In time for Halloween, comes an experiment like no other. I stopped by Ollies to see what they had. I had a 15% off order coupon and their kits run twelve bucks each. So I thought, why not, I can grab a few to practice my airbrushing skills and I won't be out a lot of money. Besides, the Bonneville I picked up there turned out amazingly well. I ended up picking up a '63 Nova wagon Curbside kit and this 1941 Plymouth Coupe.
The entire kit was molded in red. Really hate when they do that. And i'm really no keen on all of the Coke A Cola decals. But they will have a purpose later on. So this is the 2nd Coke car I purchased here, with the other being the 40's Ford Coupe that was a shit show of a nightmare, (though it did seem to turn out in the end).
Stopped by HL to see what they had for Createx paints. Though I already had an idea, I still wanted to see what I could work with. So I ended up grabbing a few things, a bottle of Pearl Wicked Red and a bottle of Opaque Jet Black (this is for another upcoming build). I really liked how the Pearl Lime Green came out on the bonneville, oh how mistaken was I about to be.
Keep in mind, I am still learning the tricks of the airbrushing craft. I'll watch some videos here and there, but I believe most of them are videos to inflate the creators ego. I did come across some real nice videos from the Createx channel, so I subscribed.
The idea was a pearlized deep red color for halloween. And this is where I felt the wrath of Myers, Voorhees and Kruger all in one. I started with the trusty Testors flat black primer. Since everything was molded in red, everything got primed along with some test spoons. After letting it sit for about 8 hours, i mixed up a batch of this new red paint. Oh was I excited. Someone told me in a Facebook group to write down my mixtures, so I did. Looked up the mixture of the Lime Green and did the same for the red. And thus began my trip of fear.
I slowly started with light coats of the paint trying to build up to a nice pearlized, rich color. But it wasn't happening. The test on the spoons was horrendous. The paint seem to be reflecting off the spoons like bullets off superman's chest. Oddly, the paint looked like droplets of blood from some unexpecting teenager who just met their worse enemy.
I had mixed the paint 2-1 like I did with the green, but was it too thin? The red seemed to have the same viscosity as the green. But it didn't seem to have the same sparkle. But then, when does blood sparkle?
I emptied the gun and bottles and mixed up a new batch, this time 1-1. Primered new spoons and repeated the same steps. This time I had it. A nice deep rich, pearlized red. After it dried it looked like it was clear coated, but it wasn't. This is how I wanted the car to look.
I got the body and hood into the boot and began to paint. After the first few light coats, something was off. There was no deep red. There was no sparkles. I figured I'd let it dry and add a few more coats.
Somewhere, along the lines of testing on the spoons to laying the paint on the body, I took a wrong turn and headed into Camp Crystal Lake. The paint was a muted, bright red.
Letting it dry overnight, I decided to stop by HL after work again to see what they had in a deeper red.I picked up a bottle of Createx Transparent Deep Red, Createx UVL 4050 and a bottle of Createx Candy Blood Red. Some way, I was going to get that deep red I wanted. Got home and started to think how to accomplish this.
After watching a few of the videos on the Createx YouTube channel, I mixed up some of the Candy Blood Red with the 4050 Clear. The video had their PSI at 40, so I turned mine up. It was mixed at a 2-1 ratio, 2 parts 4050 and 1 part Candy.
Slowly, I started building the colors. It was actually looking decent. With about 30 minutes between coats to dry up, I started the last coat. That's when I realized the horror legends were mocking me. On the last few passes of the brush, a ton of water came flowing out and covered the tops and one side of the body. I wasn't watching the moisture trap!
I let out a gurgling scream, like the unexpecting fool who thinks they can wake up from a nightmare unscathed by a psycho wearing knives on their hand. Needless to say, I was tired and going to bed.
Staring at this thing, I wished a raven would have started rapping at my door. I thought, one more shot before I blast it with solid black and make it a soulless creature. I mixed two parts 4050, 1 part Pearl Red and 1 part Candy Blood Red. The color in the bottle looked great. A deep sparkly blood color. Guess at this point, I was sucked into the realm of Twilight's sparkly vampires instead of the blood curdling realm of whatever.
I turned the PSI down to 18, opened the brush wide and started to paint. First coat down. After letting it dry a bit, I started on the second coat. It was getting even deeper and had some sparkle to it. Third coat and fourth coat done. A deeper blood red with some sparkles. It's done. I don't care. Will get it cleared and polished. Then move on to actually building the kit. Just hope it's not as bad as the 40's Ford.
