Paint flames the clean ‘n’ easy way

[CabDriver]

You ever see a scale flame-job that looks cool until you get up close and see bleeds, rough edges, high edges, fuzzy spots and other imperfections that come from trying to shoot light colored flames over a darker colored base color?  

Here’s a technique for super clean and easy flames I’ve been using for a couple of years now that I thought some of you all might find useful.

You’ll need nothing special for this process, and I did this particular body with rattlecans.  I DO use a Silhouette scrapbook cutter for making my masks…but you can use pre-cut ones from eBay or Lazy Modeler or cut your own from masking frisket or tape if you don’t have a plotter to use.

First step, prep and prime body as normal:

Second step is NOT, I repeat NOT the body color.  Here, you’ll paint the color that the flames will be.  I did a solid color, but you can do a gradient from white-yellow-orange or yellow-red or whatever you would like your flames to be at the end:

Next, we mask.  I like a traditional classic hot-rod flame, but for this one I recreated the decal art from the new issue of the Revell 32 Roadster kit, and then cut masks out of Oramask 813 masking vinyl (usually about $10 a roll from Amazon or eBay)

The cool thing with this vinyl is that it’s translucent, so I could also have laid it over the decals, or a photograph or a drawing of some flames and traced the shape by hand instead…and actually, that IS how I did it before I had a cutter.

Once you’ve got your flames, lay them down and make sure the edges are sealed nicely:

Next up…body color!  I used an old spray can of Testor’s blue, but any color darker than the first color will work just fine.

And finally…carefully de-mask!  Fold the vinyl over on itself as you pull it back, starting from the widest end - if you make the vinyl do a ‘u-turn’ on itself as you peel, you’ll get cleaner edges.  If you do this when the paint is starting to dry but not wet you’ll usually avoid the paint chipping on the edges.

And…you’re done!  Tada!

The secret to this technique is that by painting the lighter color first you won’t struggle to cover it with the darker color.     And the less layers of paint, the smaller the ridge that you’ve got to try and cover with clear, the faster the drying time and the quicker you’ll be admiring your handy work.  This entire paintjob was done in a day, including prepping the body (and most of the time was just waiting for the primer and green to dry).

So, for, say, a black paintjob with yellow flames you’ll have no problems with building up multiple layers of paint trying to cover the black and it’s WAY easier to lay down those spindly little flame licks on a body than align a big sheet of mask that doesn’t want to lay flat over the curves of a more complex body (think 40 Ford, for example).

If you’re painting something with a lighter main color, say a yellow body with red flames…do it how you normally would.  But for light colored graphics on a dark body this is by far the easiest way I’ve found so far.  And it doesn’t have to be FLAMES, of course - this trick works with scallops or race numbers or stripes…anything you can imagine!

Hope some of you found this helpful!

Edited January 27, 2023 by CabDriver

[CabDriver]

And a few other examples, achieved with the same technique…

 

[Straightliner59]

Good stuff, Jim! One of these days, I swear I am going to learn how to use my Cricut!

[TooOld]

Great tutorial Jim , thanks for posting !  I bought a roll of Oramask a year or so ago but haven't tried anything yet . . . one of these days .

What Silhouette cutter do you have ?

[Joe Nunes]

Really nice tip!  Thanks for sharing how you get these flames.  ?

Joe

 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great tutorial. Thanks for sharing it. The type of useful tutorials I come to this site for.

[Gary Chastain]

Thanks for the post, going to try this on my big truck builds. 

[CabDriver]

Thanks everyone!

16 hours ago, TooOld said:

Great tutorial Jim , thanks for posting !  I bought a roll of Oramask a year or so ago but haven't tried anything yet . . . one of these days .

What Silhouette cutter do you have ?

Hey Bob!  Just the little Portrait - their cheapest model.  It’ll cut an 8.5” wide piece of material, which is plenty big enough for most anything we do in scale, and it’s been a real workhorse!

[TooOld]

6 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Thanks everyone!

Hey Bob!  Just the little Portrait - their cheapest model.  It’ll cut an 8.5” wide piece of material, which is plenty big enough for most anything we do in scale, and it’s been a real workhorse!

