Avoid using physical glitter at all costs. The sparkly spray paint is about as good as your gonna get without either major headaches or hiring a professional.
_________________

[wumpus]

[wumpus]

[wumpus]

As promised here's a shot of the guitar faceplate using the above steps (which I have edited a tiny bit to reflect additional experience)



I'll post more later. That one is "mahogany", a dark brown but sparkles a very bright warm yellow color. It's one of my favorites, very dramatic!

But the red, blue, white pearlescent, gold, pink, and silver are also kickass. They're still drying and I'm still applying clearcoats on those.. this is the first one that has enough clear coats to be "done".

[wumpus]

As promised here's a shot of the guitar faceplate using the above steps (which I have edited a tiny bit to reflect additional experience)



I'll post more later. That one is "mahogany", a dark brown but sparkles a very bright warm yellow color. It's one of my favorites, very dramatic!

But the red, blue, white pearlescent, gold, pink, and silver are also kickass. They're still drying and I'm still applying clearcoats on those.. this is the first one that has enough clear coats to be "done".

[wumpus]

Note that you have SO many coats of paint, you'll have to trim away some to get the neck of the Les slid back into the guitar.. very, very thick!

Incredibly amazingly sparkly though. I've never seen anything like it from paint in a can.

[wumpus]

Note that you have SO many coats of paint, you'll have to trim away some to get the neck of the Les slid back into the guitar.. very, very thick!

Incredibly amazingly sparkly though. I've never seen anything like it from paint in a can.

[BriGuy]

Wow, that looks great. I'm sure under the right lighting conditions, that guitar looks amazing. Having the ability to just work on a faceplate instead of the main guitar body is certainly a bonus when applying these techniques. What do your other guitars look like?
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[BriGuy]

Wow, that looks great. I'm sure under the right lighting conditions, that guitar looks amazing. Having the ability to just work on a faceplate instead of the main guitar body is certainly a bonus when applying these techniques. What do your other guitars look like?
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[wumpus]

It's amazing how well large flakes pick up the light. This was taken in my office with only two highly directional desk flourescent lamps going, very low light conditions.

[wumpus]

It's amazing how well large flakes pick up the light. This was taken in my office with only two highly directional desk flourescent lamps going, very low light conditions.

[wumpus]

Some different color faceplates I have going..













The pink one is for my wife. Note that the white is iridescent, it shifts from green to gold. Very dramatic!

[wumpus]

Some different color faceplates I have going..













The pink one is for my wife. Note that the white is iridescent, it shifts from green to gold. Very dramatic!