True fire & Tips

Airbrush artist Rick O’Neal from Newport, Washington, de-scribes how he creates his true fire flames step by step includ-ing the materials used in this article on his flaming mail box. “I’m flaming out a mailbox using two slightly different PPG color

schemes, one on Side A and the other on Side B. Since my main goal is to demonstrate my personal flaming style, we are skip-ping the steps I took painting the border and the name and will get right to creating some fire.

“The materials used are listed here:◊ Bull Dog adhesion promoter◊ DX103 (sprayed once at the start for antistatic)◊ DX320 Prep.◊ PPG’s Orange and Sunset Red pearl mixed in DBC500◊ PPG DBC basecoat reduced 1-1 with DT885◊ Radiance II Candy colors reduce 1-1 with DT885◊ Candy colors mixed 2-1 with reduced DBC500 midclear◊ PPG Concept 2021 Clearcoat

Before we get started I’d like to remind you to make sure you thoroughly tack each coat before you move to the next step.

1. “On both Side A and Side B, after applying my adhesion pro-moter and giving proper flash time, I mark out the general path of my flames at random with my mixed pearls.

2. “Now that the basic path has been set I’ll start highlighting along the edges covering most of the pearl lines with Molly Or-

ange. That way the edge of each flame is highlighted with pearl over spray giving it a nice glow in the sun.

AIRBRUSH TECHNIQUE MAGAZINE ISSUE #9


I continue with the Molly Orange painting most of the flames try-ing not to cover to much but at the same time give it a shading character. If I see something I don’t like I can ‘swoop’ another

flame right over it so it’s ok to experiment. Once I’m happy with the way the flames look I again leave it to flash.

3. “DMD643 light chrome yellow is the next color I use. It will give the flame a nice green tint. I try not to over do and just give

it a light mist in the darker areas to lightly fill in the flame body. On side B, I added some Cobalt blue candy over this coat of yel-

4. “Using the orange candy, I lightly cover the project leaving some green or blue tints untouched while concentrating on dividing the flames, setting some back (adding depth) with more

candy coats than others, covering all the dark areas. I like to use my red candy in and around the flames where the pearls show through to blend and keep the pearls from over powering.



5. & 6. “DMD639 medium chrome yellow is used to give us our true yellow fill and highlights, starting with the main lines and lightly filling in behind as I go. If I see something I missed

or just left behind intentionally with the molly orange, I now fill it with this yellow

7. Three or four coats of candy yellow goes over the chrome yellow highlights.


8. For any new yellow flames that I added, I go back with the molly orange as well as add brighter shading for extra depth to

the original flames when I again shoot my candies.

9. More orange candy to blend the yellow into the molly orange. On side B I used both candies together.

10. Bright white for ‘true highlight’ is now added, being careful to keep the edges sharp while misting off into the flame.

11. A final light cover over the white with yellow candy leaves only a glimpse on the white.

Careful, it’s hot!!



Final clear and you will see the distinct color differences between Side A and Side B. These differences were realized by applying more DMD639 and adding the Cobalt Blue to Side B

A closer look:

The below tip was submitted to the Magazine support web sitewww.airbrushtechnique.com by Blair Elliott or Kicks as many of you know him.The big companies have done it for years. Go into any shop and you’ll find an AC Delco clock on the wall,... a Snapon calendar on the wall,... the guys will be wearing tee shirts with a 3M logo or a paint company logo like PPG or Sikkens. Everybody likes to get something for nothing,... it just human nature. Two salesmen come into the shop with comparable products, you buy from the guy that dropped by just before xmas with the coffee mug and tee shirt that didn’t fit. Obviously we can’t afford to compete with expensive swag all the time,... but the principle works. Instead of going into the local bike shop and dropping off a business card that gets thrown into a drawer with a million other cards and for-gotten ten minutes later,... paint up a panel in your spare time,... go to the dollar store or craft store and buy a clock works, and take them in something that is cool,... will end up on a wall some-where, and will draw the attention of employees and customers alike to your name and the kind of work that you do. Here’s one that I did and will drop off at the local HD shop,... it doesn’t matter it ends up out in the shop area,... it will still get noticed. Other then a couple of dollars and a few hours,... what have you got to lose.

TECH TIP



True fire & Tips

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