That's the one I was going to buy , good to see that it works so well !

[Bainford]

Good tutorial, Jim. Cheers.

[BlackSheep214]

Interesting tutorial. Well thought out. Although I’m not a big fan of flames on cars but they do look sharp on those rods. Well done!

[Kiwi_Bloke]

A great tutorial, very helpful. At the moment my hobby budget doesn't stretch to one of those cutters unfortunately so for now I will stay with lazy Customs masks.  

[Bugatti Fan]

Neat flame job technique!

Excuse my ignorance, but could someone enlighten me about the silhouette cutter? Is it a swivelling blade tool to cut Frisk film or Vinyl, or is it something else altogether? A picture would be helpful to see what it looks like. Thanks. Many similar things for artwork in the UK have different trade names than in the US.

[NOBLNG]

4 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Neat flame job technique!

Excuse my ignorance, but could someone enlighten me about the silhouette cutter? Is it a swivelling blade tool to cut Frisk film or Vinyl, or is it something else altogether? A picture would be helpful to see what it looks like. Thanks. Many similar things for artwork in the UK have different trade names than in the US.

I don’t have one or need one, but I want one.?  Here’s a neat short video.

https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/featured-product/cameo

[CabDriver]

19 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Neat flame job technique!

Excuse my ignorance, but could someone enlighten me about the silhouette cutter? Is it a swivelling blade tool to cut Frisk film or Vinyl, or is it something else altogether? A picture would be helpful to see what it looks like. Thanks. Many similar things for artwork in the UK have different trade names than in the US.

@NOBLNG‘s video covered it, but yes, it’s what you figured - a ‘printer’ with a blade that moves left/right up/down to cut vinyl, paper, card or even styrene sheet.

Same machine as sign shops use to cut vinyl lettering for vehicles etcetera - but in a much smaller package ??

[Bugatti Fan]

Thanks for the feedback about the Silhouette cutter guys.

I think that Jim's method of doing a flame job is a lot easier than trying to mask off an entire body after the top coat is done to do the flames afterwards. Even without the machine, a flame mask can still be cut out by hand from vinyl and used in the same way.

Edited December 25, 2022 by Bugatti Fan

[TarheelRick]

I have seen many things the Silhouette cuter can do in our hobby.  I know there are three or four different versions of that cutter.  My question is which one will accomplish what we need at the cheapest price?

[CabDriver]

6 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

I have seen many things the Silhouette cuter can do in our hobby.  I know there are three or four different versions of that cutter.  My question is which one will accomplish what we need at the cheapest price?

This one: https://a.co/d/fih8lZl

I’ve been using this for four years - it’s on it’s second blade in all that time (but honestly the original one was still usable when I switched it after a couple of years).

Then all you need is whatever material you want to cut…for making masks, I like this: https://a.co/d/4qDFpvA

There are larger versions that can cut bigger pieces of material in one go - but for almost every model-related job, even the smallest version is plenty big enough…

Edited December 25, 2022 by CabDriver

[TarheelRick]

Thanks for the information.  May wait to see if Hobby Lobby or Michaels puts one on sale any time soon. If not, then will bite the bullet and pay full price.  I can envision many projects this machine could accomplish.

[seniorgeek]

On 12/19/2022 at 1:53 AM, Straightliner59 said:

Good stuff, Jim! One of these days, I swear I am going to learn how to use my Cricut!

I use my Cricut for making all my decals. Amazon sells a great decal paper fro the Cricut .Hayes paper "clear waterslide decal paper"

 

[seniorgeek]

HOBBY Lobby usually has sales on many of the Circut models.

 

[seniorgeek]

On 12/26/2022 at 7:25 AM, TarheelRick said:

Thanks for the information.  May wait to see if Hobby Lobby or Michaels puts one on sale any time soon. If not, then will bite the bullet and pay full price.  I can envision many projects this machine could accomplish.

You might want to look at the Cricut too. Hobby Lobby has them. I am very please with my Cricut and use it to make decals, etc.

