| Hey gang, I have seen so many questions on how to do CF, use liquid masking film (LMF), how to get symmetric designs, reproduce designs, etc. Well, I did this walkthrough to display how to do each. Keep in mind it was in the wee hours of the morning and the lighting wasn't too good so the pics came out poor. Also, I forgot to take pics in some places. I started out with a Proline Crowd Pleaser 1.0 for the Mugen. I always take them straight out of the bag and wash with either dish soap and warm water or if I have it, I prefer the SpazStix surface preprep spray....that way I don't have to walk all the way over to the sink I then put on the first part of the Mugen Seiki logo I got from Doug Summers (more on that later....I know that's what Brandon wants to see) Then came 2 medium-heavy coats of LMF (Liquid Masking Film), letting them dry overnight between coats. I put them on the A/C register over night to aid in drying. I was given pretty lenient guidelines with this. I did have a pic of the old scheme to use... In order to get a symmetric design I locate and mark the center of the body length-wise. I drew a rough version of what I want the body to look like...on one side only. I chose a scallop design in the back with an arrow-  Then I trace out the rough design on tracing paper. I line up the straight edge of the paper to the center line we drew earlier. After I have all of the pieces traced I go back and smooth out the lines, correct the shapes, etc. to make it look good.  Tape down the tracing paper to the body, lining up the center.   Using a #11 Xacto blade I gently cut out the design. (no pics, sorry) Then I flip the tracing paper over and do it again on the other side. (Note the original design is on the outside of the paper now).  Now the whole design is cutout. It is important to note here, that it is not always best to cut everything out at first. If you are planning on doing some pinstriping that requires being done at a later time (ie when using chrome) you shouldn't cut those pins out until you are ready to paint them. This way you don't risk accidentally pulling them up and there will be no chance of paint bleeding into the lines. You'll be able to see the shape in the LMF when it comes time to cut them out. I did add a pinstripe to the arrow design, but I am painting that first. See...I used two coats of pearl white. I have a small personal fan I use to help dry the paint. It moves a lot of air and really speeds things up. I just wedge the body between it and the wall.  I then removed the very back portion of the LMF design. A very useful tip I got from Josh Thiel is to use an old airbrush needle to lift the mask. It works very well. I did some dagger strokes on the ends of the scallops and also backed the pearl white.  Notice how opaque the pearl white is. It is useful to back bright colors with if you have to do them first. I mixed up some Createx pearl copper, pearl white and black next. Using the trusty shelf-liner as a pattern, I added the beginning of a carbon fiber effect. It is tricky to get the liner to line up and follow the contours of the body. Just practice a little and take your time. (Again, no pic) I backed the copper color with straight black. It came out really close to actual CF, maybe a bit too much copper.   Next to come off is the LMF in the front. Since I had already painted the pinstripe it was much quicker to get it off. You don't have to worry about taking off any uncut LFM from anywhere else.  I realized I needed something else in the front of the buggy, so I added a quick design with blue 3m painters tape. Then I added a drop shadow with Createx grey. I really like this color because it is transparent. It works really well for shadowing. (...you guessed it, no pic) Then I added some white to the cup and mixed it up. I filled in the design with the resulting grey color. (I still have not had to rinse out the paint cup).  The only remaining part left is the middle. This is going to be red. After cleaning out the airbrush, I added some Createx transparent red and the same grey to get a blood red color. I used this to add a drop shadow to the arrows and also to add some depth to the other potions of the design.  a I cleaned the cup again and added more red to it. I sprayed this in the remaining areas. After it had dried I noticed I didn't like the drop shadows at all. They were entirely too light and not noticeable. What's a painter to do??? Well, I simply shot a light coat of black behind the red. That's the beauty of using transparent colors. Next is to remove the Mugen logo mask. Doug does a wonderful job with these. They come in two (or more) parts. First the back is used (already done). Then it is removed...  and the second part is added....  You can also see I trimmed the windows and removed the rest of the LFM design. Straight black is used again. to fill in the areas. You have to use a light coat or else the vinyl will not come off clean.  After the black is dry, I removed the blue tape. Also, I removed the vinyl letters leaving that area clear... and backed everything in white. 
Now all the paint is done! I let it dry for awhile on the fan and then back it all with a sealer. Next is to remove the window masks and overspray film...  Then it's all done!...  
|
