white ghost flames

[MjulianD]

Someone wants me to paint white ghost flames on a black motorcycle tank and i not sure what the best way to go about it. When practicing for this i tried using a pearl white but in the end the flames were not really white

 

[Squishy]

When I've done it before, I just really over reduced the white, depends how "ghostly" you want the flames. If you want the pearl look, try experimenting with mixing a little white with it to see if its more the look you wanted.

 

[haasje dutchairbrush]

Making white ghost flames sounds a tad impossible to me.

The idea behind ghost flames is that the fade a bit into the background, black and white are as opposite as you can get making the fading a tad hard. To have it fade you'd have to "bend" the white closer to black which simply will result in the white stoping being white and becoming grey.

The way I "normaly" do ghost flames (skulls etc) is just paint it on there and than blend it away with a highly reduced black (can even be done by adding black to the clearcoat). That way (if reduced enough) you can slowly build the layers of dark till you have the desired effect

 

[Squishy]

To add to Haasje's post, I once got a very subtle, (only really showed in sunlight) effect painting over white with black candy.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

Another method for ghost flames is throw down a base coat of a pearl or metallic (ie black pearl, white pearl or silver). Then throw down your inter coat clear ( if you are you are using wicked then use the 0200 wicked trans. base reduced or the new 4040 Non reactive barrier) to protect the pearl/ metallic base coat. Cut and apply your flame stencils. Then spray your candy colour with 2 or 3 wet coats and let dry. Remove your stencils and apply another 2 or 3 candy coats over the area where the stencil was located .
This will create a subtle effect and can be seen under a certain light because the area that was masked has less candy and the pearl/ metallic can show through. This method is usually is used with the old school flames. You can also use the hi lite interference paint as well. But if you're going for the reality flame look, I'd go the way of Haasje and Squishy
Take care

 

[Mr.Micron]

Most ghost flames are done with pearls , White will not really be a ghost flame meaning it will vanish in the right lighting but will be more of a smoke look then a flame look.

 

[Malky]

Most ghost flames are done with pearls , White will not really be a ghost flame meaning it will vanish in the right lighting but will be more of a smoke look then a flame look.

Which is cool if you want "Ghost Smoke"

 

[MjulianD]

Thanks everyone this is some really good stuff here. Im going to try samples with all these tips. You ara right haasje, that's exactly what happened, they turned grey. Which means they turned out looking mote like smoke like Mr Micron said. Thats why i think if i try squishy,s idea by adding a little white. I might loose a little bit of the subtlety but retain more of the white look. Thanks again everyone. Like i said im going to give each one of these a try. This project means a lot to me. This is my first tank and if i pull this off its a big opportunity for a lot more work like this. It would be a dream come true for me cause this is what i really want to do.

 

[Malky]

Thanks everyone this is some really good stuff here. Im going to try samples with all these tips. You ara right haasje, that's exactly what happened, they turned grey. Which means they turned out looking mote like smoke like Mr Micron said. Thats why i think if i try squishy,s idea by adding a little white. I might loose a little bit of the subtlety but retain more of the white look. Thanks again everyone. Like i said im going to give each one of these a try. This project means a lot to me. This is my first tank and if i pull this off its a big opportunity for a lot more work like this. It would be a dream come true for me cause this is what i really want to do.

I'm really no expert on this M, I've seen a ghost flame job done once by Ed Hubbs, and from what I understood of his explanation while he was doing it is that you're not really supposed to see the flames or at least can only just faintly make them out until the light hits them in a certain way and makes them pop, as far as I can remember he did his black base followed by misting in the flames lightly with the pearl mixture, I really can't say if his mixture was white, bright silver or a mixture of both, he then went over it with transparent/candy black before clearing, but his application was faint to the point that indoors or in the shade there was literally nothing to see, whereas, in the sun the flames really stood out, so I'm guessing that's the point of them, I have a feeling that bright silver might give a better effect of looking like white, but I'm sure a couple of test panels would an acceptable strategy in any case.

While custom work isn't my thing and I'm more into art, I still enjoy viewing custom work so I hope this goes well for you and look forward to seeing how you go

 

[Basstrack238]

Maybe try different grades of metallic too? Like fine base then coarse flames, or vice versa. Or standard base color then metallic for flames. Then black candy. Just some thoughts. NOT sure about the white though, I would think silver would be better. I dunno...definitely worth a few tries on test panels, to see what you get. Fun stuff!

 

[Malky]

Maybe try different grades of metallic too? Like fine base then coarse flames, or vice versa. Or standard base color then metallic for flames. Then black candy. Just some thoughts. NOT sure about the white though, I would think silver would be better. I dunno...definitely worth a few tries on test panels, to see what you get. Fun stuff!

Yep, I meant to mention that too