[Straightliner59]

2 hours ago, seniorgeek said:

I use my Cricut for making all my decals. Amazon sells a great decal paper fro the Cricut .Hayes paper "clear waterslide decal paper"

 

 

Thanks, Mikey! I have seen the potential of the Cricut machines, since before they really were of much use to modelers, due to the fact that only their cartridges could be used to program the machines (2004-2005?). I told my then girlfriend, who got an early model, "If they ever make these, so that people can use their own artwork, they will open their market to modelers. I can think of a million things we could do with them!" I've had mine for over five years, now, and have yet to learn to use it! I'm such an idiot, sometimes! Every project I've worked on, over those last few years, I tell myself will be the one I finally use the Cricut to do my decals. Nope, not yet!?

[SCRWDRVR]

On 12/18/2022 at 11:30 PM, CabDriver said:

You ever see a scale flame-job that looks cool until you get up close and see bleeds, rough edges, high edges, fuzzy spots and other imperfections that come from trying to shoot light colored flames over a darker colored base color?  

Here’s a technique for super clean and easy flames I’ve been using for a couple of years now that I thought some of you all might find useful.

You’ll need nothing special for this process, and I did this particular body with rattlecans.  I DO use a Silhouette scrapbook cutter for making my masks…but you can use pre-cut ones from eBay or Lazy Modeler or cut your own from masking frisket or tape if you don’t have a plotter to use.

First step, prep and prime body as normal:

 

Second step is NOT, I repeat NOT the body color.  Here, you’ll paint the color that the flames will be.  I did a solid color, but you can do a gradient from white-yellow-orange or yellow-red or whatever you would like your flames to be at the end:

 

Next, we mask.  I like a traditional classic hot-rod flame, but for this one I recreated the decal art from the new issue of the Revell 32 Roadster kit, and then cut masks out of Oramask 815 masking vinyl (usually about $10 a roll from Amazon or eBay)

The cool thing with this vinyl is that it’s translucent, so I could also have laid it over the decals, or a photograph or a drawing of some flames and traced the shape by hand instead…and actually, that IS how I did it before I had a cutter.

Once you’ve got your flames, lay them down and make sure the edges are sealed nicely:

 

Next up…body color!  I used an old spray can of Testor’s blue, but any color darker than the first color will work just fine.

 

And finally…carefully de-mask!  Fold the vinyl over on itself as you pull it back, starting from the widest end - if you make the vinyl do a ‘u-turn’ on itself as you peel, you’ll get cleaner edges.  If you do this when the paint is starting to dry but not wet you’ll usually avoid the paint chipping on the edges.

And…you’re done!  Tada!

 

 

 

The secret to this technique is that by painting the lighter color first you won’t struggle to cover it with the darker color.     And the less layers of paint, the smaller the ridge that you’ve got to try and cover with clear, the faster the drying time and the quicker you’ll be admiring your handy work.  This entire paintjob was done in a day, including prepping the body (and more of the time was just waiting for the primer and green to dry).

So, for, say, a black paintjob with yellow flames you’ll have no problems with building up multiple layers of paint trying to cover the black and it’s WAY easier to lay down those spindly little flame licks on a body than align a big sheet of mask that doesn’t want to lay flat over the curves of a more complex body (think 40 Ford, for example).

If you’re painting something with a lighter main color, say a yellow body with red flames…do it how you normally would.  But for light colored graphics on a dark body this is by far the easiest way I’ve found so far.  And it doesn’t have to be FLAMES, of course - this trick works with scallops or race numbers or stripes…anything you can imagine!

Hope some of you found this helpful!

I have a regular vinyl cutter that will cut up to 34" vinyl. I used it to make a stencil for a car a while back came out pretty good, what type of material are you using for the stencil?

My first stencil job

 

 

[CabDriver]

On 1/2/2023 at 6:52 PM, SCRWDRVR said:

what type of material are you using for the stencil?

Oramask 813, but if you have a full size plotter something like 3M’s masking material comes in as much as a 40” roll of various lengths…

Edited January 27, 2023 by CabDriver