The pearlescent effect acrylic colors for car and motorcycle model making are high performance products deriving from research in the professional airbrushing sector of custom painting. The color range is very extensive and contains basic colors as well as all the original car, motorcycle, truck, earth-moving vehicles, military and civilian forces such as Red Cross, Firefighters, Police Forces, Racing Cars and Motorcycles, Contemporary Formula 1 and historical and much more.
DILUTE COLORS
Normally the colors are ready to use but if you wish you can dilute them to your liking with our reducer (thinner) for water colors, there are no precise doses, much depends exclusively on your needs.
TOOLS FOR APPLICATION
Airbrush preferably with 0.3 or 0.4 head. Using smaller heads doesn't make much sense and you only risk getting a rough surface effect as well as clogging the airbrush tip. These problems do not change even if the color is diluted.
If, on the other hand, you want to create shades between various metallic colors, you can dilute the colors we are interested in using with the color blender in the following proportion: 10 parts of color with 5 parts of color blender.
Brush: we know that there are modelers who apply it with a brush but we don't do it so any use not with an airbrush is discretionary and it doesn't necessarily work well. We leave the tests and the results to you.
USE PRESSURE
We recommend working between 1.5 and 2 bars with pure color. If it is diluted it increases the fluidity and therefore we leave it to the users to choose how much to lower the bars.
BASIC COLOR ON WHICH TO APPLY THIS SHADE
MAXIMUM EFFECT: on white with crystal effect, on black with silver white effect
LIGHT EFFECT: white, light gray
CHANGING EFFECTS: white silver can be used on any color because it is considered the neutral among all pearls.
USE THE PEARLESCENT SERIES AS THE BASE FOR CANDY COLORS
All colors of the PEARLESCENT series are the ideal bases for candy colors. Changing the color of the pearl also changes the final effect of the candy.
In general, all PEARL ACRYLIC colors are perfect bases for candy but remember to apply the colors by contrast or by assonance for better effects.
For example, if we have a pearl gold base and apply a candy red on top of it, we will obtain a bright red candy color that in direct light will show a golden beam on the FLOP (the flop of an object is represented by the angular areas on which the light changes the color tone suddenly). The gold color technically belongs to the yellow family and therefore if we apply candy blood red on top of it, which is very dark, then we will have not a dark red but a light red, because the candy red visually mixes with the yellow of the gold color. which then lightens it.
GET NEW COLORS
All the colors of the pearl series can be mixed with candy and other colors to obtain different shades. However, we advise you not to mix them together, as this mix of pearls only creates confusion and no particularly beautiful effect.
REACTION WITH CANDY COLORS
Surely if you have to create a very deep color, it will be better to apply a candy on a METALLIZED base if on the contrary you are interested in brightness more than depth then use candy on a pearl base.
TYPES OF PEARLESCENT COLORS
The first family is that of neutral pearls, these appear in the bottle of milky white color, if they are applied on a white base they are completely transparent and for this reason they are the most suitable to be used as an iridescent effect or to be combined with colors or over the colors and create new effects.
The second family is that of solid pearls. These have a very specific characteristic because they are not transparent at all. Therefore it is better not to apply them if we want an effect of complete transparency. These pearls are used a lot when we want an object to appear a pearly color such as gold, copper etc. Another use is linked to the creation of candy colors, in fact as a candy base they are fundamental.
If we wanted to make a distinction between solid pearls and transparent ones we can simply say that the solids appear as if they were already colored, for example if I choose the solid gold pearl I will see it in gold color in the bottle, if instead I choose the transparent gold I will see the jar of white color with a golden reflection in it.
APPLICATION METHODS
We suggest two application methods but neither of them is to be considered mandatory, the technique may vary according to one's experience.
Remember that pearls are of two types and their type also changes the application method.
METHOD FOR COLORS FOR GHOST EFFECT
Pearls are particularly beautiful when applied on a pastel base and give a pearlescent effect against the light or when a color is pastel but in direct light a pearl mantle appears on it in a vibrant way.
To do this we must apply the pearl color that we choose with very light hands, when we say light we mean glazes.
To understand when it is the right time to stop we will always have to do the tests first.
If, on the other hand, we want to have a full and particularly intense effect, just apply the solid pearls and we can do it as illustrated below.
1 - Apply a light coat, blow air with the airbrush until completely dry, we understand that the color is dry when it becomes opaque and homogeneous. If you don't want to force drying you can wait for it to dry by itself. The secret to a successful job is to start the application with light coats and make sure to dry each coat. In this way we obtain a surface that will give us the correct adhesion to then be able to apply more charged coats.
2 - Now we can apply we can apply a full coat or apply a half coat (it means not completely charged nor too light) and wait for the correct drying.
NOTE: remember that forcing the color to dry means that it will become dry to the touch but not deeply, so you will not be able to apply masking tape right away but you will have to wait at least 30 minutes before proceeding with the masks.
We must therefore apply a sufficient number of coats to cover the substrate and the best way we can use is to try to apply medium coats. In this way the color dries well because the thickness is not excessive. This will help you to be able to mask the pieces in less time and thus to get on with the work more quickly.
Once this application has been completed, we decide whether to apply a new color on it or apply the transparent to protect the work done so far.
HOW DO YOU CLEAN THE AIRBRUSH?
With our water-based paint cleaner, if you don't have the cleaner, you can adjust with tap water. Other additives not recognized by us can be used but at the discretion of the modeler.
CLEAR COATS?
The colors for airbrushing are technically called OPAQUE BASES and are used in bodywork to paint real cars and motorbikes, these colors do not have resistance like catalyzed colors and therefore you always need a protective clear coat to be able to make them manageable without having to worry about them being damaged. So at the end of each job or if we deem it necessary at the end of the application of a color we can apply the protective clear coat to fix the color and continue our work.
COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER COLORS OF OTHER BRANDS
The Kustom Service colors are on average compatible with all the colors on the market, obviously and as always we do not know the colors of other brands and therefore our opinions are only theoretical, we recommend applying the colors in a veiled way, only in this way can we be more or less certain that nothing will happen.
HUMIDITY AND EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE
Water-based colors compared to solvent-based ones are more delicate and slower products. So don't expect them to dry out as fast in winter as their solvent-based cousins. If the humidity is high this is not a real problem. The real problem is only if you have a very cold temperature.
DRY COLORS WITH FORCED AIR
Be careful to always use cold air and never hot. Many think that a color can be dried with hot air because the heat accelerates the evaporation of water. Well that's not the case. The hot air does nothing but dry the surface film of the color but what is underneath will remain wet and full of water that cannot evaporate because it finds a rigid patina that blocks it. This is why water colors must always be dried by blowing air diagonally with respect to the base and with cold air or at least at room temperature. Only in this way will the air force the evaporation of water from the paint substrate.
LOSS OF DETAILS
The pearl colors are very subtle and do not hide the details of the model.
